Sunday School Teacher not me

Our church was looking for some Sunday school teachers. I knew I was off the hook on this one. After all I had not taught Sunday school in over twenty years. I also had no children of my own and very little contact with any. However has time went by I found myself volunteering for this service and was happily accepted for the committee. The Bible says, “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”(Isa.6:8)

Now that I was willing to be called to this service I thought what do I do next? I cannot relate to children. As I began to pray about this important duty the thought came you are not doing this God is doing it. I remember when I was in school a Christian Science practitioner told me, “The same Mind that makes the questions makes the answers.” By this I have learned that Mind is God and Mind already knows what those children need. If I am listening to God He will give me the questions to ask the children and He also will give me the answers to the questions they will ask.

The discoverer and founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy in her infinite wisdom gave us instruction on teaching the children on page 62 and 63 of her Church Manual. Part of this instruction is as follows, “The Sabbath School children shall be taught the Scriptures, and they shall be instructed according to their understanding or ability to grasp the simpler meanings of the divine Principle that they are taught.” She also tells us to teach things such as the Lord’s Prayer, Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments. This was a big help to me. I was also given some guidelines on what to teach my age group from our Sunday school guidelines from a seminar on Sunday school teaching by an experienced teacher.

As I have prayed about this class it has come to me that there is not me and them it is only God and His idea. These children are the sons and daughters of God and they are receptive to His voice and so am I. We are all learning together. I am not the wise professor bringing knowledge to my ignorant students. God knows nothing of an age group. There is no generation gap to God. We are all his children and are receptive to His voice. Didn’t Jesus say, “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein?”(Mark 10:15).

I started with two children whom did not always come on a regular basis. I have to admit that when they did not come I was often relieved. However I have learned that that was the wrong attitude to take. Our Sunday school is a Manual provision provided by Mrs. Eddy. I realized that she has said in Science and Health that there are, “Millions of unprejudiced minds — simple seekers for Truth,” (570:14, 15) I was not asking for a million students but there are the receptive thoughts out there. God would not call me to teach Sunday school and then give me no students to teach, that certainly is not God. God is love and wants to bring His love to His children.

A few months ago, I met women in another capacity I was serving the Christian Science Church in. In our conversation she told me she had three grandchildren living with her and soon a fourth moved in with her. I told her that two of the children would be in my class if she took them to our church. Soon she took them to our Sunday school and they were embraced by our members. One of them was very new in Christian Science but as been soaking in the teachings of it. She recently came home from a Christian Science camp which our church helped finance.

More recently I had a new visitor in my class who had gone to a school that studied the Koran. She was a little shy at first and brought her puppy with her. However the other children’s love made her feel very welcomed to the class. She was a big addition the class and participated in our lively class discussion.

I am so grateful for what I have been learning in Sunday school and am still learning. Yes, as I teacher we are learning probably as much or more than the students. We are learning to listen and to follow in the way that the Christ truth points out. We are as a sheep in His pasture. Christ Jesus told us, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”(John 10:27, 28) What a reward for teaching Sunday school and being one of its students.