“My favorite part of the whole week is right after we get home from church on Sunday. It’s the time I like best.”

My 8-year-old son, Henry, said this the other day. 

“Why do you like it?” I asked. 

He thought for a few moments, and then said he just liked it.

“Are you happy because church is over…because you don’t like church?”

“No!” he said, “I like church. I like to listen. They tell stories. I like when we have break, and I like the lunch after.”

“So, why is getting home your favorite part?”

He thought some more, and after a long pause, he said, “I like the feeling I have when I get home. I feel refreshed.”

He came up with the word “refreshed” on his own, and isn’t it perfect?

I feel refreshed when we get home, too. 

I feel it even if I’ve taught a class, served food to 50 people, washed dishes, wiped down the bathroom, and emptied the trash. I’m not going to pretend like there’s no work involved in a typical Sunday. There is.

But, by the time I get home, I’ve also heard the words of life. I’ve prayed and sung and read scripture. Jesus said that He offers living water that is so refreshing we’ll never thirst again. Church is one place we can go to drink deeply of that living water. 

The only way you can get the refreshment of having been at church is to…actually go.

A few months back, a family member of mine visited church for the first time in a long time, and she said, “I forget how GOOD I feel after being here.”

She was feeling the effects of that refreshment on her parched soul, and she liked it. 

She didn’t feel it when she got up that morning or when she got in the car or when she walked into the building. It was only after church that she noticed the difference. 

If you’ve been struggling to make the things of God a priority lately—and don’t we all from time to time?—remember how great you feel after yielding to the Spirit. 

After you pray, read, sing, fellowship—or when on a random Tuesday night you push the things of the world aside in favor of something better—there’s refreshment waiting for you. 

Also, if you’re a parent who is wondering whether it’s worth it to drag your toddlers or your teens along for a three-hour church day, remember that your task is to lead them to the living waters. You can’t make them drink, but you can show them where it’s found. 

Whatever God is calling you to do today, remember how refreshed you feel after saying yes to Him. 

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.

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