Playoffs and packed schedules can crowd Sundays.
What helps your family keep worship first without being legalistic?
Do you have traditions (post-church brunch, evening service, watch-party after)?
A verse that helps you keep priorities straight?
How about this one:
If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be recorded.
Esther 1:19
(smile)
KP
College football is on Saturdays….become a college football fan and your Sundays will be free. Just joking.
Royal decree accepted! Love it. Do you have a go-to verse for keeping priorities straight (I think of Matt 6:33 / Heb 10:25). Any family traditions that help you on busy Sundays?
Haha, fair point! 
When the NFL pulls us in, do you ever do an evening service or DVR-and-watch-after-church strategy? What’s worked best for your family?
@ellenvera
The “record it” comment was only a joke. I hope it was taken as such.
Almost thirty years ago, I began setting aside The Lord’s day for relationship building, primarily my relationship with Jesus, but also with His body. This, to me, is no law, nor is it any way to curry favor with God, quite the contrary. It is a time for me to submit, to “devote” my focus and energies to listening, and receiving His instructions for me; to imbibe His word, to pray His will, and to remember His works. I worship, pray, read, listen, serve, set the normal duties of life on a shelf for one day a week. I am not legalistic about it, but I sure do look forward each week to this special time with my Father, absorbing His wisdom, admiring His work, and proclaiming His name. I attend a meeting with the body in the morning, remembering His broken body and His shed blood, then returning home, I spend the remainder of the day with open ears and an intentional open heart to reestablish my pace and reground my life on The Rock of my salvation. Over the years I have invited others to join me, but few have, at least not in any continuing sense. It is a personal rhythm of personal relationship that I anticipate continuing until I am called home. It is part of my testimony of the hope that is in me.
Blessings on your day
KP
I really only watch the Super Bowl. I might watch a New Orleans Saints game if its on, but I don’t get into it too much. Our church no longer has an evening. service on Sunday. The older members can’t see to drive, so we voted to stop Sunday evening services (except on Easter). It really seems to be the rule rather than the exception around here.
Got it, KP — I caught the joke and appreciate the humor. 
Thank you for sharing your rhythm. I love how you frame the Lord’s Day as relationship, not legalism; an unhurried space to worship, listen, serve, and reset on the Rock.
Quick question: what’s one simple “first step” you’d suggest for someone trying this rhythm for the first time next Sunday? And how do you handle the unavoidable stuff (shift work, kids’ tournaments, travel) when it lands on the Lord’s Day?
Blessings back to you! I appreciate your thoughtful note. 
I am not posing myself as an expert, or as a teacher in this discipline, only a practitioner, but to answer your question:
The one thing that comes to mind as I read your question is the motivation I had (have) to need this time with my Father. That’s how I started. I remember explaining it to one person, years ago, to be similar to going over to my earthly father’s house and sitting on the front porch swing for a few hours. Either we talk, or we simply sip our tea in silence, either way the effect was the same. The communication was love.
The need was already present within me. There was an initial difficulty in adjusting my burgeoning schedule to accommodate this new rhythm, but my need for the time of relationship building only increased as I practiced it. It was initially similar to how God The Father allotted a day of rest for his chosen people; a day to trust Him that their prosperity was not dependent on their industry, but on their relationship to Him. I think He still invites us to test that promise, to dare to step out onto His provision; to trust while we put our full weight on the rock. This is how we prove to our naturally-skeptical minds that the rock does not move under our weight; the sea will part, our schedule will give way to our purpose.
You said:
The telling word in your question was “unavoidable”. We are affective humans, and we naturally prioritize the tasks and events to which we give ourselves according to how “unavoidable” they are; trying to get the most imperative ones done without too much neglect of the less important. If spending time with The Lord is less important than other competing tasks, then trying to shoe-horn it into a too-full schedule will feel more like a burden than a time of rest; contrary to what your Father designed for your life. I was never comfortable making time with my father one-more-thing-to-do. I fully understand how the world imposes its will and makes demands for our time, sometimes unreasonable demands, but imperatives we feel we cannot ignore. The often-overlooked secret weapon we have in our arsenal, against which the world has no defense, is prayer. We can ask our Father to help us – to part the sea, to vanquish the enemy, to show us how we can together appropriate our time making our relationship our primary priority. Sometimes we don’t have, simply because we don’t ask.
I also see this time as a privilege, and so I understand when some outside imperative impinges on my privilege. Maybe someone plans a wedding, or a funeral, or a family event, or work insists on my presence, or any other imposition that assumes I’m available on Sunday. It happens, and I don’t sweat it, and my Father doesn’t sweat it either. We are both disappointed, but we get over it. Jesus taught some lawyers and Pharisees this principle by saying to them “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” Luke 14:3-5 While I’m not talking about the law, the principle gained here is that God is not trying to make your life more difficult or burdensome, but the opposite. Even so, sometimes stuff happens, and God does not prevent it, but has, even in these intrusions, His mysterious way to build our faith and dependence on Him. In incidents as these the adage holds true, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”.
Blessings
KP
This is such a convicting topic/question! I don’t watch much TV or movies, but I am a huge sports fan (as is my husband), so this is a constant struggle. We also have church service at 4pm (not ideal, but we love the church and have been members for a long time).
I don’t really have any answers or wisdom to offer, but I definitely want to follow this thread to see what everyone else does. The command to keep the Sabbath Day has always felt a bit ambiguous to me, at least compared to the other commandments, which, I think, adds to my struggle with having a good rhythm on Sunday.
I don’t balance them, I only watch F1 and keep Sunday from 8:00 am to noon clear. I can always watch the event as a full replay a day or two later. If you feel you need to balance God and sports, you do have a serious problem. Enjoy the sporting event or put God first.
who dat! uses to live da bag life
we dat! God bless my friend.