Sunday Morning Worship Prep.: Saturday

To keep Sunday morning, you must keep Saturday night! This is especially true when you have young children. This refers to both your preparation on Saturday and your plans for Saturday evening.

The more you prepare on Saturday, the more smoothly Sunday mornings will go (or, at least, you up your chances!). Take some time to think through your usual Sunday morning routine. What can you do Saturday to lessen your Sunday morning to-do list? For instance, in our house, we do the following on Saturdays:

• fill diaper bag with diapers, extra onesies, snacks for the ride home, sippy cups for nursery use, etc.
• put diaper bag in car
  
• make sure church clothes are washed and ironed if necessary (this means we've already planned what we're going to be wearing!)
  
• locate all applicable accessories: hair bows, shoes, cardigans, hats, coats, etc.
  
• gather all Sunday school material (my husband and I both frequently teach)
• get Sunday morning breakfast ready or planned (hardboiled eggs often appear on our Sunday breakfast table)
• make sure the car has gas (driving an SUV 40 minutes to church means that you can't make it on "E")
• Saturday night baths
  

We also have had to curtail our previous Saturday evening outings. Sunday is a long day for young children. Therefore, when possible, we have dinner guests on Friday instead of Saturday; we aren't out late on Saturday nights if we can help it (there have been some rare occasions that we paid for the next day). Even when we do have guests on Saturday evenings, we frequently put our children to bed at their regular time, even if guests are still present. Another option is to have the guests in question come for an early dinner (or simply come over and fellowship before dinner instead of sitting around after; they might arrive at 5:oo even though you aren't planning to eat until 6:00). Guests with young children will appreciate this last option because they need to get their children in bed, too!

Happy Saturday prep for Sunday morning worship!