February 16 – “Chocolates and pea soup”

I’ll begin the chronicles of our February journey tomorrow.  For now, here’s a quick finish on our Ash Wednesday activities.  We only had 19 people at the services, but that was actually pretty common for crazy Seaside attendance patterns.  Last year we had 35.  The year before it was 15.  Now I do have to add that this year we did have some pretty bad fog to contend with.  Pea soup variety.  And everybody who knows me should know that I think pea soup is really nasty. 

I tried to encourage the men of the church to use it as a date night, since it happened to coincide with Valentine’s Day.  One lady literally screamed out something akin to, “Oh, no you’re not.  It’s not a date unless there are roses and chocolate involved.”  Sooooo … part of my preparation for the evening?  I went out and bought a dozen roses and a box of chocolates.   Had them on display and available for consumption and everything.  The lady who made the comment was there, but she informed me they had already done their Valentine date as a lunch.  Well, we had to leave yesterday for our Waco-ation, so guess what became of the flowers and chocolates?  One of the other beauties in my life had just the spot for them.  Cailyn was at church with us, so she took them home.  Now if she can just keep the candy away from her Mommy and Daddy …

Psalms 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.”

Father, thank you for those folks who braved the pea soup fog to worship you in the middle of the week on a Hallmark holiday.  Amen.