6 Hours of Church

I forgot one more story about Chad on my last post. So here it is - before I forget again.

I love going to church, but it is usually also painful. There are lessons to prepare for, callings to magnify, people to mingle with, but most of all there are children to "sit" with. No matter what Chris and I do we still seem to have three very wiggly, high maintenance children. And at church it is sometimes exhausting. If the sacrament speakers start going on and on and on I start giving them a stare down and hope that all the noise and movement coming from my children will give the hint that their time is done and it is time for primary!!!!!

Chad, our oldest, is nearly 7 years old. He sits well and behaves well at school. He can sit down and eat a meal with some manners. He can sit down and do "homework" and read and color. But when it comes to sitting down at church he has no clue. His body seems to have a mind of its own. It causes me mental anguish to watch him squirm and fidget during sacrament. He is usually on the floor and pouts if I tell him to sit on the seat. Any time Sean has food or a toy Chad is right there to take it away from him.

I am not sure how he does in primary or his classroom. When we ask him any questions about church all he ever replies is, "I didn't learn anything," or, "I don't know." He doesn't dislike church at all, it just isn't what he thinks of as fun.

Last Sunday at the end of church I tried to gather all three of my wild ones together so we could get in the van and go home and fix lunch. As we are leaving the children see Chris at church, as he is now there for the Moran Prairie Ward. They all get excited to see him and it takes another 10 minutes to get everyone back together. Chad starts begging to stay at church with dad. I just say, "no." But Chris says, "yes." What is that man thinking?

I explain to Chad that if he stays with daddy he has to sit through sacrament all over again. I explain that he will miss lunch and there are no snacks. I explain that he will have to do primary all over again and with teachers he doesn't know. But no matter what I said he still wanted to stay.

Chris asked the DeMille family if they would help take care of Chad. The only disappointment from Chad came from when he found out he couldn't sit up on the stand with daddy.

Chad came home a whole new kid. He came home from church happy as could be and with a good report from Dad. He even was excited to tell us what he did in primary. I couldn't believe he had even survived 6 hours of church let alone enjoyed it at all. Maybe that is what Chad needs. 3 hours of church to practice and then 3 hours to really do church.

I am curious to see what Chad requests for this Sunday.