Practicing patience

Our son got to practice sitting still and being quiet for extended periods of time this past week.  On Thursday, our homeschool co-op sponsored a Performers' Night Concert where we enjoyed listening to students play a variety of instruments.  Our daughter played a few songs on the piano during the concert.  For the grand finale, 16 students played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" all together on the tin whistle.  Tin whistles produce such a shrill sound that I feared for the longevity of my hearing when I found out about the finale.  Thankfully, the finale was quite melodious!  Our son seemed to enjoy this concert, especially the Star Wars songs, and sat quietly during most of the concert.

Our son has been sitting in on his sister's piano lessons with me for the past year.  He has listened to the songs in the first Suzuki book countless times.  His sister's piano recital program on Saturday included 46 songs, many of which included those same songs from the Suzuki book played multiple times by different students.  He had every reason to be bored during this recital. We thought about hiring a sitter for him, but we knew he would not want to miss seeing Nana and Pops who drove up for the recital.

During the first half of the recital, he began to nod off with his head falling over.  Concerned that he might fall out of his chair, Nana offered her lap, and he spent the last half of the recital in dreamland.

When the recital finished, he continued dreaming on his daddy's shoulder....

...until someone said, "Refreshments anyone?"

After snacks, he was alert enough to greet a friend from his homeschool co-op class who played beautifully in the recital.

He even posed for some family photos.

 Hugs and smiles for Nana & Pops

The next evening, our 4-year old got even more practice sitting still during a lengthy ordination service at church.  Deacons and elders were ordained and installed and a young pastor was ordained and commissioned into the mission field.  This ordination service was extra special for our family since my husband was one of the deacons being ordained.

By this time, our children had fully exhausted their "sit still" reserves for the week, so I wondered how they might behave during the service.  As I mentally prepared myself for the worst, I imagined the kids totally acting out when the pastor quoted 1 Timothy 3:12, "A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well.".  Then when the pastor called me up front with my husband leaving the kids unsupervised in their seats, I experienced another moment of concern.

Thankfully, we all survived and the kids behaved really well until our daughter began to cry during the last few minutes of the service.  Actually, the kids impressed me overall.  They tried to stay focused on the service.  During the worship time, they signed the words of some of the songs.  When the elders offered lengthy prayers, they got down on their knees in a reverent posture to join them in prayer.  Our daughter also managed to write another chapter for her detective "novel" during the service.  Oops!

As I told my son goodnight this evening, I asked him, "What did you learn tonight?  What does the word 'ordination' mean?"

He replied, " Does it mean that Dad has to manage our household well?" 

Then he asked me a question:  "Does everybody have to die on a cross?"  That question led into a long and interesting discussion.

Then as I was leaving his room, he told me, "I'm so glad God gave me you."

I love my kids!