Advent 2011: Hope

Ever have one of those days? You know the days when you feel like you should have just stayed in bed? One of those days when it seems that everything that could go wrong does? This Sunday was one of those days; I don't even know were to begin.

It started during the children's moment, I forgot Zechariah's name. In the middle of talking I went blank. I took New Testament survey, I am good with Bible facts, I had just read the story. I completely froze. Then when we went downstairs we discovered that tape wasn't strong enough to hold the "Advent Wreath." Most of the candles fallen down. When we went to use the teaching media the computer rejected the DVD files. There were three different media players and none of them would work. We ended up standing around my office computer, which was crowded but thankfully it happened in the first service because there would never be enough room for everyone in the second service to fit. Because of the technical delays I was still hot gluing crafts when parents were ready to go. That meant the Christmas musical practice started late and ended late. We also couldn't use the CD because the AMAZING! IT guy was finding a video solution for the second service.

The second service's children's moment went well. Then while heading downstairs it dawned on me, both youth that run the sound & computer in the second service had been in the first service. One of the youth helpers had on the spot training, which just added to the fun because the computer continued to be grumpy. I believe in AI...computers hate me. This is when all of Kidsworld paused to pray that things would work, for joy, and that Pastor Liz would have patience and not throw the computer out a window.

The next hiccup came at craft time. I had prepared two extras then our average Sunday kid attendance. There were more than I had planned on, which is a good thing, it just made for some interesting moments. We found extra plates, they were Styrofoam. Styrofoam and hot glue don't play nice with each other. I printed more sheets so everyone had a set. The youth helpers were keep busing cutting extra ribbons, handing out supplies, solving problems, and generally helping me not lose my mind. The most "intense" stress was we ran out of clothes pins. I took apart my sample for a set, I repair a few that had split apart for another set, but in the end we were still three sets short. The solution? I macgyvered bobby-pins to Popsicle sticks.

The theme at Kidsworld for this advent season is Joy. "Joy: finding how to be happy even when it is difficult. " And that is what made today hilarious to me, I became today's children's moment. I became a walking, breathing, living object lesson. No matter what happened the phrase came back to my head and I had to laugh. I had to choose Joy. Everything I said and did reminded me that I can have joy because I trust that God keeps his promises. Today we lit the first candle of Advent, the candle of Hope. Hope is having faith that God will keep his promises even when it is difficult. This morning, whenever something didn't go as I had expected I had to stop and remind myself of the truth I was teaching.Hope is choosing to trust that God will do what He promises.

P.S. I'm going to be writing Simple Woman Daybook posts on Monday during Advent. If you want to make the Advent wreath shown above you can find the instructions here. Now I'm off to write, write, write. Only four more days of NaNoWriMo and I have 32,906 words (17,094 to go).