Sunday Morning Starts Saturday Night

Sundays are the biggest day of the week for you as an individual and for our families. This is true if you are single. This is true if you are a couple without children. This is true if you have children. This is the day we get to go to church to worship Christ, enjoy fellowship with our church family, learn from the Bible, and serve others. It is a big day, the most important of our week.

And it begins on Saturday night.

If you are like most people, your Saturdays are full of needful things plus much fun and excitement. Saturdays are days for sports, parties, yard work, house cleaning, shopping, weddings, homework, travel, competitions of all kinds, repairs, celebrations of various sorts, fishing or hunting, and on and on.

Just consider one of those as an example – sports. Sports is a big one for many. Sports are bigger than ever in the average American home with park teams, club teams, traveling teams, sports camps, and team events. Sports doesn’t just include the ones we can play or the ones our children play, but also national sports on TV.

So Saturdays are often full of activity. However, if we are going to keep Sunday as the most important day of the week for the Christian family – as it is – then we must determine how to adjust our Saturdays. Why?

• Rest. Our families need to get enough sleep so that they are ready to get up, be engaged, and energetically participate with people and teaching on Sunday morning. We all need to be alert as we sit and listen to someone teach us the Bible. When we have worn ourselves out on Saturday, it makes it very difficult to do as we should on Sunday mornings.
• Baths and other preparation. In order to observe a descent bedtime, baths have to start early. Clothes need to be picked out, set out, and sometimes ironed. Sunday’s breakfast and lunch have to be considered. If you have responsibilities on Sunday morning at church, you have to make sure you are ready for that.
• Focus. As Saturday winds down, we need to help everyone in our families begin to focus on the next morning – including yourself. We have the privilege of going to church. We need to consider the fact that we get to learn. We have the pleasure of engaging other brothers and sisters in Christ. As Sunday is the biggest day of the week since we get to worship, learn, and engage each other as part of the body of Christ, it is important to help our children (and for us adults with or without children) to get focused on the significance of the day.

So what do we do on Saturday nights?

• Get to bed early
• Review what excitement the following morning holds
• Talk about Christ and the difference He makes in our everyday lives – which is why it is important to be ready for church
• Say no to late-night activity
• Pray about having all of our hearts prepared to worship and learn Christ

What are some other implications for our families – especially for us as parents who are also adults – as we anticipate the glories of Sunday morning services and the importance of having our families in church with the body of Christ? (These are also true for those who are single and those without children.)

• We may have to say no to our children and others. People want you to go places, participate in late-night activities, and potentially invite our children to spend the night with each other on many Saturdays. As a general practice in our home, we say, “No.” If we as adults do not protect Sundays, how can we expect our children to ever protect it and see it as a priority? We are the ones with wisdom who seek to share that with our children. They will not see the need nor the importance of saying no to things if we do not help them practice it. This is the biggest day of our week; therefore, we must act like it.
• We may have to miss some children’s sports activities. Yes, if your children are in sports, you do pay something. It is true for all of us. However, the cost of this individual sport and the hope of someday playing high school ball (for a very few, college or beyond) are not worth the expense of teaching our children that Sundays are important except when they are not. We functionally teach that sports or vacation or homework or a “down day to relax” or _________ is better. Of course there are times when my family is gone on a Sunday. When we are, we never miss church unless there is an emergency. Even in travel we attend somewhere. Functionally and formally we have sought to teach our children that Christ and the body of Christ in the local church are the most important things in life – period.
• As adults we need to practice the same things we are asking our children to do. Go to bed early. Get prepared physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Say no to self.

Why do we do all this sacrifice and stuff? Simple answer. The celebration of Jesus Christ through the worship of the Word in teaching and singing, the fellowship of the body of Christ, and serving others is worth it. It helps get our family off to a good start of a brand new week. It benefits others who know us and engage us. It teaches and reminds all of us of the premier place Christ has in our lives as a family. It is obedient to the Scriptures. It is best. In a world which everything lays claim to our time and resources, our attention, our loyalty, we must more than ever reclaim it for Christ.

Enjoy an early evening and be ready for a great Sunday morning.

Join the Conversation

What do you do on Saturdays to help get you prepared for Sundays – the most important day of the week?