Sunday Stress

I've been thinking about my Sundays. For the past couple of months, I've been getting horrendous stress headaches every Sunday afternoon before church (and admittedly, just thinking about it right now is putting me into 'shut-down' mode...) but I didn't know what to do about it. Ever since we returned from the US, and they put us in charge of the English branch, I've felt this incredible amount of responsibility. I've done a LOT with it. For the first month, I taught singing time, sharing time AND sunday school. Now, we've called two teachers for Sunday school. So, I no longer do that. I have a Primary counselor, so now we take turns doing sharing time/singing time. Right now, she does sharing time, I do singing time. Next month, we'll swap. Do you know how good it feels to teach these good people how to run things all by themselves?? :) We started up a nursery and donated a big box of toys. BUT the kids were still screaming and being disrespectful and disruptive all through church! Plus, I was STILL getting stress headaches even without having to keep everyone's attention for 2 hours straight.

What to do? I must admit, I am NOT one to delegate tasks. I like to do things a certain way. I know that if something needs to be done (and I know how to do it), I can depend on myself to get it done and do a decent job. "If you want something done right, do it yourself", right? I am learning a great deal about delegating here. I've delegated Sunday school, and it's going well. I've delegated half of sharing time, and that's going really well, too. I very often delegate the piano during sacrament meeting.

Last week, I was tired of the kids going crazy. It gives me such a headache to think of trying to keep them in order--so I thought bringing lots of snacks and water would help them. It did NOT!!! They go BONKERS!! The spill the water, fight over the food, don't listen to a word because they're focused on when they can eat next and who got more... It was a mess!!! Two weeks ago, we got to church and the first thing the kids ask me AS SOON AS THEY SAT DOWN IN PRIMARY: I'm thirsty, where's my water? When is snack time? K, we ate and drank not even 5 minutes beforehand. What were they thinking?!?!?

So, anyway, I decided NO MORE SNACKS OR WATER!! It worked like a charm. They didn't need it. I also delegated the task to them of coming up with their own special thing to do during sacrament meeting. So, they each brought a coloring book and a reading book. I didn't have to make any snacks. I didn't have to pack an extra bag of 'tricks' to keep them occupied. They didn't ask me "Mom, what can I do now??" because they had brought what they wanted to do. They didn't ask "Mom, when's snack time?" because they knew there wasn't any food or water. It was the most peaceful time at church I think we've ever had. Wow. Why didn't I do this before???

I did singing time. I didn't prepare any visual aids; I didn't have any coloring pages for anyone to do; I didn't bring any pictures. I used the chalkboard and a piece of chalk and we talked about how you build a house and what you need and how it relates to our families...and we had a ball learning a new song and everyone--EVERYONE paid attention! I was singing the new song today in the kitchen and Andrew walked in and said, "That's the song we learned in Primary on Sunday!" IT WORKED!!!

I had NO headache this past Sunday. There was very little stress. It was WONDERFUL! It really is all about delegating and letting go. Less really is more, isn't it?