Sunday Afternoons

Picture taken on a fun family day 2009

Wow, have Sunday afternoons ever changed for me! What about you? I grew up in a Pastor's home, thus on this 'first' day of the week...we were always in church. Starting way in the morning hours for Sunday School flowing right into the morning service. Then the funnest part came when we went out to eat. Oh, my it was either at a fine church ladies house for some home made fixens or at times with the church folk to a Mom and Pops eatery where we could get the best fried chicken. We then would come home and mama made sure we kiddos would get a mid-afternoon nap in. That was NOT my favorite time of the day. But, it was a necessity for sure.
Sunday evenings came...I just loved to hear my daddy preach! They were the best services. Everyone was more relaxed and just enjoyed worshipping God and hearing His Word. Best of all, praying around the alter. Then yea, the fun part again--in the summer times we would go out and get some ice cream. Then during the cooler months we did a funny thing; we would go to the grocery store and everyone in the family picked out their evening snack. Mine was sardines and a candy bar of some sort.
We would relax and watch some type of movie on tv and then bed.
When my husband and I began our ministry adventure...we kinda kept the same routine for several years. Then culture changed on us,  (its been about 5 years now), Sunday nights attendance dropped down to the point that we had to stop having our services. Yet, the Lord gave us a great peace about this. We had to work outside the church at this time in our life and even for us it gave us more time with our family and our people with theirs.
For our little ones this is what they know now more than our oldest.
Sunday afternoons have become totally dedicated to just the family. We rest together, play together and lets not forget eating together.
Today, for example...we actually vegetated on the couch for a couple of hours and watched a movie. Then we took our chocolate lab (Hershey) to the lake to swim and play. We enjoyed the simplicity of it all, laughing and just playing together. My oldest, Nathan decided he was going to plug up a hornets nest with a stick. The problem came when he missed...all five us ran as fast as we possibly could. We looked so crazy!
All of us love to play outside playing fun, silly games, also going for drives in the country and just listening to one another share stories.
Sunday afternoons are 'family-afternoons' and I would never trade them for anything in the world. With the busyness of  life through-out the week, families barely have the opportunity to eat and pray together. Exhaustion can be another issue; but that still means we all need to be more diligent than ever about  being together during the week. Sunday afternoons is a 'no-brainer' for us.
How about you? How do you spend your Sundays? I hope and pray they are indeed with the gift God has given you--Your Family!