God’s pattern in Scripture is not to shower His people with blessings in the midst of comfortable and pleasant circumstances; rather, He most often calls us into difficult and uncomfortable scenarios, pouring out His blessing upon us there. That is what we can rightly call normal. Because Sundays are a time of great blessing, we should expect them to also be times of great difficulty.

Sundays never fail to be tough.

The plan is always to have the house clean and organized on Saturday, to do family devotionals, to set out and iron clothes for the morning, to go to bed early, and have a big happy breakfast together Sunday morning.

Things never go according to plan.

It never fails that Saturdays leave the house at its most chaotic of the week by the time the kids are asleep.

Scripture is read and prayers are prayed through gritted teeth as little ones fight bed time with all their might.

Each kid takes turns waking up through the night in synchronized increments.

Breakfast plans yield to making eggs and toast. Again.

Clothes are ironed at the last minute.

One shoe from the needed pair is lost into the void, only to be found in the afternoon.

And the thought comes: Should we even go to church? I mean, it’s just one Sunday. Everyone would understand if we stayed home. No one would blame us.

My wife was in that place last week. Both our two-year-old and two-month-old had a rough Saturday night, and the toddler was already rubbing her eyes before we even left for church.

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