figliving.com Sharing the Fruit of a Christ Centered Life!

The Soap Bubble Incident

Endless possibilities!

In case you don’t know, the Hughes’ are “that family” in church. You know, the ones you try to avoid sitting near because it guarantees you’ll miss 90% of the message that day.  We have literally came into church, sat down, and had the people sitting in front of us get up and move to the other side of the chapel….no joke.

In our defense we do have four kids and one on the way, plus my mother-in-law brings three other grandchildren.  So we are outnumbered by little kids 7 to 3.  At that point you have to switch from man-to-man to zone, and you’re pretty much give up on complete silence and go into damage control mode during the entire service to try to prevent a total melt-down.  I personally love it and wouldn’t have it any other way, but in an attempt to improve our behavior at church we try to practice being reverent in our weekly Family Home Evenings.

One particular evening, Chrissy and I were trying especially hard to teach this principle, so we patiently spoke with the children at length about the importance of sitting still and being quiet.  We had chairs lined up for them in the living room and asked them to practice perfect behavior during our short lesson. 

Needless to say, it didn’t go well.  Right off the bat there was restlessness, laughing, and even kids falling out of chairs.   We tried to keep our cool, but we finally reached our breaking point after seeing that all of our efforts were having no effect.  One of us, I won’t say who, lost it and had everyone march into the kitchen where a liberal dose of dish liquid was promptly administered to the mouths of three children.

After weeping, wailing, and gnashing of some very clean teeth we all went back into the living room to resume the lesson.  I was in the center of the room and the kids were once again lined up in their chairs.  For emphasis, I was sure to re-iterate the importance of being reverent in a short stern lecture. Now they knew we meant business….they were sure to straighten up.  After concluding the lecture I asked if they were ready to start behaving.  I looked over at them to find that all three had blown spit bubbles about the size of their heads with their soapy saliva.

What can you do at that point?  There are only two options: you either explode with anger, or with laughter.  We all busted out in hysterical laughter and ended up having a great lesson.  Sometimes we need to remember that there’s more to the living the gospel than the way we look and act in church.

How about you?  Does this remind you of anything you've had happen in your home?

Until next time, God Bless!