Jimmy’s Church

By Robyn Hall

I love my Heav’nly Father, And I will try to be Rev’rent when I’m in his house (Children’s Songbook, page 28.)

Three-year-old Jimmy was having a hard time being still in sacrament meeting. He couldn’t stop wiggling. Mother pulled him onto her lap. She locked her fingers together in front of him with her knuckles together and her pointer fingers and little fingers touching above them. Then she whispered, “Here’s the church. Here’s the steeple. Open the door, and there are the people.” When Mother moved the heels of her hands apart, her other fingers were wiggling inside.

Jimmy wanted to do it. Mother helped him build his own little church as she whispered the verse. Jimmy wiggled his fingers too. He liked his little church. He thought it was just like the real church. But when he looked around him, he didn’t see very many people wiggling.

Jimmy asked his mother to say the verse again. This time when he opened his hands, he held his fingers very still. He looked up at Mother and whispered, “My people are reverent.”

Mother smiled and said, “They must love Jesus and Heavenly Father very much.”

Jimmy sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap for the rest of the sacrament meeting. Every once in a while, he would open his hands to see if the people were still being reverent—just like him.