some of this, some of that

My first weekend at home and I've been having so much fun. I got a whole 'nother week of this stuff.
So far, I've been to two Christmas plays. One was our own at our church, New River Missionary Baptist. My brother was the butler to Ebby Neezer. Dang, she was a scrooge. But the play was great. Darius had his hair sprayed gray, so he looked young in the face but old on the head. Weird. Tonight he was in another youth groups play at a different church, the church his current girlfriend goes to. He was the school bus driver, and a cute one at that. He was on the stage all of about 5 minutes, 3.5 minutes at a time, once at the beginning and again at the very end. Then, they switched between songs and readings for another hour. O my gosh. It was soooooooo long. But I had the cutest baby sitting in front of me so that kinda helped distract me, :) (Why is it that every baby is 'the cutest baby'?)
There has been one bad thing that I have to endure every time I come home. I cannot sit through a sermon at my old church without feeling angry or offended. I always want to either get up and walk out or argue with what the preacher is saying. I had this preacher since I was in high school and since he was pretty much the only style I had heard, it seemed okay and I didn't have a problem. But once I went to Berea Baptist and listened to Pastor Kevin and now go to Wilmore Baptist under Pastor David, I see what good preaching is. I can't stand sitting under my old preacher anymore. Absolutely can't stand it. He's so negative, all the time. He has nothing good to say. On top of that, he is always on a soapbox setting himself above every one else. He talks about himself like he's better than everyone and puts all of us to shame. He does everything right, he is perfect in every way and we are the biggest sinners ever. I can't stand it. He thinks that if anyone doesn't live exactly like he does (because he's perfect remember) that they are wicked. I'm not exaggerating, he said this himself. Today for example, he said he took some of the youth to our local campground to listen to a Christian band and spend time in fellowship with other Christians. Then he goes into this hissy-fit about how they were a contemporary band with bass guitars and loud speakers and blah blah blah and that those young men were so wicked and representing the 'real' Christians poorly.
One of my friends is the lead singer of that band and I know for a fact he is a Christian, been saved since elementary school and has a close relationship with the Lord. It pissed me off for the preacher to judge them like that. Just because some people worship differently doesn't make them evil or 'wicked'. Just because the Lord speaks to some people through more modern Christian bands like Third Day and Newsboys instead of old fashioned hymnals doesn't make them wicked. Every Sunday it's something different, something wrong with the way everyone lives that is going to send them to Hell, something of course that does not apply to him because he does nothing wrong. Grrr. So every Sunday that I have to listen to him speak, I'm itching to get out, moving around, studying scriptures on my own, playing with little pieces of paper, just so anxious for it to be over so I can leave and worship like I want to.
I bet all y'all reading this is thankful me and Corey are leaving on Saturday huh?
Good thing though is that tomorrow is Christmas Eve! That's so exciting.
So Merry Christmas to everybody. Hope y'all have a wonderful time with family and friends (and that you get lots of great goodies!) ;)
God bless.