For quite sometime, we were very hit and miss with church (if I'm honest, there was a lot more miss than hit). While I love our church, the service is normally well over an hour long. That always seemed like a long time to keep little people quiet. So, for a long time, we didn't go very often. I was worried that the kids would fuss or disturb the rest of the congregation (silly, I know). We still prayed regulary, read bible stories, etc, but we just weren't in the pew much on Sunday mornings.
About 7 months ago, Marleigh was taking a bath on a Saturday night. Out of the blue she looked up and asked me to go to church. I told Marc about her request, and we all went to church the next morning. The kids behaved perfectly. Marleigh went downstairs to the 2-3 year old room, and had a ball. Kade slept in my arms for his morning nap, then played happily. It was that morning that I fully realized how much I missed going to church. I absolutely love our pastor, but it is so much more than that. We have a great praise band, and a great church family as well. It felt so good to get back into the routine of going to church and praising God every Sunday. I love the fufillment and peace that comes from attending church on Sunday morning.
With our busy summer, we haven't been home on the weekends. Which has led to us missing church. Again. Only now, I vividly remember that feeling after worship on Sunday mornings, and I have been missing it dearly. Very much like a part of me was missing on those Sundays when we missed church. Marleigh even commented on how much she wanted to go back to church.
This past weekend, we had our first free weekend in a long time. I was thrilled to be able to make it back to church. I had been missing it so much. During some of the worship music, I was holding a sleeping little boy, and I realized that not only had I been missing church, but special times with my children.
Every Saturday night before church, Marleigh and I open up her closet. We pull out her dresses, and she picks out which one to wear to church the next morning. Then she usually proceeds to tell me that her fingernails and toenails don't match, so they need repainted. I happily oblige. We then discuss how she wants to wear her hair, and which shoes to wear. (Already, at the age of 3 she is very opinionated about what she wears). It is one of my favorite things to do with her. As I have said before, I've never been much of a girlie girl, but I am learning fast thanks to the help of my daughter.
Kade is like clockwork. He naps pretty much every day at 10:00am and 2:00pm. Our church begins at 10:00. We sit towards the back, and I just stand up and rock him a little bit, and he falls right to sleep. I then sit back down, close my eyes, and listen to the music while snuggling my sweet, little boy. It is really the only time that I put him to sleep and snuggle him. He has become such a big, independent toddler, that he puts himself to sleep at home, and doesn't really like to be rocked. I realize how quickly he is growing up, and that in the very near future, I am so going to miss being able to hold my sleeping baby at church.
Who knew there were so many facets of missing church? While I have loved every minute of our busy summer, I am also thankful that it is winding down, because I really don't like missing church.
