The two Sunday School classes I've taught are as different from each other as night is from day.
The first class I ever taught were children from a poorer neighborhood, their parents did not come to church, and none of them had fathers that were actively involved in their lives.
All the students in my current class were born into christian homes, they all have two parents that bring them to church, and they are all home schooled.
The differences are very apparent and it makes me laugh sometimes but I can say this for all of them: they're all sweet and inquisitive.
To be honest, I never know if the children I teach are learning anything. I can ask them questions about what they learned in previous weeks but head knowledge isn't what I'm going for. I want them to learn about God in a way that applies to their daily lives.
I don't believe that Sunday School and church is there to entertain us. We can fellowship at a hockey game or have a gym night- those things are meant to be fun and entertaining. The main reason we come together on Sundays is to be fed from the Word by teaching and preaching.
God teaches me a lot through the children He's given me to teach and He put it in my heart to share one of the more recent lessons here on the blog.
I came across a sermon by one of my favourite preachers online and as I listened to it I realized I had heard it before.
The funny thing was that when I first heard this sermon a few years ago it was particularly earth shattering to me; this second time, while the force and heaviness of the message was in no wise diminished, I heard it as one who knew those things by experience.
In other words, I had learned the principles he was teaching in my own life and come to the same conclusions.
This made me very happy because I realized all the sermons I listen to are not in vain. My human self may not retain all the information but the Spirit uses those messages to bring about Spiritual growth.
I listened to a few of the other sermons that followed the initial sermon I listened to, I had listened to them before as well, and I realized that they were the ones that had turned me on to my problem with covetousness.
Frankly I didn't remember those sermons at all but since I'd first listened to them I have been sensitive to covetousness and careful not to commit it. The way I deal with people, how I look at myself, and what I do has all be affected by those sermons and I didn't even remember them.
God pointed these things out to me and a wave of relief washed over me.
I realized then and there that it is not my job to create memorable, exciting, dynamic lessons for my students. While I'm not going to bore them to death and make my classes tedious, I don't need to feel any pressure to 'entertain' the children just to keep them engaged.
God has made it very clear many times that it is given to me to diligently teach the Word. (Yes, this is where that post on the diligence of David came from last week)
I ask the children questions, they get the chance to give personal examples of what we're talking about, we play a review game at the end of class and I make the lessons applicable to their daily lives.
I don't read the lesson out of a man written book, I read the account from the Bible and use lots of scripture to emphasize the point.
We recently finished Solomon and the point of Solomon was the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In every lesson I emphasized that and gave different examples each week depending on what part of his life we were talking about.
I love these children and I pray for them, I pray over each lesson, I pray for their parents, and their other teachers. I have to remember, though, that what they take away from the lesson is up to them.
I can't control wether they listen or not, I can't make them learn anything, and I cannot turn their hearts toward the Lord. All I have to do is give them what God gave me and let His Spirit do a work in their lives.
Growing up in a christian home I was exposed to movies, TV shows, books, and things outside of church that taught me biblical principles.
I was always very conscious about lying, stealing, violence and things like that because I had been exposed to a multitude of sources that taught me those things are wrong.
Funnily enough, I did not realize the influence christian cartoons, story books, and movies had on me until recently. While I don't remember everything I saw or heard, they still had an effect on me.
Train up a child in the way he should
go: and when he is old, he will not depart
from it.
Proverbs 22:6
We've taught our son to pray by praying before every meal, before we go out, and before bed. One of the first words he ever could say was 'Bible' because every morning I'd get my Bible out (not on my ipad or phone!) and read Proverbs to him.
He's been trained to know those things by consistency and repetition.
He sees his parents praying, he sees pastor praying, he sees his teachers praying, he sees his grandparents praying, he sees his aunties and uncles praying, this helps teach him to pray.
If you are wondering why someone's morals are wacky, they probably weren't consistently exposed to good morals and they don't know better. Don't be angry at them for that, just be a blessing by being a good testimony and witnessing.
If a saved person's morals are wacky, let God work on them.
If they are newly saved, they don't know better, help when you can and pray for them.
So in conclusion, just put the Word in. If you're a parent or a teacher, just give them the Word, give them good doctrine, expose them to good influences, and pray unceasingly for them.
Be diligent to do these things and God will bless it.
