The Ups and Downs of Lord's Day at Home

Yesterday was interesting. We finished reading John Calvin's Sermons on Micah, and it's always fun to finish a big fat book like that. After our morning worship Cole, my 7 year old, came up to me and said, "When I don't understand something in the Bible, I pray for God to give me an example. And sometimes, I end up having an unexpected example. Like when we read about people being more stubborn than animals, and I prayed for an example, and then Daniel was fussing and crying and not listening. It was an unexepected example, and it helped me to understand." Hmm... I hope Cole prays for an example of global reformation or something cool like that! Hey, I tell you what -- let's all pray for an example of that.

I suppose the low point of the day was during evening worship. I was holding Daniel (who was not feeling very good) in one arm, and holding a book of Christopher Love sermons in the other hand, which I was reading aloud to the family. When I came across the phrase "Despise not Prophesying," Daniel spewed forth copious amounts of vomit upon my lap, and with coughing and gagging, did signal to me that more was forthcoming. My pregnant wife then launches into action to save her helpless husband who was holding a book in one hand, a sick boy in the other, and a pile of what appeared to the partially digested remnants of chocolate cake with... hmm... I'm guessing peanut butter icing... in his lap. My wife takes the book, and lays it on the table... in a puddle of milk... and gets a bowl into which Daniel released the remaining offending materials. Conner ran and got daddy new pants -- how many of you ever had to change pants DURING WORSHIP? My wife returned with a towel and a rag to help clean up the mess. While I'm changing my pants, I'm giving thanks for the trials that have come upon me, and repeatedly admonishing the entire family to "despise not prophesying!" Everything got cleaned up, and everybody calmed down, and then I continued to read from the milky wet book until I found a good place to stop until next time (this sermon happened to be one of the longer sermons in Love's arsenal).

To end on a good note, it was a beautiful day outside, and one of my favorite parts of the day was sitting on the porch with the kids going over the Catechism. You can't beat a good Presbyterian moment like that with a stick, I'll tell ya.