Spirited Child

One of the many good things about maternity leave is that I've been able to go to church. When I work Sat. nights, I just can't stay awake to go to the service at 11am. I'm just too exhausted and I figure God understands. But I do miss it. Last Sunday, a family had their baby baptized and their almost 3 year old son was running all over the sanctuary and the poor mother was stressed trying to keep him under control since Dad was holding the baby, trying to keep him from knocking over the candles on the altar, etc. It was quite distracting as the Pastor went through the Baptismal Covenant. He had a pencil and one of the envelopes meant for the offering with him. He would lay on the floor, in front of the congregation, color a bit, then get up and run to the other end, run by the altar, jump up and down to make noise, try to get his dad to pick him up even though daddy was holding the baby, and he just was nuts. The poor mom, she picked him up a couple times to try and control him, he resisted, fought her the whole time but she managed to stay focused on the son being baptized. Finally, she gave up, let her elder son lay on the floor and color while they finished the baptism. Every mother in the congregation was silently glad that it wasn't their child that was acting up. Seriously, how could that mother let the kids get away with that? Why didn't she have more control? How embarrassing!! Oh, wait, that mother was me and the child was my own sweet "spirited Isaiah that was running amok while Caleb was being baptised!!