LETTER FROM A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER
LETTER FROM A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER
Dear parents, guardians or anyone who is in charge of a younger one.
Sunday school is not the room where you keep your child so that you can concentrate on the message in the main church. It’s Kids church, a ministry on it’s own where they can learn in their own environment. I consider it an honour to be teaching your child because they are amazing.
Every child is a universe yet undiscovered
It is an honour to be in charge of an untapped universe and a delicate task at that. In this light, i would like to share my thoughts from the few times i have been around your kids.
I’m writing this because we need to keep that in mind so that we can help them enjoy the God experience.
Here’s my humble opinion on how you can help your child do that.
Create in your home the same church environment.
Block out time to study the word of God with them. I’m not talking of morning devotion where they’ll be tensed to say things in front of elders. Something like a Bible story once a week, giving them task to read verses and space for them to ask questions. Perhaps a Bible story before bed. There is a significance to this.
When you create the same environment as in church, they easily learn that God is everywhere and not just in church. That there is no difference between spiritual and normal life. If on the other hand, house life is different from church life e.g they have more fun in church than at home, they begin to see God as an escape mechanism. It’ll be difficult for them to understand that they can love God even if he does not give them sometimes. They’ll come to God for what he can give not for who he is. They’ll come to church for the hugs and biscuits which they don’t receive at home. Please teach them that they can receive that at home too.
WORSHIP
Let them watch you worship. Your behavior during worship affects the way they would reverence God. You can preach to your child about fearing God from now to tomorrow but if they’ve never seen you kneeling, crying or just lost in worship, something just doesn’t feel right. There is something about watching your authority bow to another authority. It just makes you bow. a few days ago at church, i was worshiping with my Sunday school kids and as soon as i knelt down, i heard shuffling of feet. I opened my eyes to see the kids scrambling for a place to kneel or lie prostrate.
The way you behave in church should be the same at home
Same behavior at home as in church. If your child notices that on Sundays you become all holy and formal , speaking ‘churchianese’ they learn that you can be holy only on Sundays. If Sunday is the only day that you don’t beat them, you’re in for something else on Sunday morning. Especially if you’re scared to discipline in church, you’re in for trouble. My nephews would run around in church and wreak havoc because they know that their mother would never spank them there. I’m not saying whether spanking is good or not but if you have to do something, don’t hide your behaviour in church. Your kids would learn to mask their behavour outside of church.
Appreciate them
Appreciate their work done in Sunday school and don’t scoff it because you don’t understand what it means. Just Smile, well, done. You’re not being a hypocrite or fake. You’re appreciating it based on their level. Ask them what they learnt in Sunday school and be genuinely interested. You’ll learn something, trust me.
BE INTERESTED IN THEIR WORK
Pop into Sunday school or spy and see what they do. It’ll make you appreciate the teachers works. There is also a certain maturity to lower yourself to Sunday school and goof around with the children. Every encounter I have with them, I learn something new. In my opinion, a lot of the problems we have is because we have not learnt to slow down like children. Sit down with them and hear them out. Enter into their imagination and take it further. The best gift I’ve received in my life is a colouring book. I sit down with my kids and become like them.
Dear parents, you’re doing an amazing job because your child is amazing and I see great potentials.
Yours sincerely, Not a parent, Not an expert, Yours sincerely
Your kids Sunday school teacher
Originally published at anjiecynthia.wordpress.com on March 5, 2019.
