School Days

I taught a pre-k Sunday School class for about 15 years. It was one of the biggest highlights of my week. I never ceased to be amazed at the things that four and five year olds say and think.

One Sunday, a little boy stood in front of me, tugging on my pant leg until I could give him my complete attention. He straigthened up and proclaimed: 'Mr. Joseph?! I'm gonna preach to you, but I've lost my place so it is going to take me a minute!' Pulling out one of his parent's Bibles, Johnathon thumbed through the pages muttering 'Nope, it's not here!' until he would get somewhere around Psalms or Isaiah and proclaim: 'Okay! Here we go! You need Jesus in your life!' He would smile and shut the Bible and walk away. It was moments like those that made it all worth while.

There are, of course, those times when you must remind yourself that God has called you into this ministry. Days when you come home from church and just collapse on your couch, desiring to be undisturbed for the next sixty years. Little 'fires', if not put out properly, can become towering infernos! From children trying to draw new faces on other kids with markers to completely lost attention spans, all things are possible with twenty to thirty pre-kindergartners.

I imagine that God has these kind of days as well with us. I find it hard not to imagine God getting a chuckle out of Samuel thinking that it was Eli calling him out of his sleep. Or how Jesus smiled at Peter ‘s first steps on water. I can imagine the sadness of God when Solomon chose to ignore warnings of his impending folly. I think that God's anger was raised with the money changers as well as with the Israelites when they made a golden cow while Moses was on top of the mountain.

God knows us inside and out, and there is nothing you can say or do that He hasn't already taken into account. God's patience is immeasurable and thank goodness for that, because I would have run out of patience with me a long time ago!

I would do my best to try to love these children in my class unconditionally: we hate sin, not the sinner. This sounds great on paper, but it is not always an easy task, yet God does this effortlessly: He looks at us, all of us, both inside and out, and holds His hand out to each of us, even if we were the only one on the face of this planet, He would do the same. Sometimes true love requires, stern correction, but it is God's willingness to put His friendship with us on the line, to further our growth that shows how very much He cares for us.

God gives us insight into life, not for the purpose of manipulating us into worshiping Him, but out of love and for the purpose of strengthening us. His direction bolsters our spiritual growth and encourages us to go deeper in Him. He is not into popularity contests and abhors tyrannical rule. God's chastisement is for edification, not destruction. The proof of this is simple: God has everything! What does God have to gain by helping us? The Bible says that eventually, even the rocks will cry out praises to his name. He holds all the cards and owes us nothing, yet He quietly offers us place of royalty in His house! He leads his class by example and is the very best of teachers.

-Doug