What’s Life Without Challenges?
July 9, 2009
As usual, in Sacrament Meeting today we had talks given by a young couple who are new to our ward. That’s one thing about living in a ward with a high turnover, we always have a never ending supply of speakers for meetings. Not that I miss the mind numbing terror that strikes when I stand in front of a group to speak, as I don’t, but still it is unusual to go for so many years without the responsibility/blessing that comes with speaking before our church congregation. Because many of our new move ins are couples with small children it is interesting to watch how they handle the challenge presented when speaking which leaves one parent to wrestle with their offspring while the other one is expounding on a gospel principle. As an interested observer of human nature I can tell you that the parent who is speaking immediately becomes the parent of choice in the eyes of their offspring as their toddlers look with glee at the prospect, should they achieve their goal, of reaching for the microphone/waving to all and sundry in the congregation or running amok in the choir seats until they are retrieved. This scenario usually only happens during Fast and Testimony meeting but occasionally does occur when a family is assigned to talk. Mostly, though some kind member will come to the aid of the beleaguered parent and quietly step in to help.
Never the less, the presence of small children, of which our ward has it’s ‘quiver’ full, makes for never a dull moment during our meetings. Today was no exception as one young rascal escaped twice from his Mom making it all the way up the steps to the podium before his heavily pregnant mother could catch up to him, and man, was he quick which made me glad he wasn’t mine to chase as even in my younger days my kids could usually out run me and that was before today’s chapels which are surrounded on all sides by classrooms and offices which meant it required only a straight run to capture the little ‘bugger’. Now, if they get a head start it requires a minimum of two to nab the escapee—one to hold place and snag him/her if they are successful in eluding the pursuing parent and reach ‘GO’ collect their two hundred dollars and start the whole thing over again.
As number 5 daughter put it at the start of her teaching career, “they didn’t teach me anything useful in my classroom management classes” which could also be said about parenting which is perhaps is a good thing because if one was fully aware of just what was going to happen when one became a parent one might never have become one, as much that one picks up from their own childhood is of little value in the trenches of ones own home. The challenge of dealing with children in church, who are naturally wiggly and very uninterested in what is being said from the podium, is one, I suspect that all parents have had to deal with since the beginning of time as the process that leads from barbarism to civilized behavior is often rocky and fraught with challenges which is why most kids at sometime or the other hear the following phrase from an exasperated parent, “Just wait ’till you have children” which is the greatest threat a parent can utter to a misbehaving child although they will not know this until many years have passed.
The problem of keeping one’s offspring ‘quiet’ in meetings is often exacerbated for their mothers by the fact that the dad’s of many are sitting ‘on high’ as they serve in responsible positions within their church unit which leaves the moms to cope with their offspring. I personally found it easier to sit towards the back of the chapel as a rapid departure was much easier to accomplish and far less disruptive to the decorum expected in a church meeting. However, that was me and I can appreciate mother’s who position their offspring as close to their dad’s as it is possible to achieve by sitting in the first or second row up front where the children can be seen by their father which lends a great deal of credence to the threat, “just wait until your dad gets home” as all parties concerned know their behavior has been witnessed by the one best suited to dishing out the punishment that fits the crime.
The most embarrassing thing I ever confronted, and there were many, believe me, took place in the Masonic Hall in Sun Prairie, WI which is where we met before our chapel was built in 1976. The meeting was progressing along its usual course when all of a sudden from the back of the room a paper air plane sailed over the heads of the gathered congregants landing gracefully on the floor just in front of the portable speaker’s stand. I remember thinking to myself, “What on earth, where did that thing come from”. Then realizing, to my horror that the movement I had caught out of the corner of my eye just seconds before was that of # 4 son who, becoming bored with the whole business at hand, had folded his ward bulletin into a paper airplane and then let ‘fly’ with the obvious intention of seeing how far it would go. Jeesh. I still cringe when I think about it. You wanna’ know something else? Mother’s do not have eyes in the back of their heads and furthermore the ones in the front don’t always ’see’ either. But ‘ya know what. That airplane was a real credit to MGH whose unique design it was and who had passed this knowledge to his offspring. . . .
This is a totally different topic but we had the neatest thing happen this week when my sister Kathy and her husband Gary stopped by for a quick visit while on their way to visit family in California—long story as to why. (One of the good things about living next to the major east west highway I-15 is that it allows easy access to Cedar City. Of course the downside is that even though we are several miles off the interstate we can still hear the constant roar that comes from passing cars and trucks. Not that I really notice during the day but at night in the summer time when it would be nice to have windows thrown open to catch the cool outside air and relieve our dependence on air conditioning and therefore the drain on our wallets it is a nuisance . Note to self: Good point out weighs bad point, stop whining.) What a joy it was to have them spend a few hours with us. To hear their stories, and trust me on this one, they are master story tellers. To catch up on what is happening with their family and vice versus. Believe me when I say that there is nothing dearer to the heart of a parent than to recount what their offspring are doing. All too soon their time was up and they were on their way once more leaving us replete with the satisfaction that comes from being in good company. How dear family is. What a delight it is to be reunited with them if only for a little while. How good it is to know that there is eternity as well where hopefully we will have more time to spend on ‘keeping up’ than we do now.