The Naughty Children

Today during Church we had gorgeous music. The Sunday before Christmas is one of my favorite Sunday's of the year. We get to listen to Christmas Music and feel the Spirit of Christmas, and remember the true reason for the season. I love every minute of it. This year I was accompanying the choir for two numbers. Randy joined in singing with the choir and that left my two sweet children to sit alone for two songs.

We talked about sitting quietly and reverently. We talked about how we act and what we should do. We talked about it a lot. I was sure I got it through their cute little skulls. And I think I had succeeded. The first song went off with out a glitch. I went and sat with them and they were sitting quietly and I beamed. They were so well behaved. I thought I could hear the angels singing and rejoicing with me. I felt like Mother of the Year. My five and seven year old were sitting so quietly, and they snuggled up to me and were so sweet, it was blissful.

And then it came time for song number two. I figured this song would go just as easily without a glitch and all would be well. I was wrong. Oh so very wrong. I sat on the piano bench only to have two adorable children join me. I looked at them told them to sit still and we started, what else do you do? And I believed they would sit there looking angelic, I mean they just wanted to be close to their dear Mommy right? And then I started to play, and Little Miss told me to scoot over, and Little Man said he was squished, umm sorry kids, I am in the middle, and my butt doesn't get any smaller. Little Miss wanted me to move, and I shushed her and kept playing. Then Little Man sat down on the floor. She quickly followed suit. And then the real fun began. (At home they often climb on me, and are trying to do it all while I play.) They grabbed my feet and tried to get them off of the pedals, and succeed at times, and tried to do the pedals themselves. They grabbed my hands, my bracelet, anything they could. They played the low bass keys, and the high treble keys. They undid their shoes Velcro growing louder by the second. The bumped and wiggled the grand piano and shook my music. They tried to get me to stop all together. I gave them the best discreet dirty looks I could. I told them to stop, and I even tried, but failed in my attempt to kick them to stop them. I wondered how the children who sat so wonderfully moments before could now be terrorizing me at this very moment. The choir sang almost a full page a capella thanks to my children. And Little Man took my shoes and stuck them at the far end of the piano where it was hard to find and reach.

When it was done, I gathered my shoes, I gathered my music, and I gathered my children and we sat as far to the side as we could on the stage. Little Miss sat on my lap, and I kept my arm around Little Man as the tears came. I can handle mistakes and screw ups when I play music. I am normally giggling all the way as I play when I make mistakes. And today would have been the same if it had just been me making the mistakes, not my children sabotaging the choir. As I sat there thinking of the drastic things I could do, crack their little heads together and knock some sense into them. That seemed just wrong. I could send Santa a letter telling him they were naughty. I could take away all of their Christmas presents. I could ground them, take away their toys.

I had all of these ideas and then our Bishop spoke. He spoke and I think it was just for me. To soften my heart, to open my eyes to see my children they way I normally do, and to see them the way our Savior sees my Precious Children. I am their Mother. They are my children. My children love me, and want to do everything I do. They are happy to follow me, to copy me, to spend all of their time with me. And today they wanted to be near me. And they were okay until they forgot where they were, because at home they do that and we play around. At Church however during a program is not the time to do such a thing. I am grateful for words to remind me how precious and sweet they are so quickly. For the Spirit to bring me back to a place to be able to see that. Grateful to be their Mother, and to have the blessing of having my two sweet children.

And tonight the children practiced being reverent. They sat quietly with their arms folded and learned what is appropriate behavior for Church. And amazingly everyone said it sounded great, and no one admitted to hearing the blunders provided by my beautiful children. And people didn't realize the drama my children were causing. They all thought they were being sweet and angelic, sitting with their Mother. They had them fooled.