1,101 Church Meetings -- Page 2
A Natural Greeter
We took the boot back very humbly and graciously, and then quickly returned it to its rightful owner,
and then kept an even closer eye at those unknown objects around us.
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| A typical picture of my parents, 5 of my 12 siblings - and my dad holding tight to Joshua at church so he wouldn't run away |
Attending Church was always an interesting experience for us and anyone who happened to be sitting near us. In fact, every Sunday was an experience. We could expect the usual occurrences to happen such as a crayon being thrown down the aisle, the notebook being thrown to the seat of the person in front of us, my open purse being tossed to the ground, my earring being thrown across the chapel and hymn books regularly given to anyone in sight. And then if no one would take a hymn book, then the hymn book was thrown to the next unsuspecting person (Evelyn Harris will remember this!). We were always ready for these “usual”occurrences. It was when the unusual object or unsuspecting person got involved that we had some “unique”experiences.
When Joshua was about 10 years old, as we sat
in the chapel things seemed to be going fairly well. I was trying to keep Joshua calm while trying
to listen to the speaker, when without warning a child’s cowboy boot went
flying high up into the air and then proceeded to land somewhere behind us. I remember thinking the innocent thought that
I was glad that was not my child’s
boot. I soon realized that it didn’t
matter that it was not my child’s boot, because everyone else thought it was my
child’s boot. Joshua had somehow found
it and thrown that boot clear up into the air!
A moment later, some fingers tapped my shoulder whispering that here was
our boot back!! Apparently, the child in
front of us had gotten his cowboy boot off, and Joshua (with his usual keen
eye) had spied it and couldn’t help but toss it gleefully high into the
air. We took the boot back very humbly
and graciously, and then quickly returned it to its rightful owner, and then
kept an even closer eye at those unknown objects around us.
I could quickly tell if someone didn’t quite understand Joshua’s situation by their reaction to his noisiness in church. This was a challenge as I learned to react in such a way as to help them understand. For example, one day as Joshua was his usually noisy and busy self in church, the lady in front of us handed him some hard candy lifesavers and told Joshua that he could have these candies if he would be quiet in church. I kindly explained the situation, and also needed to let her know that Joshua could not eat hard candies as he could easily choke on them. Any hard candy or gum was very dangerous to Joshua as he had no concept of their use, and would most likely have to tried to swallow them.
Another day I was sitting in the
overall flow area at the back of the chapel, and several rows in front of the
Bickmore family. At the time we had
three children and I was sitting alone with them. The Bickmore family also had three young
children and had the usual struggles a family has with young children at
Church. But the usual struggle with my
younger children combined with Joshua’s usual tendencies of trying to run and
get away, throwing things, hitting, aggressions and making noise, caused the
father, Jack Bickmore, to whisper to me to send Joshua back to him. I was hesitant of course, because they
already had their own young children to deal with, but he was sincere and I
certainly did need the help, so I held Joshua’s hand as he walked back to sit
with the Bickmore family. As I then sat
with my other two children, enjoying the peace for a moment, suddenly a child raced
quickly past me, heading straight to the front of the chapel. It took just a few seconds to realize that
this child was Joshua! I looked quickly
back at Jack, as Joshua continued his run down the aisle, and whispered “you
get him!” And Jack did. We had to laugh afterward because this was
one example of other people getting use to just how quickly Joshua could get
away and run and run and run....
My friend Amanda told me one day
that she liked to sit near us at church because then her twin toddler girls were
much quieter, as they loved to watch Joshua in his big yellow helmet, as he stood
up and down, shaking hands with those around him and saying a loud "hi" right in the middle of the
meeting and generally staying very active and busy throughout the meeting. Amanda’s words made my day that my noisy son
could help twin toddler girls to stay quiet. An unforeseen blessing for sure!
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