sit DOWN

by Pastor Mel Wilkinson
(Auburndale, FL, USA)

We were stationed at San Vito Air force base in Italy. One day we were attending the services in the military chapel. My daughter was 3 years old at the time, and already we had noticed, in her short span of life, that she was one who would speak her mind in any situation, sometimes rather loudly. Nevertheless, the verbal outburst for this particular day came very unexpectedly.

As the service began, I sat her down on the pew, gave her a piece of paper and pen to draw, using the hymn book underneath.

I was standing in my place singing along with the congregational hymn. At the end of the song, the worship leader turned from the pulpit and returned to stand with the other worship leaders on stage but had failed to give the congregation any instruction. He had forgotten to direct us to either "please remain standing" or "please be seated".

It was an awkward moment in the room. Some people sat down in their pew, others remained standing, unsure of what to do. We were all looking around the room trying to determine the best action.

Meanwhile, my daughter, looked up from her drawing to observe what was happening. She immediately picked up on the confusion in the room and with no hesitation shouted, "SIT DOWN"!

With that, all the congregation who had remained standing, SAT DOWN!

Immediately, you could hear a hushed giggle from everyone in the room when we all realized, on this particular day, all the colonels, majors, lieutenants, sergeants, and their dependent family members had followed the instructions of a cute, little 3-year old!