Sunday School teaching comes from God!

Yesterday I had a student in Sunday School. Generally I do not have any students in my high school/college age class, but in one walked yesterday as I was catching up with a three-year-old. I knew he would be in my class because he was big :), and the thought that attacked was, "You aren't ready for this student! All you planned for a lesson was to talk about angels and Jacob!" It was true that I hadn't very clearly defined what the lesson could be. But I knew that I had worked with the Bible Lesson that week and that those two simple ideas had been angel messages themselves about what to talk about this week.

I also have been cherishing something from the Manual one member of my branch church has shared a couple times recently, that Sunday School teaching is to be by question and answer...I'm not trying to cram information into some kid, but rather revealing what's already there--like we talked about "educere" "leading out."

So during our silent prayer I acknowledged that our Sunday School lessons were complete and that they included what everyone needed (teachers, too). I asked our visitor if there was anything he wanted to talk about from the Lesson, since he had marked books with him, and he said, "Well, actually my favorite story is in the Lesson this week." ............ Yep, you guessed it--Jacob wrestling with the angel! Ends up this young man drew a lot of strength from that story as he dealt with a challenge over the past year or so. Also, he said Truth was his favorite synonym, so I shared "reality" as a synonym for Truth...which he loved...and it fit so well since the Lesson was on unreality. I felt positively buoyant during the whole session!

I realized two things afterwards: 1) God had connected the student with me. It had zero to do with any effort on my part. So I realized a bit more that I'm not a factor in the "success" of Sunday School. It's a complete, divine idea totally in God's keeping. 2) Going back to avoiding human perfectionism ...I realized that the lesson plan I had came through inspiration and had no need of a laboriously organized plan with marked citations, planned review questions, etc. It just flowed, and I watched it happen. I felt relieved of a false sense of responsibility and so joyous that all was perfect--I just knew everyone truly did "get" what they needed.

-E.D. Virginia USA