Day 3 and How Churches and Restaurants are Similar

Day 3! The assignment is a photo of the cast of your favorite TV show. Ten points if you guess which show this is (certain BR friends are exempted from this contest)...anyway,  no I don't have HBO, but I do have Netflix and I wait very patiently for each season to come out, switch to the 3-at-a-time plan for one month and watch the entire season in a week. It's how I roll, cheap-girl style. Paul knows that when he deploys, I will have HBO. That's what separation pay is for, right? HBO and DSW, my two favorite three-letter acronyms. =) Haha.

As for the other stuff, a confession: I never did find a church I liked in this area. And this is where my weird comparison comes in. To find a decent non-chain, non-greasy-diner place to eat you have to go to Alexandria or Fredericksburg, with very few exceptions (none of which I've personally discovered). The same is true of Protestant churches...minus the chain thing. So we didn't go. *cringe* Please don't judge!

Until just last night, Paul and I were talking and he said we needed to find a church so that Carly can get some kind of direction, beyond what we give her at home. I had a minor panic attack, knowing that the closest Presbyterian church I thought would be a good fit for us is 30 miles away. He suggested St. Francis and I had another minor panic attack because that is Catholic and I am not, but we went anyway and it was packed.

This is another way that churches and restaurants are similar: packed is GOOD. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, who wants to eat at a place with no wait on a Saturday night? So, the fact that we were having some standing-room-only issues when we first arrived was a positive sign. Then one of Carly's teachers was leading the kids out for the children's liturgy and Carly got to carry the banner, which pretty much made our girl's day.

So then the friar came up and gave a great homily about, well what else, about how the Church (I think you're supposed to Capitalize It when you're speaking Catholic) gives us lots of points of reference when we are...wait for it...giving our children direction. And how saints and other people of great faith and courage, like Martin Luther King, Jr. offer us tremendous opportunities to say, "look there, and there, and there" for how to live and be like Christ. Paul and I, no kidding, were just sitting there with our jaws dropped. I don't know why we are all, "whoa" because this is not the first time it's happened that we were talking about something and then got a sermon or a message or a homily or whatever about it the very next stinking day.

At least it was clear. I'm laughing because it probably HAD to be really clear. We neither one of us are what you might call the most compliant people, so we do need bullhorns. =)

Or monks in brown robes, whatever.