I'm exhausted. It's my fault--I've been staying up late for no good reason. I'm exhausted spiritually--also my fault. But in the midst of the raggedness, my class and I shared one shining moment this morning.
As Thursday and Friday are home study days this week, I didn't want to start a new Bible week-long unit, so I pulled some pages we had skipped to fill in for this Mon-Wed. But today I really needed some Bible time myself, and the kids hadn't been able to use their Bibles yesterday (they LOVE to use their Bibles), so in the flexibility afforded me at my small country school, I told the kids to get out their Bibles. I quickly flipped to "persuaded" in my concordance and wrote the reference 2 Timothy 1:1-12 on the board. We're writing persuasive essays in English so I thought I could give them a ding-ding-ding we know this word moment.
We began reading. Verse 9 (NKJV) "who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began".
I've noticed my students' prayers lately have been more of the "Help us be good and get to heaven" cause-and-effect variety. So we clarified...
We are called, God has made us His children, but not because we are good. Imagine if you acted really bad and gave your parents attitude and rebelled against what they said--and I know we have all done that before--would your parents say "You're not my child anymore?" No, 'cuz your parents love you unconditionally. It's the same with God. He didn't go, "Oh, I know she is a good person, I'll choose her." He chose us because He loved us. It's His grace.
2 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV) 12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
He KNEW who he believed. Do you guys really know God or do you know a lot about Him? (To which a student piped up, "We know about Him!") Well, this person knew God. We can go to church and come to school and learn all about God, but the important thing is to know God for OURSELVES.
So you know what we're going to do? We're going to have silent prayer. You're going to pray silently in your mind to God, not out loud. It's going to be weird and awkward but that's ok. We can wait in silence.
And remember Who you are about to talk to. You're about to talk to the One who brings the rain and Who made the sun, a burning ball of gas. (Student: "And He made us!") Yes, and even when we were in our mommy' tummy, when no one could see us, God saw us! That's who you're going to be talking to.
We then closed our eyes and prayed.
Wow. At first I was like, Lord, ok, this is weird. I'm supposed to pray, but there's not a lot of time and these poor kiddos... But then it was like, wow, this FEELS good. I don't mean the silence. I mean it felt like I was fellowshipping with other believers and like the Lord was present. That sweet, refreshing feeling of I am in His presence.
I ended us in prayer and looked up. One of my students beamed at me. I asked if we should sing a song. Yes! Ok, which song? Another student suggested "Servant's Heart." After that a student wanted to sing "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."
The afternoon might have found me back in depleted mode. I may feel like crashing. But for those sweet, sweet moments this morning, heaven split open and shone God's light on my classroom.
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