Mother's Day

Sundays in my parents' house were structured, special, full and important. Though each week must have been different the pattern of morning worship, hospitality, meal preparation and enjoyment, choir practice and evening worship is so ingrained in me that any deviation, though I have been away from this pattern for years, still leaves me feeling loss. They were rich days of learning, conviction, joy, friendship, fellowship, remembering and renewing, feasting, and singing.

I am happy to admit for those skeptics out there that Sundays were not perfect days. I remember Sundays of great sorrow, of discord within our family and within the Church, of awkward meals and loneliness. But I believe that the way Dad and Mom "set aside" the Lord's Day and made it holy worked in a beautiful way.

As Charlie and I have built our home and set patterns for our life we have incorporated much of this pattern into our Sabbaths. But our lives are not the same as my parents. Charlie often works on Sundays or so much during the week that we, introverted as we are, need Sunday afternoons for ourselves. Sickness happens and plans fall through and before I know it a month has gone by (or more!) since we have enjoyed a Sunday full of connecting with the people of God.

Why am I writing about this? Well, this passed Sunday came at the end of a long, full week. It also happened to be Mother's Day and we had made plans to spend it with my brothers and sisters-in-law. Our plans fell through and instead Charlie, little Charlie and I enjoyed an afternoon meal on our patio in idyllic weather...

...yet I was disappointed. "Why?" Charlie asked. I don't blame him AT ALL for feeling a little hurt by my reaction. We were, after all, together with the whole afternoon ahead of us to enjoy each other. Wasn't that enough for me? I didn't have an answer for him, and so I have been thinking about it. What on earth is wrong with spending a gorgeous afternoon eating, watching our son enjoy being alive and talking with my husband? The answer is nothing! And yet I yearn for Sundays full of the life of the Church. Her people are my people, and what better time to invest in them than on the day given to us to remember who we are in Christ--a body made of many parts!

So, I recognize this longing in my soul and where it is coming from, and I know that it is good. I also know that God ordained the Sabbath for us, for our spiritual, physical and emotional health. I will not legalistically cling to a pattern, good though it is, and spoil the gifts the Lord gives me when the pattern is broken. I can look back on Mother's Day without guilt or sorrow and thank God for the wonderful day He gave us as a family. Then I can look forward to future Sabbaths with joy and anticipation of the blessings that wait in store for us.

Now tell me you don't wish you had been with us on our patio last Sunday!

After the dirt, ketchup, lemonade, and who knows what else, we thought it prudent to give the little guy a quick wash before his nap.
He didn't seem to mind.