A bad day at church

This is the car we drove around in when we were in Canberra.
I can tell you we had a few "issues" in such close personal
contact there. One big reason that we drive a large van
(old 8-seater Tarago) in Queensland is to help with "issues".

We had a bad start to church yesterday morning. Thankfully we were at our home church. Two of our boys set down criteria about who and where they'd sit or not sit. One of them's been doing it for months, and that has been workable, but when his brother hit back with his own requirement it became undoable. And no one would back down. They wouldn't stop whinging about it and snipping across our row, either.  

So after 15 minutes of this (thankfully we were 15 minutes early), I took one outside to have it out with me. I told him he had not allowed me to get my heart ready for worship. But he wouldn't back down. He just wanted to keep arguing. So I left him outside. He eventually came back in, but didn't sit with us until later in the service after his brother had left for kids church.

I tell you I was ever so close to shouting at the two of them in church. It was awful.

An elder's wife said to David afterwards, "It's nice to see your boys have issues sometimes too." He was quick to reassure her that they often have "issues". Though usually these happen privately.

I always endeavour to be honest, but I guess people tend to think that the kids of people in public positions like ours are better than the average child. Not true! They are sinners, just like we are. And though we might hide it better than some, we all have issues!

On this same line of thinking, I found some interesting thoughts here about being open and honest with our supporters. Here's a quote:

I think it’s time we disassembled our defensive fronts of perfection. I think it’s time we opened up about our struggles. I think it’s time we let our senders know that we, too, are working out our Faith.

It’s time we allowed ourselves to be vulnerable. It’s time we gave ourselves permission to mess up. It’s time we quit trying to have all the answers.

Of course as soon as we go down this route we risk being misunderstood, criticised or hurt. But somehow, somewhere, with some supporters, we need to take that step of being real.