Muffins with Mom – 3 Lessons learned in church

Nearly twenty women dressed in white filled the first two pews of the church sanctuary. I was among those women joining in the celebration of Women’s Day and awaiting our turn on the program. A friend seated on the end of the pew got up to read a poem. While she was at the podium her phone chimed….several times.

My friend seated next to me dug through a bag in an attempt to find the singing phone. No luck. A few moments later, the phone chimed again, and kept chiming until my friend finally retrieved it from an inner pocket in the bag. She pressed several buttons trying to find the power button. She was unsuccessful…that darn smart phone.

I was determined not to let that phone get the best of us. I grabbed the phone from my friend and began fiddling with it. How hard could it be, there were only so many buttons to choose from? I pressed and held the button I thought would shut the phone down. Instead the voice command came on…during a quiet moment.

The voice command spoke to me, “I didn’t hear what you said.”

People glared in my direction. I tossed the phone onto the cushioned pew and up looked toward the choir as though I didn’t know what was going on. The eight year-old girl seated behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “Was that your phone?” I assured her that it was not my phone, but belonged to the lady reading the poem.

In all my wisdom, I came up with a clever idea. I gave the phone to the child who was better with technology, and asked her to turn it off. She shut the phone down in a matter of seconds. My immediate thought was the phrase, and a child shall lead them.  I was grateful for the assistance from my young friend. And I owe her a bag of hot Cheetos as she reminded me.

There are three lessons I learned from this experience…

·         Not only do I have to put my phone on silence during church, but I need to make sure the person seated next to me does the same.

·         It’s okay to solicit help from someone younger than you. Everyone has value, talents and gifts.

·         Every experience is a learning experience.

What lessons have you learned recently?