Yesterday, we went to the pottery place to make our annual Christmas plate. We were running late so we had to find another church since we weren’t going to make it to our parish before Mass started. We went to a parish that I can only say seems to have given up hope. At least, that is how I felt. Honestly, I felt like I needed to go to Mass again today. The pews were empty, people were having loud conversations in Mass, the kids sensed that nobody was taking Mass seriously and acted up. The lady behind us was playing with the boys and laughing out loud, (in a sweet way). It just didn’t feel holy. After we left and I was getting ready to complain, my dear husband stopped me and said, “before you start, I want to point out that we could have had a jerk behind us who didn’t like kids like we had on the airplane.” He then suggested that we come home and read the Mass readings together and talk about them (he was in the bathroom with the boys for the five minute sermon). He pointed out that we are too quick to be cynical about things and that we needed to see the positive more often and that someone loving our kids, especially during Mass was a positive. He is right, although I wouldn’t say we are cynical, just extremely sarcastic, which at times is very dangerous.

Today, I was reading the bulletin from this church, and they have an Advent calendar with beautiful suggestions for each day, plus a morning and evening offering. I was getting ready to make my own daily ideas for the family, but now I don’t have to do that thanks to this parish! Lance is right about looking for the positives rather than the negatives.