Sunday morning is a very chaotic time in most households. It can be difficult to have everyone up and ready for church at the same time on a Sunday morning. This is especially true of large families, who are used to staggering mornings, which happen as children attend different schools. Sunday mornings can quickly lose that peaceful feeling, as there is a fight over who gets the next shower, and how long each person is taking in the bathroom. There are a few things you can do to combat this chaos.
1) Prepare as much as you can the night before. You can have your children pick out the clothes the night before. You can complete any ironing that needs to be done at the time. You may have your children line up their scriptures near the front door. You can also have your church bag packed and ready to go the night before.
2) You may want to assign a certain time for showers. If your children complain that they don’t want to be the first one up, or the last one to go you can rotate the order each week. You may want to set a timer for the time allowed in the bathroom. You can also encourage anyone who is willing to shower the night before.
3) Take time to gather together as a family. You could have breakfast together. If you do plan something easy like sweet rolls, muffins or German pancakes. It might be that you gather for family prayer before you leave. Make this time positive, and set a loving tone.
4) Plan to get to church ten minutes early. This helps if there is anything that you have forgotten as you head out the door. It takes a little bit of the stress and the tense feelings away because you aren’t actually going to be late yet.
If you take the time to prepare the night before and set a positive tone Sunday mornings before you go to church you will have amore enjoyable church experience. If your children have a good morning, they will be better behaved during church. Do you have any tips that have worked for your family?