And Then She Drank the Lord’s Supper…

Please don’t misunderstand. I love going to worship. I love my kids. I just don’t always love going to worship with my kids…

Be warned, this is not a mushy post about magical moments with children. This is straight venting.

Today was disastrous. We woke up with plenty of time and still felt rushed. To be honest, most days I feel rushed no matter how long I have to make sure we’re all ready to go (even when my husband gets the kids ready because he can tell I’m having one of “those” mornings).

We got to the church building first. I let the kids play in the nursery for a few minutes to try to pep talk myself into teaching their class (because let’s be real, you can only sing the fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar song so many times before you have to pep talk yourself into it). It started off great and then it just fell apart. I’m not really sure what happened but at one point I realized that none of my children were engaged. In fact, at one point I stopped talking altogether and none of them noticed. Literally, none of them even noticed. They kept talking to each other and did not even realize I had stopped class. Isaiah forgot ALL of the memory verses that we review every week, Titus tried to eat a plastic waffle and Naomi crushed my heart when she took the Lord’s name in vain. Let’s just suffice it to say that not only was class really, REALLY bad but it was also just the beginning.

After class was over Isaiah said he had to potty and wanted to take himself (he’s 4). He’d been gone all of 3 minutes when one of the ladies came to tell me “Isaiah is in the bathroom with all the lights off and I walked in on him, is he okay by himself?” Clearly not… Isaiah’s cries of “I peed on myself” rang through the church building and that was the end of worship for us.

Chuck got a ride home from the church building and came bearing sweet gifts from Bobbie Rainey (friendship bread) and the Lord’s Supper for a 98 year old Christian gentleman he visits at the nursing home. I made Chuck scarf down some chicken strips I picked up on the way home while I sat on the couch with what I thought were all of the kids. I was so tired that I didn’t notice Naomi had gotten down until Chuck hollered, “who drank the juice in the kitchen?” For real, she drank the Lord’s Supper!

At this point I basically just lost it. I mean really, truly lost it. I laughed until I cried because it is clear that the minions are winning today.

I’m not trying to wish the time away, really I’m not. People are always telling me, “someday you’ll wish they were young again.” Seriously though, right now I just wish I could hear an entire sermon, sing without them crying and pray with my eyes closed.

I’m sorry I can’t tell you that some awesome thing happened after all the craziness. Truthfully, the best thing that happened today was naptime. I can tell you this though, God knew this parenting thing wasn’t easy and if you’re morning went something like mine I suggest that you read Psalm 127:3-5, Matthew 18:10, Matthew 19:14-15, eat a piece of delicious friendship bread and pray. That’s what I’ll be doing for the next 20 minutes.