Yesterday, in the late afternoon, Brady and I got a group text from Carrie saying the worship leader for Sunday was down for the count. Could we step in? I called my mom right away. I knew full well that she had company the next day, but wondered if we could borrow her help for an hour during sound check and a short morning practice. She agreed on the spot, and I responded to Carrie that we could do it!
We had done music last week for Christmas Eve, but through some funny circumstances, had to leave two songs by the wayside. So we decided to do those, plus another Christmas song or two, and then a couple of old standbys that we hadn’t done in a while. The set came together easily over the phone with Carrie, and the church staffed helped us by getting the songs onto the computer and set up. It all came together!
Except that we had no one nailed down to watch the kids at church. We knew people would come help, but it just goes against my grain to assume that, you know? But I knew we were needed, and we were so happy to go and lead our church in song! So we did it, and sure enough, our people showed up.
A woman from church actually came and offered her help before the service had even started. She took Waverly and sat on the bench with the kids. For the first time in the history of leading worship, I kid you not, when we went up, Solly didn’t cry! He’s our wildcard, and is usually the most hands on, and he wasn’t! They ALL sat and stood and sang and played a little. But they were SO GOOD! No one cried or fussed or got too out of hand. Wavy just sat in those loving arms and didn’t make a peep. It. Was. Awesome.
We actually had to be up at the front of the church four different times, and our loving helper stayed with us the entire service. A couple of other people came by and said they would jump in if need be, which warmed my heart. And I was SO happy to see that no extra help was needed! YES! Thank you, kids!
Not only did the music go smoothly, but the kids sat through the service SO WELL! I had heard our pastor mention that it wasn’t going to be a super long sermon, and by the time the kids asked for coloring, I could safely assume we were halfway through. I was sitting beside Dekker, and I heard him muttering the scripture references after our pastor said them, and that alone made my heart soar!! Did Dekker listen to the sermon to its full capacity? Probably not. But he was listening!!! It made me excited for whats to come 🙂
Today’s Sunday morning was probably our smoothest yet. While I don’t love walking in expecting that someone will watch my kids, and won’t make a practice of it, I’m also learning to loosen the reins a little and just let people love us! When we came back to the bench between sets of music, I let our helpful friend keep holding Wavy. When we were packing up our stuff, I didn’t try to relieve anyone who was with our kids. So often the world sees kids as inconvenient, and I need to remember that people who offer to help with my kids clearly don’t feel that way! They’re not holding my baby, aching to pass her off as soon as possible. Just because we can do a lot of these things by ourselves, its so much easier when we let others help us.
You know how good it feels to help someone? How God rewards those who show His love? Its good to need help so those people can feel those things and reap those rewards! I so often forget the blessings poured on those who help others.
So thanks to our friends, our church, and God Himself, this morning was just wonderful! Praise the Lord for a super smooth Sunday morning!!!