Faux Pas

 

            When Alex was about three years-old we were at church during the Christmas holiday and as is customary in many churches we all shake hands and offer the sign of the Lord’s Peace to those in our vicinity. Alex was a shy little thing so I would stand behind him and point him toward people to shake hands with. He was in the midst of shaking hands with a very pretty teenage girl when he sneezed all over their clasped hands. I was so mortified that I had no words but I did have the presence of mind to keep going but did not have the wits about me to realize that my kid’s hand was covered in spit and that other’s might not want to shake that little hand. Naturally I pressed his little contaminated hand into the hand of the girl right next to the original bearer of the sneeze. After she was good enough to shake his hand it occurred to me that I had made a serious faux pas. I did break out the hand sanitizer and passed it back, hopefully redeeming myself a little.

 

            Our church is very near our home and it happens to be on the way to the boys school. When we walk home from school if there is anything in the yard we pick it up. Usually this consists of sticks. I want my kids to do things to help others just because it is the right thing to do so when I have an opportunity to help, no matter how small, I take it and try to instill in them that it’s right. There are many trees in the church yard and we are usually lucky enough to get a handful or two of sticks and twigs to pick up and carry to our home and put in our burn pile with the sticks from our yard and our neighbor’s yard as well. We pick up in her yard too. One day Adam was not exceptionally thrilled to be picking up sticks and posed a question to me. ‘Why doesn’t God pick up His own yard?’ I told him that God had provided us with a yard and that I was thankful for that and that if I could help keep His yard free from sticks and trash that I was happy to do it, and that he, Adam, was going to be happy to do it as well. He shrugged and muttered something about all of the big things God can do that He could at least pick up his own yard. Such reasoning could make sense I guess but I don’t subscribe to it. We pick up the sticks.