Our Sunday Service

Today was not a typical Sunday. Nathaniel was up in the night puking and Ronnie had run a temperature yesterday, so we made the decision to stay home today and let Daddy go alone. The boys were disappointed, but they decided we would have our own "church service".

As I got beds made and Maddie and I dressed, the boys prepared. We waited until daddy left for Ney before the congregation was called together. I'll share with you a little of how it went.

Ronnie was the Pastor, and began by calling up the song leader, Nathaniel, to lead us in our Opening Hymn, "My Faith Looks up to Thee".

After the Hymn, Ronnie gave a brief explanation as to what his sermon would be about today. As near as I can remember it went like this, "Today we will talk about Noah and Jonah. One Sinned right away and one didn't. We're gonna find out which one did not listen right away". (wow, all that from a 6 year old!)

Next the kids were called up for the Children's Sermon. Eli and Maddie sat up front while Nathaniel and Ronnie tagged teamed the lesson. (I wish I had gotten a picture, it was so cute, and so neat seeing our oldest 2 teach the younger 2 lessons from the Bible). As Maddie and Eli were getting situated up front, Nathaniel was humming Jesus Loves Me. (This is funny because our pianist, Ms. Peg, at Farmer, plays this as the children leave for Jr. Church).

I wish I had recorded the lesson, but again it went something like this. Ronnie showed a box of blocks and said, "see how one side is neat and one is messy? This is like Noah, the neat side and the messy side is like Jonah".

Then he proceeded to do the same with 2 balls (one nice and one beat up), 2 hats (one fit, one didn't), 2 books (one played music, one didn't), 2 cars (one ran nicely, one didn't). Wow, all that and only in the time it took to make my bed and dress Maddie.

After a couple more songs, it was prayer time. Pastor Ronnie asked if there were any joys.

Let me share with you the joys and concerns:

Joys

Nathaniel - got to see Grandma Neff yesterday
Eli - I have lots of toys
Ronnie - I ate chicken nuggets yesterday
N - ate cookies yesterday
Maddie - Lots of grins
Eli - Mr. Josh and Mr. Bill did our windows (2 guys who have been at our house replacing our upstairs windows this week)

Concerns
N- people at Ney and Farmer who are sick (maybe that means them?)
R- Uncle Ryan
N- Uncle Billy's daddy (a prayer request from a couple of years ago that they boys often remember during our prayer times)
N- Grandpa Hornish
E - Ms. Aural (our neighbor lady who had fallen a few weeks ago)

Ronnie asked if I would pray because his list was long and he couldn't remember all of them. (By that time I had a notebook and was trying to take notes to remember this service).

After the prayer we had our offering. This was funny too, because they had all 3 filled their pockets with some change that was on their dresser upstairs. So everyone but me put some in. Ronnie of course pointed that out and told the boys to bring the offering plates back to me. OK, I scrounged around and found some. (there are probably some pastors out there that wouldn't mind Ronnie taking their offering!)

Then when they had collected it, we all sang the Doxology and then Ronnie lifted his hands up (like he's seen daddy do)

After the Offering, Ronnie began his sermon. It was a 2 part sermon. The first was on Noah and lasted a good 3 minutes as Ronnie told the story of Noah and the Ark. Then he called Nathaniel up and we sang, Holy, Holy, Holy. Then the second part was about Jonah and was about 5 minutes where he told the story of Jonah.

I think it would have ended with a song, but Maddie was ready for her nap and was tired of this church stuff. So our service kind of just ended.

I was impressed though. Ronnie and Nathaniel have been having their own church service since Pastor Steve was their Pastor, but it often amazes me how much they pick up.

The Lord has Blessed me with some Great Boys! I hope to have many more Church Services with them.