Children? Hmm...children? Did you just misspeak? No, that I did not do. And no, I am not pregnant. I teach a group of sixth grade girls on Wednesday mornings (they probably wouldn't like to be called children). Here in the town where I live the elementary school takes part in a program called Release Time Christian Education. Elementary students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades are released from class for 50 minutes once a week to get Bible instruction. Now before anyone has a cow: parents have to sign the children up for the program, and it is taught at a local church so the children are not taught religion at school and it is not done without parental knowledge and approval.
As I mentioned, I teach a group of sixth grade girls. Boys and girls are taught separately. 4th graders learn the first half of the Old Testament, 5th graders learn the second half, and 6th graders focus on the New Testament. The town where I live in South Carolina was the first in the state to do this program! It has been going on for a long time! We have 22 weeks with these kids. Not a lot of time when you think about it. And we have missed several days due to weather. And several of my girls missed instruction time due to sickness.
This week will be our last week for the school year. It is bittersweet. I have enjoyed teaching these girls. They will graduate from this program Wednesday after spending three years learning the Old Testament and New Testament. I wish some of them new what an accomplishment this was! And I bet at some point some of these students will have wished they paid better attention. What an advantage these kids have! This instruction is an asset!
I have taken this job seriously and have enjoyed it. I hope I have been a good teacher for these girls. And I hope I have taught them as much as they have taught me. Isn't it funny how it works like that? It seems to me in ministry or teaching situations, that I always learn a lot from those I am supposed to be teaching!
Before I close, I want to share something from the girls a couple weeks ago. We were talking about the book of James. There is so much rich material in that book. I was sharing with the girls about listening and speaking. A good section of James addresses this. It speaks about being quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to become angry. The author of this book also tells us that the tongue can do damage like a forest fire, and that "with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness." On that same class day we were talking about 1st Peter. 1st Peter tells us such things as be respectful to everyone, don't retaliate, don't repay evil with evil, and don't insult people because they insult you. So I was sharing these things with the girls. I think this is an important area for teenagers. They definitely need to think about how they treat others and about the words they use.
After talking to them, before I allowed them to ask questions, it was weighing heavy on me that we are all guilty of that. We all need to be reminded of those very things. Then the girls started asking questions. They were concerned and puzzled. One of the first questions I got was "But what if someone does those things to you?" I had to explain to them that God wants us to treat each other the way we want to be treated or the way he taught us to treat each other, his children. I sounded like my mom when I explained to them that if you consistently are nice to someone who has been mean to you they will eventually be nice to you, or they will at least stop being mean to you because you are no fun to pick on anymore. In a perfect world that is how it would work. The girls became really concerned after that. They didn't want to be doormats. They didn't want people to take advantage of them because of their niceness. I understand completely. We all do. We have all been there. I could speak from experience to them.
The point is, it just feels good to treat people nicely. And it is wonderful to see all people for what they are, children of God. As James said, with the same tongue we praise God, we curse those he created. My prayer for all of us is that we would think about what we say. With our words we can start a fire. And we can't take them back once we have said them. And as Peter encouraged, we should be respectful to each other, don't repay evil with evil, and don't insult people. Thank you girls for helping me realize how important this is. I will miss seeing you on Wednesday mornings!
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