Sitting Through Church


Some of my earliest childhood memories include me, sitting in the church pew with my mom. Sitting very, very still. If I did not sit still, I risked The Look; or worse yet, The Knee Squeeze. These memories came flooding back to me last night at church as we tried everything in our parenting arsenal to make Noah sit still.


Let me back up:


Pastor Matt and Jen went out of town this week, so we met for church at the Geisenburgs' home. Sometime late yesterday afternoon, I realized with a cold jolt that this would mean no childcare for Noah during the service. (Our current arrangements are with a neighbor across the street from Matt and Jen who graciously offered to keep our children for us on Wednesday nights during church. Kellie has been a blessing beyond blessings!)


Last evening, after pointing out our childcare dilemma to Josh, we decided we would keep Noah in the service with us for as long as possible, and if things got Really Bad, Josh would take Noah away to Lowes or Home Depot until the service was over.


Upon arriving at the Geisenburgs, I began prepping Noah for what was to come. "You will need to sit very still and not talk. We may sing some songs, and you can sing along, but when Daddy or Mommy is sitting still, you need to sit still." Etc Etc all the way up to the front door. We went in and scoped out the back row. Actually, we made a back row when we discovered that the real one had already been claimed. Hey, you do what you need to for survival!


It wasn't until after the singing time that things really started to get painful. I am firmly convinced that one of the hardest things for Noah to do is to sit still. And only slightly more difficult is Not Talking. This is a guy who can't go more than 30 seconds without saying something. But I'm here to tell you that somehow, someway, through the Lord's grace, and about 15 Knee Squeezes later, WE MADE IT!!! An hour and 15 minutes had passed, and Noah managed--barely--to sit through it all. (At one point, I whispered, "You're doing pretty well, but you need to sit still for a few more minutes", and Noah whined as quietly as he could muster, "It's so hard!" My heart went out to the little guy.)


The other blessing of the night was that Josh and I were able to actually pay attention to an excellent message given by Mr. Bradley.


Good job, Noah for making it through a service! Thank the Lord we were able to pay attention and keep Noah with us, which is an apparent contradiction in terms.


My hope and prayer is that by the time he's 3 he can do this with fewer knee squeezes. :)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Resolving Everyday Conflict

Image
If you've ever been asked to lead a discussion or teach about a certain spiritual discipline, you can be sure that the Lord will lovingly bring just that exact topic to the forefront in your own life. He'll graciously put your ugly sinful tendencies "right on Front Street," as my good friend Dara likes to say. This is grace! This is God's kindness to reveal sinful tendencies in our own hearts so that we can repent, seek renewed relationship with God and others, and be used of Him. Here is a story about one such evidence of God's grace to me. Josh and I were late to our small group last night. Oh, we were there . We had technically arrived on time, but we remained in the parking lot of the neighborhood's clubhouse for over 45 minutes before we were able to walk in holding hands. Much later in the evening, on our way home from Grace Group, Eden begged to be the one to fill the boys in on why we were late (the boys had driven separately from a soccer practice
Read more

The Hand of God

Image
 I am in Scotland. S C O T L A N D. This is me; Joanna, the one whose comfort zone is within about one square mile, who said she never wanted to leave the USA, who hates to travel on anything public, who nearly hyperventilates at the mere mention of airplanes. How is this possible that I am here? Only by God's grace. Every step in front of the other, every long line, every minute on those airplanes was enabled by God's grace. On my end, it wasn't always pretty--usually it was very ugly--and I may have said, "I can't do this" more times than we could count (Josh had to tell me to quit saying that), but God was faithful to me and I have a really great story about one such miracle to share with you, but for perspective and contrast I have to share a really ugly story first. Here goes:  We dropped off our rental car in Dublin about 11am, and had to ride a shuttle bus back to the Dublin airport to catch our 1:10pm "quick" flight over to Edinburgh, Scotlan
Read more

The Whole Truth

Image
Our cat, Willow, has kittens periodically. By periodically I mean about 2-3 times a year, and we don't hate it. We actually enjoy guessing when her due date is, how many kittens there will be, what they will look like, etc. Then when she has them, well, is there anything cuter than kittens? But sooner or later, 8 weeks later to be exact, it's time for those kittens to go. At that time we will put an ad on Craigslist and find homes for each and every one. This brings the fun hassle of sending people additional pictures, telling them again how much we are charging (that was in the ad!), setting up potential meetings with people who will ghost at the last minute, after we've already given them our address. Everyone should put an ad on Craigslist at least once just for the experience. Should you finally get someone who likes the look of a kitten, wants to pay the price, can meet at an agreeable time, successfully finds your house, is okay with the fact that the kittens haven&#
Read more