Women’s Wednesday–A Simple Pair of Black Tights

Every Wednesday, writer Martha Howell brings a thought geared toward all of the ladies.

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Let me tell you a little bit about my adventures one Sunday morning. This particular Lord’s Day started off wonderfully, I woke up early, started getting ready leisurely and waited for Daniel to come back home and pick me up for Bible Class.

Daniel arrived home, and I was on track. My makeup was on, my dress was picked out, and I still had 20 minutes left before we needed to leave.

But then mayhem ensued with a simple pair of black tights.

After struggling for 5 minutes to put them on, I realized that they in no way fit my new maternity figure I had at the time. I knew I had a pair of maternity tights somewhere; so, I went back to the dresser drawer. It took a few minutes, but I found them! After an even greater struggle to put that pair on, I realized that, alas, my joy was in vain – they weren’t the right pair either!

By this time it was 9:20 -- time to leave in order to be at the church building before everyone else. I told Daniel to go on ahead, and I continued to search for the tights. After looking through every hamper and laundry basket, I gave up and squeezed into a non-maternity pair and headed off to the building about 15 minutes after I had planned on.

Little did I realize that morning that poor planning, placement, and preparation on my part would lead to such consequences on that Sunday morning. Sure I had found tights and was dressed and was present on time, but…

I was rushed as I left the house that morning. So, on my drive to the building, my mind was busy wondering if the dogs got fed and the oven got turned off instead of on the Lord and preparing my heart for worship.

I arrived only 10 minutes before Bible study started, so I didn’t have time to go over my lesson plan one last time before teaching 5-8 year olds that morning.

During worship, I was uncomfortable in my binding tights, so it was a constant fight for me to focus my mind and heart where it needed to be.

Those three things should never have happened, if I had followed these simple three P’s.

1. PLAN FOR TOMORROW. On Saturday nights plan what you’re going to wear, down to every last detail (yes, even tights), what you’ll eat for breakfast, and what time you’ll leave in the morning. While we never know when the Lord may return, planning -- with the right mindset -- is a must for every Christian, for we see that Paul made plans (Acts 15:36) as did our Savior, Christ (Matthew 10:5-15).

2. A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING, AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE. The key is to be organized. Place your planned clothes out where you can find them! Make sure you have anything else you’ll need for Sunday morning organized neatly and accessible (Bibles, lesson plans, etc.). Imagine what a difference this would have made in my mad hunt for the maternity tights!

3. PREPARE YOUR HEART AND MIND. You’ve planned and organized the external, now it’s time to prepare your heart for the next day. Why? Hebrews 12:28 answers:

“… and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe…” [ESV]

We want our worship to be acceptable and in order to do so we must not neglect our hearts. God “knows the hearts of all men” (Acts 1:34); what do you want him to see when he looks into your heart, especially while you are worshipping him?

How sad it is to think that my Heavenly Father may have seen in me a heart that was focused on my discomfort due to ill fitting clothes instead a heart devoted to worshiping Him. Let’s make sure that we do everything we can to have our worship to him be pleasing and acceptable, including preparing our hearts the day BEFORE worship! This could include a special family devotional focused on preparing for the Lord’s Day and/or special prayer time devoted to preparation.

Join me in my resolution to prepare for every Lord’s Day, before the Lord’s Day using the 3 P’s systems!

~Martha Howell