Every Thursday afternoon, you can find me at a little dance studio. I'm there because my six-year-old daughter is a student at this particular studio. I like it because it's small, clean, and has comfortable seating in the waiting room. I usually have a book open in my lap, and, despite the noise, I can get a little bit of reading done. I try to use my time wisely. So it's me, a few mothers, a couple of grandmothers, and a few young children waiting for the class to end. Two of the girls spend their time playing, screaming, and generally entertaining everyone else in the room. These same two girls like to play a game with me. This game is called "Every time the boy looks at us, let's run, scream, and hide from him!" It's a great game. The other day, while playing this game, I suppose they got really loud--loud enough for the dance teacher (the mother of one of the girls) to come out of her class to see what was going on. Then the conversation went like this.
Mom: What are you doing?
Girl: We're hiding from that boy!
Mom: (looks around the room) What boy?
Girl: (points at me) That boy!
Mom: He's not a boy. He's a man. And you better behave because he's a preacher.
Girl: But I don't like that preacher!
Now at this point the mom is mortified. Smiling through it all, I said, "It's ok. She's not the only one." Now others enter the into the discussion.
Grandmother #1: Well, at least she's straightforward with you unlike others would be.
Grandmother #2: I didn't know you were a preacher! You can't please everybody. I get so tired of hearing people complain about the pastor over the stupidest things. (she gives a few examples of the stupid things people complain about) Who cares?!
One example she gave was this. Some people who sit in front of her at church used to complain about a previous pastor because he would talk about his wife (in a good way) during the sermon. Her response, "They ought to be glad he talks about his wife and not somebody else's wife!"
