One of THOSE Sundays

There are a few Sunday mornings when, by the time we get to Church I am ready for a nap. This was definitely one of THOSE morning. Me not being able to find tights or nylons that didn't resemble Swiss cheese should have been my first clue. If I had shaved my legs I could have avoided this problem all together, but that's besides the point.

A daughter, who shall remain nameless, was now in the middle of full on melt down. Reason, her skirt wasn't "working". Now locked in her bedroom, refusing to go to Church, I am trying to "calmly" explain that a fashion emergency was not a justifiable reason to skip Church.

Dallyn is being Dallyn, and I finally noticed that he's sitting on the speaker, nearly knocking over the TV, As I tell him to get down, one of his mothers, I mean sisters chimes in. I say he only needs one mother and I'm sitting right here. But loving sister won't leave it alone, and then mentions that if I parented, she wouldn't have to...have I ever mentioned that teenagers are obnoxious....

Some how we all made it to Church...after my leadership meeting one kid had "disappeared" with a friend..."missing kid" walks in just as the meeting is starting. I give her the "you're in hot water" glare. Just as the announcements start I realize Dallyn is playing with a toy. As I try to confiscate it, it falls and breaks...Dallyn is now crying.....I give Grant the "these are YOUR children" glare. The opening hymn starts....

At least it wasn't "Love At Home", now that would have been funny....

Taking kids of any age to church every Sunday, can be a daunting task, but why do I do it?

More than a decade a go we were living in Raymond, the rug rats were all under seven and my Superman because of injury and heartache was taking the "home study" version of Church ;)...I had taken all five kids to Stake Conference mostly because President Henry B Erying was visiting....

Elder Eyring shared the following experience about growing up in a small branch in New Jersey....

There was no building, no gym, no stake center, and so we traveled to a hotel ballroom for what must have been a district conference. I was sitting on a folding chair somewhere near the back, next to my mother. I must have been very young because I can remember putting my legs through the back of the chair and sitting aft instead of forward. But then I remember hearing something—a man’s voice from the pulpit. I turned around and looked. I still remember that the speaker was at a rostrum set on wooden risers. There was a tall window behind him. He was the priesthood visitor. I don’t know who he was, but he was tall and bald, and he seemed very old to me.
He must have been talking about the Savior or the Prophet Joseph, or both, because that was all that I remember much of hearing in those days. But as he spoke, I knew that what he said came from God and that it was true, and it burned in my heart. That was before scholars told me how hard it was to know. I just knew of certainty—I knew it was true.

As I listened to Elder Eyring's words I looked down the bleachers (and you thought metal chairs were bad) at my small children and came to this realization. It didn't matter that they were too young to understand what was being said, they were not too young to feel the spirit and that was what really mattered.

So even now when they are old enough to understand what is being said, it is the spirit that they can feel that is most important, and that is why we take them to Church, even on the days when I want to wring their necks:)