As I was sitting at my usual table at church yesterday morning listening to Pastor Randy speak momentarily on how people get distracted during the holidays and focus on material things rather than the truth, I quickly let it in my brain, then pushed it back out and thought, "I focus on God, I focus on the truth, I never get distracted by gifts or money or any of that." Little did I know that later that day, I would be tested.

After church, a friend asked if I would like to accompany her, her brother, and her mom to Duluth for some Christmas shopping. I said yes, knowing I had a fairly large amount of money (for someone of my age group--it was the same amount that Jenni won at WR05) in my wallet at that exact moment, I asked permission and we were off. When we first got there, we went directly to the food court for lunch, and I went to Taco John's, and as I went to pay for my meal, I opened up my purse to discover an EMPTY wallet. I nervously dug through my purse to find nothing. "Oh, I guess I've been robbed..," I said to the girl behind the counter, she mumbled something to a worker behind her, and gave me my order number and receipt, saying that she would take care of it (that was really nice of her, I felt so stupid, though). I called my mom asking her if she took it, and a few other people as well, and they all replied with the same answer. But, the question is, where could this money have gone? On Saturday night as I was walking through Wal-Mart, I held on to my purse knowing of the money and being afraid of pick-pockets, and I bought juice with it, and this was around 10:30 PM, and I had my belongings with me for the rest of the night. I came home, went to bed, got up and went to church. I had it with me throughout the whole first service and coffee groups, then put it on my normal spot on one of the pews near the nursery, then proceeded to the toddler room. So, I'm assuming that it happened at church (whoever it was had a good chance, my stupidity of leaving it in the middle of the open with a large sum of money). Yes, church, of ALL places. I assumed it wouldn't get stolen because it's the House of God and most things don't get stolen at church. And I was really upset about losing it. I was mad that I was no longer able to buy the things that I wanted with it (the money was a Christmas gift from my male parental unit so we could pick out our own gifts), and I was mad. But then I remembered that this season isn't about the gifts, or the money, or anything else except for the Prince of Peace, Alpha and Omega, the Holy One--Jesus, and that made me feel less upset about losing the money. It would be nice to get it back, though.