My ABC's

I had the opportunity to teach Sunday School at church to a precious group of 1st and 2nd graders this past year. My friends Joel and Justin signed up to teach and needed a girl to "fill in" for a couple weeks in the other female teacher's absence. After a couple weeks, the "fill in" became a permanent fixture and what a blessing it has been! I forgot how much I love children, how much joy I receive from watching them learn, and just how much I underestimate them. Their little minds grasp so much and they are actually amazed (and excited) by Jesus. Though they don't understand everything, they just believe. They wonder at Jesus and actually delight in Him. They bring any request before the Father. I promise you, those kiddos taught me more in the past nine months than I actually taught them.

This coming Sunday, the kids will have an opportunity to present what they learned this past year to the congregation. Thank goodness kids are fearless and relish in taking the stage. We studied the "ABC's of God" this year, learning about a different characteristic of God each week. Our first lesson was on the letter Q, which stood for questions. Strange, I know, but "Q" is the framework for the rest of the lessons. We learned that questions about God have answers, answers that can be found in scripture. We learned 3 questions to ask: Who is God? What is God like? How should I act towards God? With each week and each letter, we learned a little more about the nature of God. The kids had no problem answering what God was like, and neither did the teachers. The challenging part is the response - how should I act towards God? The purpose of study is not (just) knowledge, it is action. Bible studies, Sunday School, sermons, blogs, books - all of it is great and necessary, but we do not feast on the Word simply to eat, it fuels us to do. How should I act towards God because He is ______? How should I act towards others because God is ______? How do I respond to Truth? We asked ourselves and the kids these questions each week. Pretty basic, right?

I think training ourselves to not just listen, read, and study, but actually respond is hard. It is so easy for me to listen to a sermon, understand, and just chew on it. I need the Gospel to penetrate the very depths of my heart and I need to challenge myself, each time that I hear it to respond. I must. Our commission is to go and do. It is not to spend our lives collecting and hoarding knowledge about the goodness, love, faithfulness, and mercy of our God.

I guess you could say I needed to be reminded of some basics, some ABC's...