"God has a way of flushing us out of our quiet little places, and when He does we must be ready to speak for Him." -Lee Eclov
When I read this quote this morning it made me think of my VBS class this week. I'm teaching 8th Grade girls. I went into the week excited about the study on Ruth I felt God had led me to, but things have gone south of my expectations. I mistakenly assumed girls of that age who show up at a Mennonite VBS are coming because they are Christians and want to learn more about God; that non-Christians would think they're too 'cool' to come. At the very least I expected if their motive for coming is boys, when they find out it's a girls-only class they would lose interest. I couldn't have been more wrong.
I've got 4 lovely young ladies from church who totally 'get' the point and were connecting with me -and 4-6 community girls that everything is over their heads because they don't have a relationship with Christ. Since they can't relate, they are bored and acting up. I don't have a very high silliness-tolerance level, yet I'm immersed in it this week.
My co-teachers advise me to let their complaining roll off. If my class is boring and I'm too strict and the games we play at recess are dumb, why do they keep coming back? they say. We seem to spend most of our class time off on rabbit trails like 'can we know for sure whether Jesus ate raisin bread or not?' and I feel like I'm wasting my time. But my co-teachers assure me I'm having an impact. I'm definitely flushed out of my quiet, orderly comfort zone this week but praying I can speak for Him.
1 comment:
Sometimes they hear more than you think. I remember one teacher of a preschool class who thought no one was listening. Then she asked a question and the answer came from under the table. They appeared not to be listening, but they were!
Even if these girls don't comprehend much of what you say, you may impact their lives in ways you'll never know. God doesn't require us to be successful, He just wants us to be faithful.
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