Showtime!

Our dog, Max, comes from a family of show and field champions. We're not dog show people, but we did want a sweet whippet pet. Max's physical characteristics aren't standard for the breed or show quality. He's more like the awkward, lanky misfit of the bunch.

Years ago, the question of his potential to excel in field events was raised, so we took him to a few local practices and a more formal event. The requirements are a little looser for those events than for the dog shows.

The field event was a disaster. We didn't know how to handle him properly, and he was just so excited to be around all of the other dogs. Randy and I wanted to be swallowed up into that field when he ran his event. We laughed about how disappointing it must be to have such high expectations for your child, then for them to fall short.

~

Today the children at Bible study sang a few songs for the moms.

I sat on the front row with my various recording devices.

All went well until about halfway through when Ethan stepped out from his spot mid-song and started saying, "Mommy, I have to pee pee." He stepped further away and approached me, repeating that sentence over and over. Of course, Ellie came over to help.

Songs are over. Ellie's crying. Ethan's whining about pee pee. I had to walk them both back to the group to rejoin their class.

The topic: Living for an Audience of One (Daniel 6)