Today the area churches gathered in a local park for worship and a picnic. Daughter was a little on edge this morning, but nothing too bad. She chose to sit with some friends during the worship service. I was involved in leading the service, and she didn't want to be near the front. After the service she came and joined me, and her attitude was terrible. She wanted to eat immediately. She wouldn't eat at all. I didn't understand her. Usually she's pretty good in front of others, but her attitude was on full display. She stormed off a few times. After we ate, she asked for the keys and retreated to the car.
I was taking her home when it hit me. The preacher had a powerful sermon, and she had told a tragic story about a sick mother giving up her young child for adoption. "Did the sermon bother you?"
Daughter looked at me like I was an idiot. "YES!"
She talked about how unfair it was. We talked some more, and by the time I hugged her in front of her house, she was crying. She asked me to go in with her, so I did. I should have realized earlier that the sermon would be a trigger for her. I can't protect her from everything, and life is unfair and there are lots of sad stories. I reminded her that the preacher was going to be doing mission work to minister to people like that mother and child in the hopes that stories like that wouldn't happen. I could tell that many people were touched by the story this morning. Most didn't relate as personally as Daughter did, though. There was a reason for her attitude. I'm going to have to continue to work on encouraging her to use her words to tell me what she's feeling, rather than waiting for me to guess. I gave her lots of hugs and reassurance before I left her. I hope it helped.
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