February 10, 2008

Sundays are supposed to be about church and family. I hate it when there is something else planned on a Sunday. I mean I like it when we plan to go do things as a family. But, when it’s something like a girl scout function or something like that it just irritates me.

Today we lazed around mostly until it was time for church. We went to church. I was amazed that we got through hymns very quickly, a lot sooner than usual. But, then the preacher went on and on and on and on. Ok, I think I’ve mentioned before that I grew up Lutheran. I am still Lutheran and I will be until the day I die. Lutheran services are very interactive. There’s a lot standing up and sitting, but you’re involved in the service. The actual sermon is usually only about 15 minutes long. I love Lutheran services.

Michael’s church is a different species altogether. They believe in pounding something into your head forcefully for extended lengths of time. Ok, being in education I know all the research on how people learn and what a brain does during different learning activities. Why they don’t teach this to preachers is beyond me. A person’s attention span during a lecture (which is what a sermon is) lasts about 15 minutes, give or take a few minutes depending on the individual. Yes, there are some people who can sit and listen for hours and there are some who aren’t going to hear anything after a minute. We’re talking average here.

Therefore, when you decide to preach for 45 minutes on five verses from the Bible, of course you’re basically going to end up just repeating yourself. Yes, there are ways to say the same thing a million different times but it’s still the same thing. Ok, “Do as God wants you to do.” Yeah, I got it. I got it the first time you said it. I got it the second time you said it. After that, my brain has turned off and I’m thinking about what we’re going to eat for lunch. Because you see, their church also starts very late so it doesn’t get over until after noon. Which is something that I don’t like either, but that’s a minor thing?

In short, I am not a person who responds well to a preacher who raises his voice in order to get a point across. I do not respond well to someone who feels that he can get almost an hour worth of sermon out of five verses of text. I do not respond well to having to sit and listen to the same message drilled at me over and over again in an extended length of time. Ok, so yes, I’m also a bit on the grouchy side this weekend.

This afternoon, Michaela and I went to World Thinking Day for girl scouts. I’m not going to write about that here. I’ll put that on her blog. http://sweetpeamichaela.blogspot.com/

Tonight we had pork chops, cheesy potatoes, corn, apple slices and the kids had mac ‘n cheese because they don’t like the potatoes. Michael did the pork chops on the grill and they were yummy.

I did laundry most of the night. Michael and I watched Survivor after the kids went to bed. Now it’s bedtime for me.