Primary Colors

Primary Sacrament Meeting programs are the best meeting all year. That is especially true when your own children are not in the Sunbeam class and sitting along the front of the stand.

When The Girl was little and finally got to be in the Primary Program, I was so proud. My first, in the program and sitting up there at the edge of the stand. Right in front of the whole congregation. She said her little part and sat back down with her class. Then she took the hair clips out of her hair and put them on her fingers and tapped them all over the wooden rail. You could hear the clip-clopping noise all over the chapel.

The Boy's first Primary Program was also a proud moment. It was the first time in years that Genius Golfer and I could sit together in the pew, alone. The Boy and his class (of mostly rough and tumble boys) sat along the front of the stand, in front of the whole congregation. Rather than play with hair clips on his fingers, he pulled faces and waved and really scratched his nose to the point of picking at one point. It was pretty funny, if I hadn't been his mom. Many friends came up after ward and told me "At least he is only in Sunbeams once. Next year he will sit farther back." Yeah, that's right.

I have used the same comment in the intervening years to other moms with nose picking kids who sit along the edge of the stand too.

Yesterday was The Boy's last Primary Program. He and his once rough and tumble buddy had the last two speaking parts. They both did great. The entire program was over a few minutes early even! That never happens.

The songs and parts the kids shared with us were beautiful. And you even know the kids who bark into the microphone are just happy to be there and are doing what their moms told them ("Speak up. We want to hear you.") They sang a song called "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" that was so touching. I hope the children who were singing it really understood what they were singing about.

Another era is over for our family, then, with the Primary Program now a part of the past. I'll miss seeing my own kids up there with all the kids at church. But I won't miss the nose picking, face pulling, hair clip dancing on her fingers behavior. Oh. What am I saying? Of course I will. They are too old to do anything that cute and/or embarrassing and get away with it.