I Love Church

Tank doesn't love church so much.  Getting him ready for church is sometimes fine, but more often horrid, and I've almost completely given up on being on time.

But he doesn't mind church once he's at his "eating class," as he calls it.  That's 2 hours in.  He said "the rope takes me to my eating class."  They hold on to a rope when they walk to class, and then there's snack time, which is understandably Tank's favorite part of church. 

And Eating Class brings wonderful nuggets that make the entire church experience worth it for me, and help me remember that all the kicking and screaming was but for a small moment. 

Nuggets like Tank showing me his "Prayer Book" (an excuse to color and attempt to stay on topic) and telling me that he's faithful for grapes.  Who isn't faithful for grapes, I ask you!

And today's lesson on Forgiveness.  His teacher told them about Joseph and how his brothers threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery, and that later Joseph forgave them.  So when I went to pick Tank up, he showed me the pits he colored on his paper.  And then his teacher relayed to me this conversation. 

Teacher:  Has anyone done something to you and you needed to forgive them?  Something naughty or mean?
Tank:  Yeah.  Someone yelled at me.
           It was my mom.
           It was today.

Totally a true story.  After losing my cool, yelling at him, spanking his bum, and nearly throwing him in the car, I declared to Rob that I was done.  "I'm NOT doing this BY MYSELF AGAIN!"  Rob said, "Okay," and sent me in to sit down while he took care of a screaming Tank.  Yes, he was still screaming.  And, of course, I was SO in the mood to worship.

Ugh!  Why do we do this?

During sacrament meeting I held Tank on my lap and repeatedly asked for his forgiveness.  He gave it to me, because he's nice like that.

And now church is over, and I got a lot out of it, and so did my children, and Rob told me about a great family who needs a ride to church next week and maybe for many weeks, ...  And I can close my eyes, take a deep breath, and resolve to do it better next week.  Because there's always next week.