Preparing for Sunday Each Day

One year when my children were quite young, I was trying to cope with a new schedule for sacrament meeting, a newborn baby, two preschool daughters, and a preschool son. At the time my husband worked on Sundays, so I was left alone to handle my four children during Church meetings. I did my best to prepare for the Sabbath as well as I could by laying out clothes the night before and packing a bag with special quiet activities and books. While the preparation helped, I still felt frazzled and frustrated at the end of each sacrament meeting.

I felt desperate and discouraged, and I was about to give up when I decided to take my problem to the Lord. After I fasted and knelt in earnest, heartfelt prayer, the sweetest feeling came over me. The Spirit of the Holy Ghost whispered that my efforts in going to church each week were not in vain—that my most important duty at that time was to teach my children that church is where we should be on Sunday, even if I never remembered a word of a talk or lesson.

Then an idea came to mind: we could have “quiet time” at home every weekday at about the same time the sacrament meeting was held. I talked to the children about my idea, then rearranged our daily schedule so that most days we could be at home at that time. At the appointed time, I set a 15-minute timer, then played some soft classical music. We all sat on the couch, folded our arms, and listened to the music. After a few minutes, I would let them quietly play with the items usually reserved for Sunday.

The children eagerly looked forward to “quiet time” each day. If the children became noisy, I gently removed the items they had been playing with, put a finger to my lips in a silent “shh,” then returned the toys when they were quiet again.

After two weeks of doing this daily, I was amazed at the change in church. During the passing of the sacrament, my little children sat quietly, and I was able to worship and feel peaceful. I was deeply grateful for those few moments each Sunday. They were enough to give me the spiritual nourishment I needed to be able to be happy the rest of the day.

And during the week, I began to look forward each day to “quiet time” as much as the children did and often used it as a time to read from the Ensign or the scriptures. We were careful to keep it consistently to 15 minutes because their attention spans were short. At the end of each year, when our meeting time changed, we rescheduled a new quiet time, and within a few weeks our children adjusted to the change.

I’m very thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who taught me how to cope during those years of teaching young children to be reverent. He truly understands our needs and helps us with our problems if we do our best and go to Him in prayer.—Diane Nilsson Bielefeldt, Mesa, Arizona

Illustrated by Beth M. Whittaker