Prudentia Sit

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends and Foes,

I have Sunday School work to do, in fact I have just been appointed head teacher in the 8 and 9 year old class.  I normally don't do a script (much to the dismay and chagrin of some I have worked with) but since I have never worked with these puppets before, so I wanted to make sure I had a plan.  I will probably go off-script anyway.  I always do.  So here's what I wound up doing for today's lesson.

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A reprint from 11/08/04

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Well, fans, friends, fiends and foes, I have not been keeping up with this too consistently, which I do apologize for.  Sometimes life gets away and things distract you.  Anyway, I will try to do better and give you a good quality read more often.

Yesterday was Sunday, so of course I have Sunday School to talk about.  I love it and I love teaching the young folks for many different reasons, but one of the things I love is when you see that they "get" it.  Their little eyes light up and sparkle and you can almost see the little light bulb go on above their heads.

We talked about Acts 3:1 - 16, which is the story of the lame man whom they carried daily to the temple and laid at the gate, called Beautiful.  I used Nicholas, who is one of our most energetic children and had him lay down at the front of the room.  Then I would pick him up, carry him over to the corner of the room, and ask him how much he had made in alms that day and how many people had kicked him out of the way.  I would carry him back, all the while explaining that since the man was over forty and had been born that way, he would have to always beg for whatever little scraps or whatever pence he could get.  I did contrast him with modern beggars who are often little more than charlatans with a piece of cardboard who prevent the people who really need help from getting any.  This also helped explain why people were mean to beggars, etc.  No, I don't dwell on such things, but the distinction between the truly needy and the faker is an important one to make since 6 & 7 year olds are beginning to understand what compassion is.

Well, as Peter and John were going to the temple one day shortly after the initial outpouring of the spirit on Pentecost they saw this man.  This was Zach and Micah, a couple more of my energetic bunch.  They have grown up around the church and Bible stories and church kids can come in handy to use for illustrations like this.  Their peers watch closely to make sure the story goes right or to see what is going to happen next.  Well, Peter and John told the man to look at them and he expected to receive some kind of alms, or assistance.  Peter (Zach) said, I don't have any money, but I have something else and he took him by the hand and said "In the name of Jesus, get up and walk!"  Well, Nicholas jumped up just like the man in the Bible and skipped around the room, using up a small portion of his energy stores.

Then I went on to tell them that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and the way he healed people when he physically walked the earth and how he healed the man at the gate Beautiful through his disciples he can heal them.  I told them a story of my own.  I will tell it to you in full, here, but when I told them, I abbreviated it because I did not want them to get confused.  It is actually a story my Aunt Gertie used to tell because she wanted me to always know what had happened.

When I was born I had something wrong with my legs.  My mom can't recall the details any more but does remember that it made me me very difficult to change.  I would scream when they did it, and my Aunt Gertie would help my mom a lot.  One day she was watching Oral Roberts on T.V. and listening to him preach about faith and healing.  When he finished he said that if anyone in the audience at home needed healing   they should touch their T.V. set and pray along with him.  My aunt did this and whenever she told this her eyes would well up with tears, she said that when she got to the end of the prayer and said, "In Jesus name, amen" that as she was saying "Jesus" the leg straightened right out in her hand while she stood there.  I would make her tell it over and over again because it gave me goose bumps every time she told it.  So, contrary to what anyone may say, supernatural healing does exist in our day and age and is available to anyone who believes God.  When will God heal someone?  It can happen instantly, but sometimes there is a purpose that God has in waiting.  It seems likely to me that the man in the story had to have been at the temple the many times that Jesus had gone in, why hadn't Jesus himself healed the man?  Perhaps because there was a greater glory to be had or perhaps the man would not have been ready for such a miracle to happen to him.

When I tell it to kids I just tell them that when she heard the preacher telling her that God can do anything and that when she prayed along with the preacher it was at the name of Jesus that the leg straightened out.  This fits in with the frame of reference that most of my kids have and is true.  I use that example because they can see me standing there when the doctor told my mom I would not be.  I could tell many other stories of modern healing and protection.  One example would be when Margaret was healed of Epilepsy as a child and did not need medication anymore.  Or Tabitha, who had major hearing loss problems and was never going to be able to hear or speak properly or Sister Johnson, who had been diagnosed with cancer and has a letter from a doctor saying that, (actual quote) a notable miracle has occurred.  The easiest example for kids to understand sometimes, however, is the one they can see.

Anyway, if you are looking for some exciting reading, the book of Acts is full of the exploits of the apostles, all of which are examples of what God will do if humans will let him.

As the good book says, "Who is like unto God?"

Greetings Blog Fans,

Sorry I haven't done anything new for a couple of days.  I guess I am in something of a slump.  Yesterday I slept in until 5:00 and Sunday I stayed in bed until 6:00!  Sunday I had kind of an excuse, though.  Saturday night we (my family plus Ashley) stayed up past one working on a fruit basket mobile for Sunday School.  This may not sound like a lot of work to do but when you have to make enough for 30 kids it takes a while.  They liked them, though.  We had little paper bowls that we punched holes in and then pasted the fruits onto old manila envelopes and tied strings to them and knotted them together.  The kids had to color them and tie the strings to the baskets.  It should have been done sooner but you know people's schedules often reflect the fact that they are human.  It was a lot of fun.

It was our monthly "Homespun" class where our pastor's wife takes all of the married couples and has classes on a variety of subjects.  The unfortunate thing for our class is that we are directly above them so when we sing, "Father Abraham" or "I am the Lord's cowhand, yeehaw!" or "I'm in the Lord's Army" we tend to be a little disruptive.  Anyway, on these days I am back in my old role as head teacher and I wind up working with someone from the "College and Careers Class" and whoever else they can draft.  Not just any old body can be a Sunday School teacher, either.  Of course I am responsible for everything that happens or doesn't happen.

We sang "He's a peach of a Savior" and a few other songs then Ashley read them a short story from Bill Bennett's "Book of Virtues" about a boy whose "please" didn't get enough exercise in his mouth.  Great story.  I had this empty basket and a bag full of fruit I had labeled with the names of the 9 fruits, Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, and Temperance.  Well, kids like visual things.  They learn better the more of their senses that you involve.  So seeing, smelling, tasting, the fruit made the lesson more tactile and 3-dimensional.

I made Longsuffering a lemon and told about how my Grandma had taught me to make lemonade.  Many of them had similar experiences, which they shared. Six and seven year olds have a lot to share.  Actually that part of the lesson was for me.

Okay.  I can still pop my cheek and am a little kid myself.  That's why they like me and talk to me and why I get in trouble sometimes.  Kids have to see what's going on so they all scramble to the front of the room, which makes a bunch of noise downstairs.  While this was going on one of the little girls fell down.  A child who is occasionally dramatic and needed comforting from one of the teachers while I went on with the lesson.  Well, the little girl falling distracted me and my rhythm was off, so when i reached into the bag and pulled out the Apple of Goodness it slipped out of my hand, flew across the roomful of kids, which started them screaming and clonked a boy in the front row right on the head.  Well, we were all laughing together out loud when the door was opened and an usher walked in and said we were making too much noise.  Here was an opportunity to show firsthand what "Meekness" is.

We all settled down, went on to make the craft at the end, which the kids thought made much cooler hats than mobiles, and had "Fruit Cocktail" for a snack.

When I get done with Sunday School I go home and crash.  It is exhausting and I do not see how schoolteachers do it.  While I am not a fan of the public school system, I do think the teachers are often vilified for things they have no control over.  Obviously with any job or any group of people, you will always have lemons and clunkers, but I believe that most schoolteachers are sincere, honest people who do an incredible amount of work for very little pay, especially if you add up not only the hours worked in the classroom, but the preparation time and everything else.  Usually it is a school board or a principal or the Teacher's Union that is behind the problem.  Those things and parents who are uninvolved and unconcerned and uninterested, until little Herkimer comes home with a bad report card which must be the teacher's fault even though nobody ever made Herky do his homework or talked with him about what he was learning or anything else.

So anyway, teach your kids their Memory Verse for Sunday School and talk to them about their homework and remember, as the good book says, "If you're having a bad hair day, put a wig on it and smile anyways."