Another Sunday church story

Throughout the day I think of things I should write about on the blog. Then when the end comes around, I'm just too darn tired to write anything, or I've forgotten all those wonderful ideas as the day has gone on. So I'm going to write about yesterday rather than today as yesterday was pretty memorable.

Again, this is a story about church. We decided to keep Abby with us during the worship service rather than having her go to the nursery. Reason being that we go to Bible study after worship, and Sam goes to Sunday School, but we don't want Abby in the nursery for 2 hours. So that means that Abby comes with us to Bible study which has not been going well. For some reason, we thought church may go better and she may be better behaved than she is at Bible study. So we tried it. The morning started off fairly well. We were 10 minutes or so into the service and things were excellent. I looked at my lovely children and thought two things "What good children!" and "What good parents!" The instant I had those thoughts I knew we were in for it the rest of the service (pride comes before a fall, right?). I apparently didn't repent soon enough or earnestly enough because a few minutes later was the children's message. Sam went up front while I had Abby and Matthew. Matthew was fine, but Abby kept on grabbing books or toys and when I'd try to help her with them so she didn't drop them, she would twist her body around and shout "NO!" And even when I wasn't touching her she still kept on saying "NO! NO! NO!" Upon returning from the children's message, Jason said he could hear her loud and clear, and we were sitting in the next to last row.

Then it was Matthew's turn. He just started talking loudly and being otherwise inappropriate. Jason gave him a warning, then it was time to take him out. As soon as Jason grabbed him and started walking out, he started screaming "DON'T TAKE ME OUT! MOMMY! MOMMY! DON'T TAKE ME! MOMMY! AHHHHHHHH!" Wow, talk about embarrassing. Unfortunately we don't sit right next to the exit, so he was screaming for a long time on the walk out. We may need to reconsider where we sit in the future.

So then I was left alone with Sam and Abby. Sam is usually a very good boy in church, but of course, he decided to change things up a bit yesterday. First, he started getting awfully close to Abby, touching her and acting like he was going to take her toys. Now Abby has learned to be very possessive of her toys as she is used to one of her brothers snatching them whenever they like. So when a boy comes close to her or her toys she starts in with the No's. "NO! NO! NO!" I'm trying in a hushed voice to get Sam to leave her alone and trying to hold him away from her while holding onto Abby and wondering what in the heck am I supposed to do? Do I leave my purse and the pew scattered with toys and try to get both kids out? By that time I was sweating and extremely repentant of my parental pride. Finally things settled down somewhat and then Sam decided to lay on the pew. And Abby decided to crawl on the floor. Sam eventually sat up and I never did figure out a way to pacify Abby. And I was almost laughing, not out of merriment, but rather out of incredulity at how badly church was going despite how well the kids boys had been behaving previously.

We eventually made it to the end and hung out heads low, avoiding eye contact as we walked out. These were my new thoughts: "What bad children!" and "What bad parents!" So much for our experiment with keeping Abby in church with us. I guess she will be back in the nursery for the time being. I don't remember what the sermon was about yesterday, but I do know that I got a lesson in humility.