Today we opted for "family church". This simply means that getting everyone out the door to an actual off-site church location was more than we could pull off. Instead we got donuts and met in the family room for Daddy to lead us in a time of wuuh-sip and reading and prayer. The way Noah says wuuh-sip makes us happy.
In theory family church is a fabulous idea. I mean, what is better than bringing the teaching to the level of your children and singing and praying together as a family? So sweet.
No. not.so.much. In practice it is a joke. Somehow the spirit of worship (wuuh sip) and the prayers are not so moving when interrupted by fighting toddlers and pouting highly distracted Noah. He got mad because we did not sing the song he wanted fuw-st. At times it was comical so I grabbed a pen to take notes. If you wanted a sermon today, you already went to hear one, so I won't give you the whole thing with context- just the highlights.
Troy said:
"The devil has plans to try to trip us up and he loves to see us upset, fearful and angry."
Noah angrily said:
"Yeah - and it is working on me!"
Isaac said:
"Daddy, you should be a Pastor, you're good at teaching God-y things."
While we were praying and I prayed for Lydia she yelled, "No, not!" (The devil's plan is working on her too.) Phoebe had to be removed from the room for a time-out midway through.
Hope did a beautiful job of explaining why she thought we should not be fearful during the portion where we talked about fear. :)
Paige patiently participated with an occasional eye-roll at the people she is forced to live with and call family.
When we were finished with what ended up being a long "service" due to breaking up fights and multiple issues with attention deficit disorders, Isaac asked if they could be given a memory verse. Troy said, "Sure, if you want." Isaac suggested they memorize this verse - "Don't be rude to God's nature." He could not come up with the reference. You'll have to google it.
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Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero; better to be content with poverty than to die a slave to wealth; better to have taken some risks and lost than to have done nothing and succeeded at it. -erwin lutzer
18 comments:
Love it! Brings back memories of some of our family devotions as I was growing up! Maybe I'll teach my class Isaac's memory verse.
Jodie
Hilarious!
And um, interesting memory verse...
=)
Love this post... and glad I'm not the only one whose kids lack the "still still and never create a fuss" gene
Aww love the cute kid quotes. Just a thought though --as long as you're stuck in the U.S., it might be possible to get Noah free speech therapy through your local school system. I hope you'll forgive me for being nosy; I know he's still young and it might just be an age thing. But I just thought I'd put it out there since I realize that sort of thing might be more difficult to access once you move back to Haiti, and since the speech issues might be less cute if they persist into adulthood.
Again, I'm really, really sorry if this post seems nitpicky; it's just friendly sharing of an idea. But I'm sensitive to the issue since I used to be a "Wuh-becca" myself :-)
- Rebecca
Wow! Sounds surprisingly like our 'family church' today. Only we had more 'butt' talk happening. I have no idea what's happening over here. But I do feel strangely relieved that I'm not alone in the crazy kids boat.
Oh. So. Love. Your. Honesty.
Thanks for being REAL with us. We have had many a family devotion time like that.
Can so totally see Paige and the eye-roll. I have 8 teens and young adults ... I've seen the eye-roll.
Laurel :)
Hey Rebecca -
Not offended - looked into it once but I need to again :)
Love it! I have a feeling that Issac's memory verse may just stick in my memory!!
Jen
Love it! There may be plenty of adults that have mistaken "you must become like little children" and are still like this in church today. I like Isaac's verse too!
That's great. Thanks for sharing.
Amy(TN)
Oh, keepin' it real. Thanks for that! I only have two kids, but seeing as how we can barely make it through a single prayer before a meal without some of this child-drama, I don't think we're going to attempt family church any time soon!
Smiling! Actually Chuckling!
Been there and done that on some of our "family worship" days here on the farm. They usually happen after an Iowa blizzard. I think I'm the one most distracted and much prefer to worship on Sundays at church whenever possible for those reasons. Our kids are past the stages of your little ones, but geesh...they can still come up with enough off the wall comments to "take the Spirit right outa' ya'!"
I have my own "church" humor. When our 22yr old was two, she thought the song went like this:
"Our dog is a possum dog"... rather than "Our God is an Awesome God". I love it, all irreverence ignored.
Nancy in the Midwest
And I'll bet God loved every minute of it. I sure enjoyed reading about your family Whuu-sip.
For such is the Kingdom :)
Love it! I am going to follow you all.. I just back from Haiti myself .. Camatin orphanage..Coq Chante, and Beloc..I was there a week. I can't wait to get back! I look forward to following your work in Haiti! Your welcome to visit my blog and follow me.. :) Anna Sams
http://asamsfaith.blogspot.com/
We need that verse in our house from time to time. =)
Sometimes I have trouble remembering the reference for memory verses too...and I paraphrase a lot because KJV isn't my first language...lol
What a hoot! I've thought hard about trying to do family devotions, but I figured the same would happen in our house. You've given me the courage to do it anyway, knowing that even if it's a disaster, I'm not the only one with kids that have the devil working on them! :)
Amy in WI
PS: my word verification is "sorofol"...maybe that's how Noah feels sometimes? -Sorrowful- Ha, ha! :)
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