Sunday mornings at the Beaven House are chaotic! Not a typical chaos, but one that literally makes you want to get back into bed and try again. It is my personal belief that it is because we’ve probably spent Saturday during the day running around and Saturday evening out late with the kids. Therefore when Sunday morning comes everyone is lethargic, hungry, or ready for brunch. However, Sunday mornings are reserved for church. It is the 1 ½ hours that we reserve for prayer, reverence, and respect. It is the way I was raised, and generations before me were raised, so I always knew that once I had children church would be a part of our lives. However, not in the way, my parents made it a part of our childhood.
Growing up my brother and I were at the church Tuesday night (Drill Team), Wednesday Night (Bible Study), Friday (Youth Meeting), and Sunday morning church. Now, this formula worked for my parents because they were very involved and the expectation was for us to be involved as well. This continued into our teenage years, and young adult years as well. When I left for college I rebelled, I barely attended church on Sundays and discovered Sunday brunch. I also discovered that you can get a lot of things done, homework, laundry, and naps. This was much to my Mother’s disdain; however, I felt vindicated because I did spend 18 years’ worth of Sundays in church all morning.
When I met my husband, he grew up Catholic, make no mistake, he wasn’t a practicing Catholic, so eventually, he began attending church with my family and me and loved it. He eventually joined and from that point going forward, we vowed that once we had children, we would make sure to take them to church. Insert Weslie and Trey, life got busier, Saturdays were spent at swim lessons and our lives took a crazy left. We got busy, so I was not able to invest the way I hoped, but I knew that Sunday would always be our day. Don’t get me wrong, it is challenging to attend church with a 1 and 2-year-old, we pack a plethora of things to keep them occupied, but as they get older, they recognize that Sunday equals church and they are becoming more intrigued and participatory in it. It was the site of each of their baby blessings, and it was a time that our families came together to pray over our babies.
I have come to realize that my family is somewhat of an anomaly. Not a lot of my friends attend church on Sunday anymore, more or less because they spent so much time there as children. This isn’t necessarily about religion, I am not going to throw stones at you if you choose not to go to church, the point of us attending church on Sunday isn’t to demand perfection, I also don’t expect for them to be there 4 days a week as asked of us by my parents.
Our goal is simple, instill the importance and pray they choose to follow the example. I have discovered that no matter what you do on Sunday, Sunday isn’t necessarily for brunch or laundry, but instead, it’s the one day you get to be with the people most important to you, your family.
