52 blessings--Sweet spirits

Well, here we go.

I'm going to tell you a story, that is a little irreverent, but it is really taking on a life of it's own, with people talking about it to us almost every day. 

In our church, we take the opportunity on the first Sunday of every month to have anyone that wants to, tell their testimony of Jesus Christ to the congregation.  The meeting is called "fast and testimony" meeting.  Last Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. 

I didn't think Tess was paying all that much attention to the testimonies that were being shared, but the spirit was very strong in the meeting, and some younger children were getting up and giving their testimonies.  At one point, right at the end of the meeting, she says, I want to share my testimony.  I say, ok, you can do it in FHE tonight.  She says, I want to do it here.  I say, oh. Ok. Have Meg take you up there.  She says, I'll see you later. 

So off they go, Meg and Tess to share Tess' testimony.  It started something like this (my thoughts in parenthesis):

I love my family, and I know my family loves me. (nice job, Tess!)  I think Jesus is very nice. (that is also a good thought) I have a favorite sister that reads me stories.  Her name is Lilly. (oooo, ouch) She is really nice to me. (where can this be leading) My dad is the best fixer upper in the world. He fixes lots of things. (liar, your dad is not a good fixer upper at all) My mom is the greatest mom in the world. (Oh my, that is so sweet, but so not true) My testimony is about loving people.  (ok, maybe we can get back to the right subject) We should love everyone because my brother....

At this point, I'm frantically signaling to Meg, who is on the stand to cut her off, because that morning we had been discussing super powers and if we had super powers what would they be.  Mine was to be a great mom and Terry's was to be a great fixer upper, and Lilly's was to read books, and ... see where this is going.  She was going right down the super powers list.  Time to stop!  Yikes!  Some of the other super powers would probably embarrassed other people that happen to be sitting in the congregation at that moment (i.e. Megan, and Zoey)!

I finally catch Megan's eye, but I have to say that the whole congregation was just laughing so hard, and our bench had tears in their eyes from laughter.  Oh my.  I leaned over to Terry and say, I think we have some guidance to do here about what a testimony is. 

But I have to say, that it gave everyone a little lift, to have this little girl extolling the virtues (real or supposed) of the people she loves, and who love her.  I think it gave pause to us, that we should do that more often, compliment those who touch us with their love.  Oh my. 

Big lessons can come in little packages.

Comments

[lelly]

this is so sweet! (and i didn't find it irreverent in the least (it just took me 8 tries to spell irreverent correctly!)

i love that you have all discussed what your superpowers would be!!

[tina]

too cute! what a brave little girl. gunnar is a coward when it comes to stuff like that. i don't even know if they make him pray or anything in primary. our primary is organized a little weird, so i don't really know what they do in there. good job, tess! a testimony takes a lot of work and this is a great start!