Called to Serve

A few weeks ago, I was asked at church to clean the chapel as a family on either Saturday, April 19th or April 26th. I quickly in my head thought of my work schedule and realized that I worked the 19th and was on call the 26th which is as good as working. Ah, I had an out. I told her I would love to but I worked and Mike wouldn't be able to do it by himself and the kids. The woman replied that it could be cleaned on Friday the night before. She also said she lets the families with little kids clean the chapel because the doors can be closed in order to barricade the kids in. Darn it. I chose the 26th already picturing my children running around the chapel screaming and only lasting 15 minutes tops and then making their way throughout the rest of the church. It was going to be a nightmare. I thought that maybe we could find a babysitter, but it is always hard to find one.

Well, last night we rounded up the kids' toy vacuums and headed off to clean. I can't believe how smoothly everything went. Landen and Gage pretended to vacuum and then found glass cleaner and proceeded to clean everything not made of glass. I just hope the piano works okay tomorrow in sacrament meeting. About halfway through, Gage ran over to me and said, "Mommy, I can't believe we are cleaning the church. I am having the best time ever!" Are you kidding me? The best time ever? We have taken our kids to Disneyworld, Disneyland, Sea World, Hawaii, Six Flags, etc and cleaning the church is the funnest time they have ever had? I could have saved myself a lot of money if I would have known that. What a lesson Gage taught me. You don't have to spend a lot (or any) money to have fun. Simply spending time with the family and serving our Heavenly Father can be enough.

Mike said he thought we should volunteer to clean the church every few months because of the great lesson it taught our kids. I wouldn't go that far, but he is on the right track.