It starts with:
What? You teach kids in Bible class? Bless your sweet heart! You really drew the short straw.
These people are well meaning, good-intentioned people. They are people who love me.
But they don’t get me–or why I teach.
Bless my heart? I drew the short straw?
When I get to watch little eyes light up as I pull cotton balls and blue felt out of a box and pass it around? You see, God made the sky and the clouds.
When I get to hear the audible gasp as the Tower of Babel (built on a smaller scale with blocks and not bricks) falls with a crash? You see, God’s power is bigger than men’s.
When I see the wonder and awe on a little face as I turn a bowl of water red with a few food coloring drops? You see, God can do anything, including turning the Nile into blood.
Bless my heart? I drew the short straw?
The Blessings of Teaching
When I hear the cry of “Mrs. Tracy! Mrs. Tracy!” when I step inside the church building and feel little hands flung around my waist in excitement? You see, there’s no exuberance or excitement quite like that of a little child.
When I am tugged by the energetic little hand of a student to come meet her people? You see, I am someone she wants to introduce to her mom or her grandpa.
When I feel a quiet hand slip into mine and I’m met with the quiet, content smile of a gentle soul, untouched by worldliness? You see, there’s a reason God told us to become like little children.
Bless my heart? I drew the short straw?
I get the most important, most weighty privilege in the universe–that of teaching minds and molding hearts to know and be like Jesus. Children still want to learn; they are not yet jaded by the world and its ways. They believe, they listen, they laugh–freely and beautifully.
Bless my heart? I drew the short straw?
I’m sorry, friend. I wasn’t unlucky. I don’t deserve that sympathy. Because I get to teach children’s Bible class. And I like it.
[B]ut Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 19:14
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