watering the seeds of faith

I started teaching Sunday School when I was 14. My friend Becky and I signed up to teach a class together and were assigned 10 first graders who were in our care for an hour every Sunday morning.

We are a bit infamous with the parents of that first class because of the day we taught about the land flowing with milk and honey. We dressed the kids up in Israelite costumes from the costume closet. I don't imagine we were supposed to just help ourselves to that closet now that I think about it, but I knew where my dad kept his keys, and because he was the pastor I knew he had the grand master key which meant the church was basically my playground.

We dressed all the kids up in robes with ropes tied around their wastes and brown fabric draped on their heads and took them outside where we wandered around, until Joshua led us into the promised land. At that point, we unknowingly led the kids in front of the church windows so that everyone in the sanctuary could see us. I hadn't pieced that together when I hid the twelve pack of mountain dew and box of long john donuts behind the trees. We arrived in the land of milk and honey, and told the kids that this was actually the land of mountain dew and donuts, sat down and gave each six year old a can of dew and a donut.

For years after those parents would bring that day up with me, and it's only now that I have kids of my own that I realize it wasn't the lesson itself that those parents remembered. It was likely the Sunday afternoon they all had to survive with their children all sugared up.

Becky and I taught all four years of high school and helped with VBS too and then I went to college where my friend Lindsey and I taught at a local church for two years. Both of those years we taught our students all the books of the Bible through hand actions that we made up. In the summers I worked at different Bible camps in Montana and Minnesota where I had cabins full of campers as a counselor. Then I worked as a program director in Minnesota and Nebraska and had college kids in my care and trained them to teach the campers that came each week.

I've been thinking about all these kids that have come across my path for the last two decades because I am now experiencing the receiving end. Ivar and Elsie love our kids church. They have 20 minutes each Sunday with a different adult from our church, but often it is our friend Kelly. And Kelly teaches them a lesson and they play a game or do a craft. And my kids soak it up and love every minute.

Today Ivar lost a beloved lego toy (lots of drama...) and then found it. And he came and told me, "Mom! When I found my lego boat it was like when God found his lost sheep! I was so happy when I found it because I made it, just like God made us!"

My heart exploded inside of me because 1) this is a pretty huge connection to make! and 2) I was so grateful for Kelly! To be a parent and to hear the things of God pouring out of your child's mouth that another person has helped pour into their heart is incredible. And it left me so grateful for Kelly and her husband Danny and the way they are helping me train my kids in the way they should go. I felt so thankful for the whole church body and every faithful soul that is doing their small part. For every volunteer that taught my Sunday school classes growing up. For the ladies who got the snack ready for VBS each day. For the college students who were my hilarious and fun camp counselors and pointed me towards the joy of knowing Jesus.

I felt proud and glad that I have been a part of the body, used to help water the seeds of faith in all of those kids throughout the years. But mostly felt excited and inspired to see that the faith in my kids continues to grow and be nurtured. I believe it is the parent's responsibility to train their children in the ways they should go. And that has to be done in the home...one hour on a Sunday just isn't enough to truly pass on the faith. It has to be a part of the parenting and instruction of a child. But one part of that is making sure that my kids have faithful teachers and mentors who also help water their seeds of faith, just like Kelly is pouring into my kids, just like I poured mountain dew and donuts into all of those first graders 20 years ago.