Taking Pictures at Church

We went to SS and church this morning, like usual. The sanctuary was really FULL. We live in a town with THREE colleges, and all the students were back! I love it. It has looked so empty with them gone for Christmas break.

As the service started, I noticed the young couple sitting in front of me. They looked about Holly and Aaron's age...I didn't remember seeing them before. The guy had dark hair and the girl had the most beautiful blonde hair I have ever seen.

I'm just telling you what they looked like, you know...in case you see them out somewhere.

We shook their hands during the welcome part. I was hoping that they would introduce themselves or that by some cosmic feat something would happen to let me know they were visitors. I know, I know...I just should've asked them, but we've been at our church for a year, and people STILL ask us if we are visiting.

Seriously?

And, at our last church, we were there for 5 years and were VERY involved. We went to the early service one day, instead of our customary late service, and someone asked if it was our first time to visit there.

Just goes to show ya.

Whatever. I don't even know what that phrase is supposed to mean.

Anyway, I couldn't get this couple off my mind. I kept thinking to myself, "what would Carolyn do?"

Carolyn and Earl were the Directors of our Young Adult SS department when we were young married kids. Actually, Earl was the Director...and he also taught one of the men's classes. Carolyn said she was "just the sec-a-tary."

But everyone knew she was much more than that. She scoured the newspapers for the couples getting married and scoped out the new people in church. She had a network of friends and people at church and she some how found out when new couples moved to town...and she and Earl would make contact with them in some way. I "heard" that she even ran into a young couple at the Burger King in our town, and stalked them until the opportunity presented itself to invite them to church. She was really good at asking all the right questions, and making you feel comfortable while drawing out information at the same time.

So I began to think of a way to meet this young couple, and what I could say to them that would let me know if they were visitor or members. I didn't want to make them feel uncomfortable. I mean, especially if they are visiting. You want to make visitors feel welcome, without making them feel like an oddity.

And all this time, the preacher was preaching a really great sermon on Nehemiah and I was honestly trying to listen and keep up. But this couple was sitting right in front of me, and the girl's hair was mesmerizing. I mean, she could be a Disney princess, she could.

I was hoping the girl couldn't feel my eyes boring into the back of her head.

I kept wondering if Holly knew her, but Holly and Aaron had gone to early church and there was no way I could ask her.

Or COULD I?

During the invitation, when we stood up to sing, I glanced down to see the girl's Bible sitting on the pew in front of me...it had her name on it.

SCORE!

And then, at the very end of the service, the youth pastor asked us to all get our phones out...and he starts telling us about our church's free wifi and how to sign up to receive announcements by text. I am typically not a fan of having phones out in church. I have literally bored a hole into my children with my eyes when they have dared to get their phones out...even when they are using their Bible apps. Because you know what sounds like the rustling of pages from the Bible? Not an iPHONE Bible app. In fact, my husband got his out one Sunday and just as I started to give him the stink eye. He looked at me, smiled and whispered, "it's the BIBLE."

Grrrrr...

So...I already had my phone out...WITH PERMISSION FROM A PASTOR, mind you...and so I texted the girl's name to Holly real fast to see if she knew her. She texted back to say that she did not.

And then I did the unthinkable. I took a picture of the back of the girl's head.

IN CHURCH.

I KNOW.

Don't judge me.

I went straight from being interested in her for purely evangelical reasons...to crazy stalker old lady mode. JUST LIKE THAT!

In the end, I didn't get to speak to them after church, through no fault of my own. GRRRR... 

Maybe it's for the best.

And, justsoyaknow, Holly did NOT recognize the back of the girl's head, called me a creepy stalker for taking a picture of her IN CHURCH...but agreed with me that the girl's hair was "enviable."

So there's that.

And THAT is definitely NOT something Earl and Carolyn would do.

And neither should you. Don't be like me.

"...older women are to be reverent in their behavior..." Titus 2:3