Since the very first Sunday that we couldn't go to church in our building, we determined as a couple that we would still set aside Sunday as a special day to worship the Lord with other believers as well as a day of rest and relaxation. So, in case someone else might like some ideas, here are just a few of the simple ways we're doing that.
1. We get up at the regular time we would on a Sunday. We don't want to get out of the habit on that! Since we aren't going out of the house for church, we have extra time which we can spend in God's Word and in prayer.
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2. We attend Sunday School and church via the internet. We get our Bibles out, follow along, and I take notes as I ordinarily would during a message or Sunday School lesson. We have a great number of church services from which to choose, and a few different Sunday School lessons. Several local churches are posting recorded messages on YouTube or elsewhere, and those are great because one can listen at any time, even during the week if preferred. We enjoy watching and listening to a message on a weeknight rather than the news.
Other churches are live streaming their services, and we enjoy that too because it means we can watch a service in a different time zone and it will not conflict with our local church. We particularly enjoy participating in services from our daughter and son-in-law's church in Nevada, and this past week we also watched one from their former pastor's church in Ohio. It's especially meaningful when a live stream church service makes provision for those watching to pray corporately or to sing along with the hymns.
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3. My hubby makes waffles for lunch. For many years our granddaughters were with us most weekends, and he always made waffles before leaving for Sunday School on Sunday morning. We had gotten out of the habit when timing changed for our services and we needed to leave earlier. Also, for just the two of us, we could each eat something simple rather than the "production" of waffles. Now we have the leisure to prepare a waffle lunch. I will usually add some bacon or homemade sausage to the menu and maybe some fruit. I'll add Mr. T's recipe at the end of the post for those who may be interested.
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4. We try to get out into God's creation at some point during the day. Usually after lunch or before or after one of the services we've watched, we will get out for a short walk. It's such a great reminder of God's power and sovereignty to spend time in His creation. When we remember that it is this omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God who is in control of everything that is going on, we can't help but breathe a sigh of relief and praise to Him.
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I hope that one or more of these ideas will add a special note to your own Sundays. Certainly my hope and prayer is that we will all be meeting again at church as soon as our governors allow. But until then, let's continue to make Sundays a special day of rest and worship!
And now, here is the waffle recipe:
GRAMPA'S SUNDAY WAFFLES
2 eggs, beaten in large bowl
2 1/4 c. milk
1/2 c. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 Tblsp. sugar
Add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the beaten eggs in the large bowl. Sift the remaining ingredients into the liquid and beat until smooth. Bake in waffle iron according to the directions for your particular waffle iron. Yield: 10-12 waffles.
This great recipe is one I copied from The Beany Malone Cookbook, which shared recipes used by the Malone family in the series of books by Lenora Mattingly Weber. The vanilla was not in the original recipe, but makes a good recipe into a super one!
Yes, our Sundays are much different than before. We truly miss the "fellowship of the Saints" as we always gathered together for Sunday School and then church. Our church family is quite a friendly, hugging group of believers, and we truly miss the warmth of those embraces of Christian love. We miss the singing of the hymns of praise together, and praying for one another. Yes, our Pastor does a YouTube video each week, which is very nice and we appreciate it...but it isn't quite the same as being together. There are a couple of churches in our community who are doing drive-in services, where you can sit in your car and listen over a local radio frequency as the Pastor and worship leaders lead the service from the front steps of the church. However, I am not real comfortable sitting in a car for an hour in the heat, which it gets quite warm here now. So I prefer to continue our worship from home until we can meet again. We do our regular devotions every morning together before breakfast. My hubby puts together a devotional montage blog every day, connecting different daily devotionals into one place where they are easily accessed for readers to find. I try to write something devotional most of the time in my blog, but especially on Sundays. That helps me get into God's Word, and I pray it helps others too. Yes, we take a ride and a walk, which is always a blessing. Your hubby's waffles certainly sound a lot better than our "Eggo's Toaster Waffles", but I don't have a waffle iron anymore, so the toaster variety do fine, with sausage and a scrambled egg on the side. But I'd love to try yours. Have a blessed weekend. Praying this pandemic will soon be over enough that we can get back to church again, but until then, we need to remember always that WE ARE the church! Amen!
ReplyDeleteWe too have tried to make Sunday continue to be Sunday. Our church is doing an online service and we make sure we come together to watch and then like you get outside or take a drive. I don't want to wake up and feel like it is not Sunday or one day the building be back open and it is odd to go. We made waffles last Sunday too. I might have to repeat as well.
ReplyDeleteExcellent suggestions all. I have probably never "attended" so many church services from the pastor who literally preaches in his empty church where I can hear his voice echo off the walls to the pastor who preaches at his kitchen table. Such good messages, encouraging, comforting, and all pointing to Jesus. I also listen to daily lessons so the only, and very important, thing I am missing is fellowship. "Where two or three are gathered..." Enjoy those waffles. They sound so delicious.
ReplyDeleteI agree Mrs T....we need to keep a Sunday routine. We have Zoom with our Sunday school class then watch church on You Tube. I have been listening to some other preachers as well. Mr T's waffles sound really good. I will have to try them.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about it, but I guess our Sundays now are pretty similar to what they looked like before this point in time - except that we only see our church family online and it's really only our small group we're interacting with (through ZOOM). We wake up an hour later and don't have the duties we sometimes do when church is in person, but I don't think it will be hard to get back into the swing of that. Our schedules are completely out of whack due to this lockdown; it seem like it might be hard to re-establish more "respectable" hours, but surely we'll get there. Loved reading about your Sundays. We had waffles last night - hubs requested them for his birthday supper. I admire that your husband makes them regularly.
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