Church today started out like most do–slide in just before it starts, feel blood pressure rising as kids wiggle in and out of the pews…Half-way through the first hour (um, yeah, we go to church for three hours every week, but I do get to dump off take my kids to their classes after the first hour) where was I? Oh, yeah. Half-way through the first hour, Sean started to not feel well. As time went on, he became more concerned that staying at church for the remaining two hours could have, um, negative consequences, so we decided to go home after the hour ended.
As we were leaving, one of the Primary leaders stopped us and commented on the fact that they were going to sing to N~ this week since it is going to be his birthday. Oooops, we forgot about that. So we decided to stay long enough for the singing. The kids went to sit with their classes, and Sean and I stayed in the back of the room so we could grab them when the opening exercises were over.
At one point during the opening exercises, the primary leaders announced the names of kids that their “reverence watcher” had noticed being particularly reverent. As they went down the little list, one of the names they said was W’s. Sean and I just looked at each other and grinned.
Nope, not because of our joy and pride at our well-behaved little boy.
You see, the “reverence watcher” (thankfully!) missed something. Shortly before the list was read, my three-year-old little angel turned around, smiled at his daddy and me, and…flipped us the bird.
The one-fingered salute.
My little boy flipped me off.
OK, in his (and my!!!) defense, he didn’t know what he was doing. We don’t use gestures of that nature in our house (and I only occasionally tell Sean that he is inspiring a real desire for me to), and I don’t think that he would have seen it anywhere else yet. He was just being a kid and messing around with his hands. He just happened to hit it spot-on. With a devilish grin on his face. It would have been easy for someone else to think that, just maybe, it was intentional.
But, thankfully, Ms. Reverence Watcher didn’t notice. Because I don’t think that crude gestures count as being particularly reverent.
Mixed Nuts 