Day 15: Serving

Day 15

Today started early. I was up at 5:45 a.m. to fit in my Bible time before Church. This morning was exceptionally early because I served on the worship team and had to get in early to help set up the stage. Our church is a setup/teardown church—meaning that every Sunday we create and remove a house of worship—so preparing for the service takes extra time. The folks who set up and tear down are some of the best and have done this for years, every single Sunday. As a church member, I know that I stand on the shoulders of giants who’ve maintained this church since its inception. God Bless them!

So, Bible time was good and unfortunately shorter than usual. I woke up my oldest son because he desires to come with me on these early mornings. What a blessing he is. His heart desires to help and to collaborate with others. As his father, I only pray that I can continually and consistently feed into that desire, setting it ablaze so that it spreads like wildfire in his future. It’s also hard, though—I’ll admit. He wants to help with everything (and so does his little brother), which makes it particularly stressful when I have a time crunch but also want to feed the helpful spirit in my sons. I’m imperfect—I’ll just say that. One thing I’ve been committed to, though, is admitting my failures early and often, especially when I’ve corrected them for the same thing.

When we got to church, he helped me set up a few things but immediately got involved in the setup of the Production booth with a gentleman who is almost always serving. He was so gracious to Sawyer and patient with his desire to help. He walked around with Sawyer the whole morning, showing him things to do. It was a big nudge for me to be so much more thoughtful of what my boys can help with. I got jealous! Sawyer didn’t really want to help me even though I did some of the same things! I willingly gave him that space, though. It’s what will define his manhood in the future: How am I different than Daddy? What do I do different? How do I disagree with him? So, jealous, yes, but absolutely supportive. I took every opportunity to invite him into my world, though, and I even reeled him in a couple times. The folks in the Production booth ended up inviting him to help with cameras during sound check and the bands run through. He loved that and was talking about it after church. I’m so thankful for our church and its Faithful members!

The rest of the day was a good nap and some purging of toys. We made waffle cones as a reward for our boys’ good attitudes while they got rid of some toys. It was a good day.

No progress on the job front, but what a blessing this day was!

God Bless!