What impression do you want to make at church tomorrow? Begin preparing your heart for worship and let God clear out the distractions.

Read Psalm 111, then pretend like you are the psalmist and add another sentence: tell God from your heart what he means to you.

How can your attitude and behavior honor God and make a positive impression on others today?

If you met someone today and didn’t encounter them again for many years, if ever, what might they remember most about you?

Think back to church just a couple of days ago. What do you recall most clearly about the service? The people? Your experience, in general?

Do you have a favorite motto or verse that you try to live by (Golden Rule, etc.)? How does it influence your day-to-day interactions?

Have you ever seen a sunset that took your breath away? What other of God’s “wondrous works” (Psalm 111:4) stand out in your memory?

In the hopes of sending the kids out of the house each morning in the right mindset, I taped a Dr. Seuss quote to the door that reads: “Today I shall behave, as if this is the day I will be remembered.” Similar to the cliché about having only one opportunity to make a first impression, if you see someone infrequently, then your attitude and actions from that day will stick in their memory, whether good or bad. Unfortunately for parents, it seems like the times when you want the kids to make the best impression, they do completely the opposite and act like hyenas in a boxing ring.

As a church family, we have a similar opportunity every week to make a good impression. Every detail matters – from having enough greeters in the parking lot to enough toilet paper in the restrooms, from the printed bulletin to a handshake during welcome time, from the music to the sermon. What do we want visitors (and members, for that matter) to remember as they leave the building each week?

I’ve been guilty sometimes of showing up to church in a grumpy mood, stressed out or preoccupied. It pains me to think that I may not have smiled at someone who really needed to be uplifted that particular day (even more than I may have) or didn’t go a few steps out of my way to say hi to a new person because I wasn’t feeling sociable. Those aren’t the things I want them to remember. I want them to remember having a personal encounter with God because of their worship experience that morning.

Psalm 111 provides a great example of a lasting impression. The author begins by declaring, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation” (v. 1, ESV). Surrounded by people who are creating a first impression of us (and Christ in us, consequently), will we put aside the distractions and focus on giving thanks to God with all that we are?

The good news is that even though we are human and screw things up more often than we’d like to admit, God is still so gracious and faithful. Today is our 10th anniversary celebration as a church family, and we’ve strived to live authentically (albeit, imperfectly) in community together. Dozens upon dozens of people have been baptized, and hundreds of lives have been touched. God deserves our praise and thanksgiving! The psalmist wrote, “He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful” (v. 4). Oh, the stories that could be shared about what an amazing decade it has been! If we are faithful to live out our calling as a church family, just imagine what the next 10 years might look like.

There will come a day when the resurrection symbolized in baptism becomes our reality; what a glorious day that will be! (Philippians 1:21)

Let’s read Rom. 1:16a as our prayer: “I am not ashamed of the good news. It is God’s power. And it will save everyone who believes” (NIRV).