I’m blogging on Fridays over at wesfaulk.com — this is the post for today!

The best piece of advice anyone ever gave me as a ministry wife was this — Sunday morning begins on Saturday night.

I’ve learned from hard experience how true this statement is. I’ve had weeks where I don’t even think about Sunday morning until the alarm goes off at 6am, the girls run out of toothpaste, Wes needs a shirt ironed, the girls run out of toilet paper, I need to make coffee, Wes can’t find his shoes, the girls run out of patience waiting for breakfast, I can’t seem to locate five minutes to do my hair, and the dog causes an uproar of biblical proportions when he eats a pancake straight off the breakfast table. Those Sunday mornings could have been salvaged if I had started getting ready for them twelve hours earlier, preparing for the most practical needs of my family and saving the pastor’s sanity and peace of mind in the process.

Like I said, I’ve learned. Here in trenches of Preschool Parenting, I’ve gotten combat-ready, with everything laid out the night before, a tight schedule in place, and a lets-get-them attitude as soon as the alarm rings. I can get everyone ready, fed, and out the door in twenty minutes if necessary. I have it together! I am the pastor’s wife — hear me roar!

But I’ve noticed lately that even with all of my practical preparations for Sunday morning, I often miss the most important preparation of all. After an evening of getting everyone’s business settled so that we can worship without distraction, I neglect to prepare my own heart to meet with God. Too often, I operate on the assumption that I’m ready “as is,” that I don’t have time to study during this season of my life (especially not that close to Sunday morning!), and that, pridefully, I already know what the pastor is going to say because he’s been talking to me about it all week along. It’s easy to justify coming into worship with a distracted heart, my mind far away from Scripture, and my prayer life stunted and at a standstill. “God understands,” I tell myself.

And, truthfully, He does. Which is all the more reason why I should make it, why I WILL make it, a priority to sit at His feet in preparation for Sunday morning. As the many things that must get done in order for Sunday to run smoothly for our ministry family demand my attention, I WILL take the time to seek God’s face and study His Word, knowing that this is the most important preparation of all.