Soapbox

So I’ve got these kids… on Saturday morning I was at church for a meeting. Since their father was going out of town for the day, he brought them to the church before he left.
    They each had a glass of juice and I gave them a bag of things I had packed to keep them amused for the morning. They looked at all the adults in the lounge, where they usually get to hang out, and decided to go upstairs to the sanctuary, to get away from us, I suppose.
     A few minutes later I noticed that they had gone and excused myself to go get them. I didn’t like the idea of them having a beanie baby war in front of the altar or playing cop and robber among the pews. When I walked in, they were sitting in separate pews near the front, heads bowed.
         "Hey guys, how about if you come back downstairs to play. This isn’t an appropriate place to run around."
         Kathleen looked up. "But Mom, we’re not running around. We’re just reading. Is that OK?"
         I didn’t remember packing any books. "Well, what are you reading?"
 She turned the book over and looked at the spine. "It says, um, ‘The Book of…Common..Prayer’. Can we stay?"
        " Well?" Stephen looked up and showed me the hymnal he was holding. I shrugged, told them to keep quiet and went back downstairs to the pastor, looking puzzled. When she asked where the children were, I said,
      "It’s the strangest thing! They’re quietly reading the prayer books. Can they stay up there for a while?"
       Everyone laughed. "Hey, let ’em stay. Maybe they’ll learn something!"
      I know that the Gameboy and the beanie babies came out eventually, but with such a good beginning, who was going to complain?