Another day at church

My Day at Church last Sunday. 
Not sure why I'm writing this except I just want to.
It's all in the order it happened.

1. I had just arrived at church and found a place in the back amongst all the young families. I call it
"sitting in the trenches of life"....in other words, lots of very busy parents and little kids. My favorite
place to be. Sometimes I think it can be as noisy as the bird cage at Roeding Park, but I still love it. I
try to imagine the sacrifice these families go through every Sunday morning just to get there 

2. In walks one of these darling families carrying newborn #5. I peer over to look at this new little
guy. A new baby to me is witnessing God's miracle. I feel it every time.

3. Teri gave a talk on listening to the spirit as a young mom. She told about a time her family was
living on the military base. Her family's living quarters were amongst several floors. One night Teri
could hear the water turned on two floors above her...where her young daughter was sleeping. As a
mom she waited for the water to go off. It didn't. She waited again. 

She could still hear the water running....so she yelled up to her daughter, "Keri are you okay?" She
heard her young daughter answer back, "Mom! Come quick!" Teri bolted up there to find Keri's
desk in flames. Little Keri had been going back and forth to the bathroom filling up water in her
cupped hands and then throwing that water on the flames. Obviously this wasn't enough.  So Teri
emptied the bathroom trash can onto the floor, and filled that with water and was able to put the fire
out. Teri pointed out to us that a Mom can be in tune with her children with help from the Holy
Ghost. That parenting is a partnership with our Heavenly Father.

4. Philip, a young husband and Dad of 3,
gave an excellent talk on trying to always remember Christ.

I especially loved his last quote he shared from Jeffrey R Holland:

"With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can 
improve, and the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don't always 
succeed. Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is 
cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."

5. So I was sitting in on senior Sharing Time (ages 8-11) when 2 boys who were visiting from out of
town (who I knew, but the Primary President I don't think did) were asked to come up front so we
could all sing the HELLO song to them. The older of the 2 brothers walked up there like one would
expect. But his 9 year old brother squatted close to the ground and waddled up there like a penguin.
He stayed in that position for the entire HELLO song, making him about half the size of his
brother, and then waddled back to his seat in that same manner. 

So....later on the Primary Pres asked this boy to come back up and help with her lesson. Again, he
went right into this penguin routine. He didn't laugh, just waddled up there close to the ground like it
was perfectly normal of him.

But here's the part I love best....I kept thinking the Pres would correct him by saying something
like,"okay, you need to stand up straight if you are going to be my helper today." That's what I would
have done. But she didn't! She didn't say a word about his antics. She just instead got down to his
level....which was practically on the floor, as they did the lesson together. Maybe she thought he had
some kind of disability and couldn't straighten up. I don't know what she was thinking. But she loves
everyone and is sweet and positive and non judgmental. She only assumes the best about people.
That was a lesson to me in itself.  



3 comments:

Susan Anderson said...

Most Sundays are rich with such experiences for me. I often get to write about them, because I publish a little letter for the Relief Society sisters on Mondays talking about the RS lesson for those who can't be there due to callings or illness. I often add little thoughts just like you did about what I observed in sacrament meeting, etc.

It's a great day!

=)

Grandma Honey said...

What a great idea Sue! You are such a great writer....your ward is blessed to have you doing that! Not to put you on the spot or anything, but could I possibly be on that email list also?

Scrapally said...

What a sweet Sunday observer you are. I love hearing about your experiences and what you learn! It teaches me too!

Look what happened last night

  Just a little pre-graduating gathering for our DIL Amy.... Not everyday a Mom of 7 and a Grandma of 7, graduates from college. It was not ...