Blessings
This weekend has been full of blessings.
Saturday afternoon I presided over my first baptism and other than my nerves it couldn't have been better. I had the privilege of baptising a precious 3 year old boy. He looked absolutely in awe of the water as I sprinkled it on his head and when I let him dip his hands into it. He held my hand as we walked down the isle and presented him to everyone and I told him that these were the folks he'd call at 3am when he's 16 and too afraid to call his parents (thanks E-dogg!). It was a wonderful afternoon and I was blessed to be a part of it.
Yesterday at the town church we had a full house as we celebrated all of our graduates--college, high school, jr. high, and preschool. We also promoted our 2nd graders and gave them their 3rd grade Bibles. I don't know what is behind the tradition but every UMC I've been to gives out "3rd grade Bibles." I'd love to know, if you have a clue why 3rd grade is so special in the UMC.
Almost all of our folks who travel south for the winter are back. It's lovely to have them home.
I was especially blessed by someone who came up to me after church and said they loved that the church was hopping again. The service was pretty crazy--my microphone wasn't working for the first part of the service, during the children's sermon some folks moved things around for Communion that had been missed earlier, and then giving out Bibles to all of the graduates and 3rd graders was hectic, it was wonderful to hear this person be glad that we were "hopping" because s/he could have easily have been disgruntled by all of the chaos.
Last night we did something we rarely do--the whole family drove to Maryville and had dinner at Paligia's (polly-eyes) which is a great pizza and spaghetti place. It was fun to be a family out having dinner together. Often it is just me and the girls (usually) at some fast food place, if Joel's home we might grab some sub sandwiches and bring them home, or on rare occasions Joel and I will have a date/dinner out night. It was simply a lovely day and evening. We even went grocery shopping together without much fuss!
I'm thankful for this "boring" life in a small town--who'd ever guess? Certainly not me! I'm so glad that God knows best!
Blessings for you this coming week!
Saturday afternoon I presided over my first baptism and other than my nerves it couldn't have been better. I had the privilege of baptising a precious 3 year old boy. He looked absolutely in awe of the water as I sprinkled it on his head and when I let him dip his hands into it. He held my hand as we walked down the isle and presented him to everyone and I told him that these were the folks he'd call at 3am when he's 16 and too afraid to call his parents (thanks E-dogg!). It was a wonderful afternoon and I was blessed to be a part of it.
Yesterday at the town church we had a full house as we celebrated all of our graduates--college, high school, jr. high, and preschool. We also promoted our 2nd graders and gave them their 3rd grade Bibles. I don't know what is behind the tradition but every UMC I've been to gives out "3rd grade Bibles." I'd love to know, if you have a clue why 3rd grade is so special in the UMC.
Almost all of our folks who travel south for the winter are back. It's lovely to have them home.
I was especially blessed by someone who came up to me after church and said they loved that the church was hopping again. The service was pretty crazy--my microphone wasn't working for the first part of the service, during the children's sermon some folks moved things around for Communion that had been missed earlier, and then giving out Bibles to all of the graduates and 3rd graders was hectic, it was wonderful to hear this person be glad that we were "hopping" because s/he could have easily have been disgruntled by all of the chaos.
Last night we did something we rarely do--the whole family drove to Maryville and had dinner at Paligia's (polly-eyes) which is a great pizza and spaghetti place. It was fun to be a family out having dinner together. Often it is just me and the girls (usually) at some fast food place, if Joel's home we might grab some sub sandwiches and bring them home, or on rare occasions Joel and I will have a date/dinner out night. It was simply a lovely day and evening. We even went grocery shopping together without much fuss!
I'm thankful for this "boring" life in a small town--who'd ever guess? Certainly not me! I'm so glad that God knows best!
Blessings for you this coming week!
Comments
I am so glad everything went well...and the baptism sounds postively tender and full of awe. I love it.
we present bibles to our fourth graders every March. And story bibles to our kindergarten children in May. In March, we pass the bibles around a circle of their teachers, and they pray blessings over them and touch them, before we hand them to the children. We do the same with the K-bibles, except we have our oldest members do the blessing. It is pretty incredible.
and, YOU ROCK!!!