Almost a week has passed since the following happened. I can now look at the "incident" with some humor and am ready to share it with you, our kind readers. This story is filled with parental mistakes - see how many you can find!

Last Sunday, Father's Day, Luke asked to go in to church with James. Our services are at 5 pm so this meant going in around 2.30 or 3.oo while James did some last minute work on the service and his sermon. His Father's Day sermon. We agreed to let Luke go as long as he took some things to do. He was happy to oblige and filled his backpack with various books and craft material. For the most part Luke was able to entertain himself for the 2.5 hours before the service began. He did not, however, get an early dinner which I have come to learn is very necessary with the timing of our service being what it is.

When I got to church Luke made his usual request, "Can I go to the service with you?" We have been allowing Luke to sit with us, rather than go to his class, the last few weeks. The deal is that he has to sit still (as much as can be expected) and work on his math or letters or something. He has done pretty well with this with James or me or a friend's dad sitting with him. On this particular Sunday James was preaching and Timothy was not going to allow me to part from him which meant I was going to be in the "cry room" at the back of the church. His friend's father was not around either so Luke would have to sit alone. He "promised" that he would be fine once James left his side to go to the pulpit. That he would sit and draw. And I, well, I believed him. And this kid, lemmetellya, is sooo convincing.

So, Timothy and I are off to the cry room after depositing Wil in his class and having one last conversation with Luke about what was expected of him. I could not see Luke from the cry room so I was oblivious to what was taking place during the service. During James's sermon. This Father's Day message. When the service was over and I wandered into the worship center a small crowd formed around me all with the purpose of telling me how out of control me eldest child was during the service.

You should know that James was preaching on Psalm 112. He was talking about our reverence of God. He was talking about how God delights in us, his children. He was likening this to children having a healthy fear of their own father. He shared his own delight in his kids - how much more so does the Lord delight in us? Somewhere in the midst of this Luke got bored. Boy did he get bored. The crayons and paper no longer held his attention. The adults all around him did not deter him. He was going to entertain himself and taunt the adults behind him whose hands were tied. What could they do in the middle of a worship service after all? Luke began crawling feverishly back and forth along the empty pew James left him on. Peaking over at our friend 'D' as if to dare her to get him. Then he would crawl to the other end holding up his shoe or a bible, dangling it in front of another innocent adult like a carrot. At some point our friend 'D' and our friend 'J' managed to get Luke to their pew, seat him in between them and get him occupied. They thought they had him hooked with a pad of paper and a pen. Then, in a flash, before either of them could respond, Luke scaled the pew. That's right, scaled the pew! (Please keep in mind that they are in the very front of the church) About this time James feels he has no choice but to speak to Luke from the pulpit, in the middle of his sermon. He attempts to be playful by saying to Luke, "Luke do you need me to put the fear of God in you? Can you sit still please?" He says yes and moments later one of James's friends had mercy on us and took Luke to the playground for the rest of the service.

The rest of the evening was so hard for Mr. Luke. He cried all the way home because he was told that he lost his privilege of sitting in the adult service. And when I say cried I mean wailed and groaned and gnashed his teeth. And the real torture for Luke was that his brothers, who were both so perplexed and amused by this behavior, mimicked him the entire ride home. Actually I think I was the one most tortured!

So there you have it. The pastor's kid, at five, already developing his reputation of being rebellious.

But he is sorry. He is very very sorry. He said he will "never jump over pews during a church service when dad is preaching again, especially on Father's Day."