No More Church?

We were driving to school one morning and I was telling Cameron about our week. When I got to Sunday and how we were going to be having our family over after church, Cameron stated that he doesn't like church and he doesn't want to go anymore.

By nature, I am a very reactive person and I struggle daily to control my (over)reactions to things that happen. So when I heard this, my initial thought was to be upset and tell him not to say stuff like that and that he would go to church whether he liked it or not, but then I felt a Bill Cosby moment coming on....

I took a deep breath

and asked him if he remembered GG's husband (great-grandma),

Cam's great-grandpa Pulham.

I reminded him about how grandpa died two days before Brenden was born and how Grandpa probably got to hold Brenden baby's spirit before he came to us.

I told him a few things that I remembered about Grandpa Pulham

that I loved and that I missed.

Then I told him about my Uncle Larry, my dad's twin brother

and how he died from cancer 10 yrs ago or so and how he and my dad laughed the same and talked the same and how he was a photographer and would take us fishing...

...and my grandma and grandpa Green.

who died long before he was born...

...and Uncle Rick, Daddo's brother
who died a year after we were married

...and Daddo's Dad, Grandpa Moschetti
who died a month after we were married

...and I even mentioned my cute little white poodle (Snow White Dawn Green)

I had when I was a little girl who died when I was 16.

Cam was intently listening and participating in the discussion and so I kept talking and mentioned how excited I was to see all of them again and to be with them forever because families CAN be together forever but only if we do what HF and Jesus have asked us to do. And one of the things that we are asked to do is to go to church. And if we follow the commandments and do what we are supposed to do, then we can see all of them again and we can be together and have family parties and be so happy. (I thought about that RF lesson on the Atonement and how the power of the Atonement can enable us to bridge the gap between His will and the natural man in us, but I decided to save that for another time).

He didn't say much, but I could tell he was thinking about it.

And he didn't mention not going to church again.

Well, until Sunday came and still fought me about wanting to stay home,

but not as hard as he had before.

We'll probably have to talk about it again another time,

but at least it went well for now.

And I don't know if that's how Bill Cosby would have done it,

but at least there was no yelling or over-reacting.