Beaming with Pride

On Sunday we had Landon dedicated at church. Despite our better judgement, we decided to take Sloan and Tia out of their classes and bring them up on stage with us and make it a family affair. It started out well. The pastor was giving wisdom on the importance of raising children in a home that honors and serves God. He spoke on mine and Lee’s job as shepherds of our children and the church’s role to come alongside the parents and support them. Shortly after our pastor began speaking, however, I got sidetracked. How, you ask?

Well, first, Tia reached over and slugged Sloan in the chest. Not to be outdone, Sloan punched her back. Lee’s grasp on both of their hands tightened and his gaze upon the pastor grew much more intense. I tossed them the evil mom eye but it was quickly spiraling out of control. At our church, when babies are dedicated, they put up a picture of the baby on the monitors. When Landon’s picture came up, Sloan started pointing and saying “Hey Tia, look! It’s Bubba’s picture. It’s Landon, look Tia!” At this point the first two rows are smirking and chuckling politely. Then the Pastor asks us to join him in prayer. This was the icing on the cake.

As he began praying, Sloan dropped to his knees and bowed forward, hiding his face in his hands. Tia thought this was hilarious and did the same. Then they both peeked at each other and snickered. I’d like to say that we are so full of piety in the Stuart home that we normally pray face down, but that is not the case. There was no real good excuse for this. By this point, the first few rows are visibly laughing, their shoulders bouncing up and down as they try to control themselves. Lee and I are also trying hard not to laugh because what else are you going to do when your kids are bowed down prostrate in front of the whole church?

As soon as the pastor finished his prayer, none of which I really heard unfortunately, Lee reached down and quickly pulled the kids up. We said thank you to our pastor and made as hasty a retreat as we could out the side door. As we passed those sitting in the front they were all laughing and shaking their heads. Needless to say it wasn’t one of our finest moments as a family…

Here we are at the beginning when things were still going relatively well. But, as you can see, Tia is about to get the ball of shame rolling.
This is Sloan loudly pointing out Landon’s picture and laughing like it was hilarious. Note the other family up there who were also dedicating their youngest. See the kids standing quietly and sweetly?This picture is a little blurred but you can see Lee pulling Sloan up off the floor. Notice the kids in the other family once again, still standing next to their parents so well behaved…