Sunday's at Church with Alex

Our Alexander Bander Bear was in rare form on Sunday when we went to church. Our Pastor, a wonderful Grandfatherly man, brought the children to the front for his "Children's Time." Now please understand, our church is tiny (not in physical size, but in membership). There are generally 30+ people in attendance and this week there were 5 children for Sunday School. In the winter we worship in our vestry to save the cost of heating our large, old New England, sanctuary.

Our Pastor was working to relate some of Paul's teachings from 1 Corinthians to the children and thus he told them about his two sons and how though very different from each other, they always were close and have remained good friends now that they are adults. As he began his story he said, "now some of you have brothers or sisters" to which Alex interrupted by declaring "I DO! He's right here (pointing enthusiastically) - JACK!" (polite chuckling from congregation)

"Yes, Jack is your brother, very good. Now my first son was very interested in bugs and fish -"

"Jack has a fish - his name is Batey (as in Beta fish)!" (more polite chuckling)

"Excellent. My son basically liked all sorts of small animals. Do any of you have pet mice?"

"We have mice in our house! Sometimes our kitties eat them." (slightly louder chuckling)

"Well yes, many older houses have mice. These were pet mice my son kept in a cage."

He was then able to get most of his story told - we learned how the animal loving son became a doctor and the other son, who liked to build things, is now a computer engineer. They still help each other out (resetting dislocated fingers/rebooting computers)- very nice story. In wrapping up he said that while they have always been close, that didn't mean they didn't fight sometimes.

Slightly in jest he asks "now, none of you fight with your brothers or sisters, right?"

"Oh No!" Alex shouts. "We fight, I punch Jack!" (laughter erupts from congregation).

Bless our Pastor - for countless reasons - but he kept a straight face and let that comment pass . . .

When the children were dismissed for Sunday School Jack came over to me and said "Mama, WHY did Alex have to say all that? I mean, I hit him too sometimes!" **sigh**

After the service numerous people came to me to say how cute Alex is, how funny he is, etc. I, of course, am thinking that from Alex's statements, one would think he goes around punching Jack all the time with no consequence - which is most certainly NOT the case! I explained that to a few folks, but one friend summed him up perfectly "Now that kid - he's a pistol."

God help us all.