I love their smiles! They’re excited!! We’re all singing in the car, listening to worship music on “Enter His Gates” on KSBJ, the radio station where I work. I love this!! 

But when we got to church, the whining started. “I don’t WANNA go to “Chispa”, the Spanish Sunday School class,” said Christopher, my 8 year old. Little sister was ok, but then gradually started siding with big brother. 

They were starting to get on my nerves and I didn’t want to lose my temper in church. But I was about to.

So, I sat the kids down and had A TALK.

I told them, especially Christopher, that when I was his age, about 8 years old, I hated church. 

I hated church. There. I wrote it. 

We did not have “fun.” We had to sit in church with the grown-ups. We listened to grown-up serious sermons. 

I tried to explain to Christopher that the reason why I didn’t appreciate his attitude was because we had just been having a blast in the car. We just had a yummy chocolate croissant & chocolate milk Sunday breakfast treat. He was going to have fun with friends.

I encouraged him to think about that. Pretty please. And then we marched off (begrudgingly) to “Chispa.”

I knew that I just had to survive that difficult parenting moment and then everything would be okay.

Once the kids got signed in & walked into their classes, they were greeted by all their friends and the fun continued.

And I didn’t really lose my temper.

It’s a work in progress. I’m not a perfect parent by any stretch of the imagination. But little moments like these make me thankful.

I’m thankful that I get to be a Mom. I’m thankful that we have a church that makes the experience SUPER fun for the kids. And I’m thankful for awesome kids that, whining aside, make my life awesome. And fun.