When your dad is the pastor of a church, holidays become a little different.
Sunday is a workday, and sometimes it can make days like Christmas and Easter a bit hectic. There's a lot of preparation that goes into the services that everyone knows and loves.
Our family will do the typical Easter/Christmas dinner the night before the Sunday services. When everyone else leaves church to go visit family out of town, we go home and crash on the couch. Especially on Easter Sunday.
That sunrise service ain't no joke.
The church is always extra full because of the grandchildren and in-laws visiting grandparents and parents at their home church. It's nice to see families wearing their Easter clothes, but it's a little bit sad knowing that I can't be with my grandparents, and that my parents can't go to the churches they grew up in.
Every now and then we'll go visit after church, but like I said earlier, we're usually too tired.
It's easy to get weary thinking about everything that comes with being in the pastor's family. We're expected to be at church every Sunday, we can't travel on the weekends for holidays, and it's easy to fall into feeling like worship service is work.
When church starts to feel like work, it reminds my family and me to slow down and take personal time with God. Church can’t be our only opportunity to do so, because we are so close to it. We have to be intentional about spending time in prayer and reading the bible on our own because of how our Sundays go. It also just helps keep us sane.
Some people might think being a pastor is an individual job, but it truly affects every member of the family.
All of us are a team, and we go through everything together.
Those hectic holidays impact all of us, and we have to be prepared together. We have to prepare to greet everybody at the church, we have to prepare to be the last ones to leave, and we have to prepare to not put our own family first on days when that’s what everybody else gets to do.
But, it’s OK. It’s for a greater purpose.
We’re in the business of reaching and serving people, and no one ever told us it was easy. I know I will always treasure being a pastor’s kid, especially on holidays. When I have my own family, I’m going to get to take my kids to the church my father pastors on Christmas and Easter. And on the years that we don’t make it home, I know I will reach out to my pastor and his family to make sure they are doing OK.
Being a pastor’s kid has grown my love for people, and that’s a beautiful sentiment during holiday seasons.
But overall, it's a blessing to minister to people, even on holidays. As hard as it might get, it's a true walk with God. And that's what reminds us to celebrate the true meaning of all those holidays.
