Several years ago, I taught
a junior age Sunday school class each Sunday.
I loved being very creative each Sunday morning. We did not use a set curriculum for Sunday
school, and I was glad! It allowed me to go whatever direction I thought
necessary… and occasionally I even asked the Lord what He wanted me to teach
that morning. (Sorry, just being honest!)
One Sunday morning, I was
totally excited about the lesson. My
creative juices were at their peak! I
had a life-sized poster of Goliath that I had drawn. The plan was perfect! The children and I were going to reenact
David and Goliath. Oh, the fun they
would have tossing their pretend stones at the monstrous poster as they
simultaneously learned about being brave, standing up for right, trusting God
for victory in battle, etc.
Unfortunately, this was one
of those lessons where I just could not get peace in my heart to teach it. That morning before class, I argued with the
Lord.
“But Lord, this is a great
lesson… I have visuals! I am using all the learning styles!”
But, no. The Lord would not leave me alone. Instead, I could not get the simple “Roman’s
Road” out of my mind and heart. Five
minutes before class started, my lesson changed.
In my mind, the lesson was
boring. There were no visuals, but I
just taught truth… the Gospel, plain and simple. In my heart, I was still grieving the
rejection of my “awesome lesson.” I
grieved its loss until a newly attending nine-yea- old girl (second or third
time attending) raised her hand and said, “Mrs. Charity, I have never heard
this before, and I am not saved.”
I must tell you, I have
always been the queen of brainstorming and creativity. I can come up with a million great ideas… and
neglect seeking for God to put something INTO my heart.
Nehemiah 2:12a “And I arose in the night, I and some few men
with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do…”
Nehemiah did not sit around
and brainstorm good ideas of what would be really helpful for his people. He followed what God put in his heart to do.
How easy it is to try to do
things in the flesh of creativity and skill and talent… and forget to get alone
with God and ask Him to direct our steps!
I am thankful I listened to His voice that morning. I would have missed a great opportunity. Do I still struggle with this sometimes? Absolutely! As we speak, I am about to hit the delete button on a blog post I was going to publish…
John 15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches:
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without
me ye can do nothing.”
To be fruit bearers, we have
to abide in Him and quit relying on our flesh.
(I sure want to bring forth MUCH fruit.)
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed reading it. Sometimes your in the middle of a lesson and God just directs you to where he wants you.
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