Days like this--Day 85

As I said last week, I like Sundays. They start out great when we go to church and then usually get better. We managed to get there a little early which was nice. The praise and worship team was led by one of the guys that became a new member along with his wife a few weeks ago. It was the first time since I'd been there that everyone applauded after every song. He really charged people up with his impassioned singing. All the songs he picked were ones you could clap to the beat if you wanted to. His wife, one of the backup singers this week, was up there dancing more than anyone else usually does. The woman next to her was a backup singer more often and she was moving more than often as well. It was a lot of fun.

Then Pastor Don started talking about this week's fruit of the spirit, gentleness. You wouldn't think being gentle would be that difficult, but it is tremendously so. There are so many opportunities during the day to just become impatient, angered, envious or vengeful when we could just "lay down" and come at things at a different angle instead. We don't like the idea of someone walking on us, so many times if someone pushes, we verbally push back. If someone angers us, we let them know. Why? Jesus didn't. He was verbally abused, poked, prodded, beaten and had done nothing wrong. He could've brought the wrath of God down on these people, but instead asked God to have mercy on them because they knew not what they were really doing. If we ever want to ask ourselves "What would Jesus do?", we should probably answer "Respond with gentleness." He would. Kim and I are doing our best to live Pastor Don's words of the past 8 weeks and pass these fruits down to the kids. It's tough with everything going on all the time, but we're getting better.

After the sermon and communion, Pastor Don said Pastor Bob had a few words to say. He officially stepped down as pastor of the church. He had been the Pastor for over 40 years and four years ago had passed the baton to Pastor Don, but had still been one of the pastors. It was a very difficult thing for him to do. As always, he added humor to his words and for a person that puts so many smiles on so many faces, he made it so there was hardly a dry eye in the place. He had signed copies of the letter he read for all 175 members of the church. Ours was in our church mailbox we didn't know we had. Also in the mailbox was our baptism and membership certificates. They were very well done. We may hang them and place them somewhere in the house.

We went to Chili's after church armed with some coupons we had gotten for signing up to help with the fair we're having in a few weeks. I tried their quesadilla looking nachos and they were pretty good. I had to go to the car to grab the diaper bag so we could calm down Noah for a bit. He was a tired little man. Colton put his arm down across the table and Noah layed his head on it. I rubbed his forehead as I do many times when I put him down to sleep. Later on, he grabbed Colton's arm and pulled it down to the table. He put his head down on it, then grabbed my arm and pulled it towards him. So cute and heartwarming. I had to run out to the car a second time to grab Gabrielle's shawl since she had gotten cold. After coming back, Kim realized the people eating behind me had left their food on their table and had just walked out. I grabbed it and they were in fact just walking out when I started bringing it to them. By the time I got it to them, they were at their car. I don't expect anything back when doing something like that, but it's nice when you get something. They both smiled sincerely and thanked me. Before we left, Jennifer, her "natural" looking hair, and Ellianna came over. Jennifer is one of the "pretty people" so she can make any haircut look good. It was different and I like different. As we walked out, someone was talking to Dennis, so I gave him a wave instead of interrupting them. He would have none of that, and stuck out his hand as I walked by. Thank you, Jesus, for all these good, happy people giving out smiles and handshakes like they were going out of style.

We went home and Colton dug another hole for me as I mowed the lawn. When he was done, we dug up the last two of the four bushes we were moving. We got all four of them securely planted and they look very nice. They'll look even better if we grab some perennials Kim had talked about getting. Colton worked very hard and I'll be rewarding him with some cash. He had helped me the day before as well and both times thanked me for letting him help. I think he really means that. That's really nice of him to say.

The Lanza girls, Jiselle, Jalina and Jianna, came over soon after. I played some Apples to Apples with Jianna and Colton for a while. I think we played three games and then played again later on that night. In between, everyone, including Noah, played downstairs for much of the time. I was down there for a while writing on the chalkboard and carrying them around in the toybox. Jiselle had gotten in it, so I decided to put the top on it and pick her up. I should have known what I was starting. "My turn, my turn!" "I didn't get to do it yet!" "You already went!" "Noah, get out of the box!" Noah wanted a turn after each one of everyone else's turn. I didn't mind since he was so light compared to all four of the girls. They would each lay down on the pillow and blanket in there and Noah did the same. One time when I lifted it up, he sat up, looked up out of the box and looked around. The rest of the kids thought it was the funniest thing. Everyone else, including Colton (he knew I couldn't pick him up, but we wanted to be dragged around anyway) got a couple of turns before my back was killing me.

Colton, Jianna, and I played a few games of Apples to Apples again. Then the other girls came upstairs. None of them can read that great except for Gabrielle, so it makes it sort of difficult. We began to choose answers that were the funniest. Soon, we weren't even playing the game, but instead just choosing 5 cards and making funny sentences. I had started this, and they wanted me to keep doing it as well as making their own sentences. Some of their favorite words were pudding, noodles, bacon, ham sandwich, and, of course, underwear. I'm not sure why food is so funny, but it is. Jianna noticed that pudding was funnier if you exaggerated the first syllable "PUDding!!!!" Colton's eyes would blink hard when he tried doing it, so everyone else started doing that in sneeze form. It was all pretty silly. In the middle of all this, Jiselle, the 7 year old, had gotten up on my lap to pick up cards for me to make sentences with. It's nice, and sort of surprising, that she's has grown comfortable enough with me to do that. Gabrielle is usually the only one that does that, but never when the girls are over. By the time we were done, it was 10:30 and time for them to leave and the kids to go to bed. We all had some very nice things in our prayers, had obviously all had good days, prayed for a good week and prayed for others as well.

Thank you, Lord, for days like this.