Sometimes attending church in a different language is difficult for obvious reasons. Yesterday was impossible to understand anything said from the front of the auditorium because Haley was determined to not allow us to participate in worshiping with our Costa Rican family. She was the world's best behaved child for all of a minute and a half. After that, she decided to flail her body and scream as if someone was beating her. She took her sippy cup of milk and hurled it as hard as she possibly could and screamed, "NO!" I took her to the back of the building thinking I could straighten her out. She settled down, and a few minutes later I took her back to the auditorium. We were not all the way settled down before she had another outburst for the entire congregation to witness. This pattern continued for all of the worship service. Finally, the service ended, and we were going to leave and not stay for class because they were not having children's classes. On our way out, the preacher stopped us and asked that we stay at least for part of it because he was informing the church about his trip to Haiti last week. We agreed, and Haley's attitude changed, at least for a few minutes. Ronald, the preacher, was showing each of his many hundred pictures with a story on each one. After about the 75th picture and the second day of his trip (no i'm not kidding) Haley reached her limit and there was no turning. back. She threw herself on the ground with her arms crossed and wailed. We knew at this point there was no calming down. We scurried out the back as quietly as we could, disciplined Haley and walked into the parking lot only to find that the gate out of the parking lot appeared to be locked. Fortuneately, it was only dummy locked which means that to a passerby a gate looks locked, but the pad lock is not actually locked.
Que pena means "how embarassing" I was so embarrassed by Haley's behavior. We try daily to teach her right from wrong and what proper behavior is. She is only 1 1/2 and many times forcing her to sit still for 2 1/2 hours of church service is worse than forbidding a dog to not pee on a fire hydrant. We come prepared with snacks, juice, books, and a doll, but for a busy little girl it is just so hard to sit still. To add salt to the wound, several members of the congregation asked, "Why was Lili crying so much?" "Why wouldn't she calm down?" or even "Next time would you like me to take her? I won't let her cry." Really? You think I am just allowing her to cry and don't care how she behaves? Yesterday as we left the building, I could feel the stress leaving me, for I knew little miss grumpy would go to sleep on the way home.
What has your child done to embarass you in a church setting?
1 comment:
I have a good one. I have a good two. When we lived in Lubbock and went to Broadway,the auditorium had theater seats. We always sat up front. Ryan was about Haley's age and was misbehaving. Dad said to stop or he was going to take him out. Ryan did not stop and Dad picked him and started toward the back. All the while, Ryan is screaming, and I mean screaming, "Don't beat me Daddy. Don't beat me Daddy." And it echoed through the whole auditorium. The preacher had to pause and wait for Dad and Ryan to get out.
Story #2. In Memphis, at Quince Road, we were sitting down in church after Sunday school. Church had not started and people were still visiting. There were several people around us, when we sat down behind a very pregnant lady and Nathan, in his best outdoor voice say "Daddy, how did that baby get in that ladies stomach. Martha Hudgins was behind us and died laughing and said "yea, Daddy, how did that baby get in there.
You are not alone sweetie. You are doing a good job with her. I love you. Mom
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