Make the "best day" the BEST day

Well, for many of us we have our favorite day of the week. Seriously, I heart Mondays! Seth works from home, we take it easy, that's an evening we plan fun things as a family (having someone over for dinner) whatever. I also LOVE Saturdays. It's the day I can sleep in. Seth is here to get the kids up and I can veg. out. BUT...favorite days do not trump the fact that the "best day" is Sunday. God set up the whole week and worked that week. In Genesis 1 God creates. We all picture him creating like "ZAP" there's Sun. "ZAP" there's animals. "ZAP" human beings! But obviously...it was work because God felt the need to rest. He wanted to take time to look at all he had done in 6 days and spend the 7th loving and enjoying it and RESTING. The Sabboth was created for our day to worship the living God and REST. It's His day, so it's therefore, the BEST day.

Now, for many of us it isn't the best because we do get up early for church. We spend most of the day doing church things that prevent us from even resting. Some of us may even go to our jobs on Sunday, so we don't get to take a load off. For children, it is wearing. Kids have to get out of bed too. They have to spend their day at church too where some churches do not have a children's church to entertain the kids on their level, so they sit in the sanctuary possibly bored, possibly having a horrible experience. I won't lie, I loved the Lord at a young age, but I despised church on so many levels. Sunday was NOT the best day for me.

So, how can we make "the best day" the best?

I was forced to think about that question while reading an INCREDIBLE book on child training called "Hints on Child Training" by H. Clay Trumbull. It's over a hundred years old, but he talks about setting Sunday apart and making it something kids look forward to. (You can get his book for under 10.00 on Amazon.com)
Ideas of how to separate Sunday from the other 6 days are as follows:
Be prepared for it. If you fail to plan you plan to fail. Some of us are so busy rushing around to get ready for church, we don't have our best foot forward. Our clothes are wrinkled, and Heaven forbid, we actually get into a fight with our loved ones on the way to church. (Gasp, not you?!) Oh, I have fought my hubby on more than one trip to church. And that is Satan trying to destroy our heart of worship on the morning of going to be fed spiritually and worship corporately. One thing to help: Take your kids by the hand on Saturday night. Pick out their clothes with them. Iron them the night before and have them laid out. Give baths on Saturday night so the kids wake up and only need their bed-head combed. "Sunday morning starts on Saturday night" I chant to Landri many a Saturdays. I don't know where I heard that quote, but it's true. Prepare on Saturday for things to go wrong Sunday so that it doesn't throw your spirit and heart off to a point that you can't worship properly. Set the coffee pot on a delay brew so you have plenty of time to have it. Lay your Bible by the door with your packed diaper bag. Repent and get a clean slate with the Lord. Reconcile to your spouse or kids if you had a riff that day. (That's every night...don't go to bed with unresolved conflict.) Easier said than done, I know...but it will make such a difference for your peace and rest.

Another way to set Sunday apart: have something special for breakfast on Sunday that is not a typical breakfast...maybe have something that is strictly something you only get on Sunday mornings so your kids (and YOU) look forward to waking and facing the day with your best foot forward. It may be something as simple as buying some powdered donuts and special juice or going through Starbucks for a latte on the way to church. I have a special coffee cake that has a cinnamon streusal topping that I will get up early and make many Sundays. It's a healthy coffee cake made with wheat flower. It's SO YUMMY. Seth and Landri devour it. And, do the same for lunch. Even if lunch isn't something you only have on Sunday, at least have it planned/prepared. I dread Sunday lunches when I'm sitting in the pew unsure still of what I'm serving. Seth hates having to let me run into the grocery store b/c I need to pick up stuf for lunch that day. I am still a work in progress on this...but Trumbull says, have special food. Make the day special. Sometimes just buying special buns to serve your sandwiches on for lunch makes it special. Getting your deli meat from the deli or your cheese sliced in the deli can take the ordinary sandwich to a NEW LEVEL. Or just eating that sandwich on a blanket outside makes it special. You can take the kids to a special pool or place to ride bikes only for Sunday afternoon. You could toss meatballs in a crockpot with red sauce so that all you have to do is boil pasta when you get home. Throw frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot and pour bbq on top for pulled sandwiches when you get home. Crockpots are best friends on Sundays! If it is a day where you set aside eating out money, do it after church. Growing up, we didn't get to eat out much, but my parents would take us to this pizza buffet called "Pizza Inn" on Sundays b/c all 4 of us kids ate the buffet free. It was the biggest treat, and I approached my morning DIFFERENTLY knowing I was going there after church. Remember we aren't bribing our kids to love Sunday or church or God for that matter, but they are little sinners who need guidance and shown the right way. The same goes if you have an unbelieving husband. He will feel differently about Sunday without a word from you: just the way you approach the day will show him it is special and different.
I Peter 3:1 "Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives." We need to instill good emotions about God's day every way that we can until the Holy Spirit gets ahold of our families and really shows them the most important reason that it is the "BEST DAY!"

Dailey verse:
Genesis 2: 2-3
2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

With a heart of purpose,