How was your week? Struggling with the every changing ability (or inability) to teach your Bible students in ways that are familiar to you? Here are the social media challenges for the week to help you as you minister to others.
Monday: Society’s standards change. This was once considered a wonderful baby carriage. Today’s safety experts would be horrified. Some of society’s changes are good and some are horrid. God’s standards never change. Teaching students to compare everything to God’s standards before adopting it as truth should be a major emphasis of any Bible class. Otherwise, you are encouraging them to put other people or themselves in the place only God should occupy.
Tuesday: Did you catch our blog post last week on a simple way to differentiate the curriculum in your Bible class so it works for kids who know a lot of Bible and kids who don’t know any? Or the post on decorating your classroom space to make it easier for your students to learn? If you sign up for our newsletter on our website, you will receive an email once a week containing all the blog posts for the week. All of those ideas in one place. You’ll never miss a post again. So go read this post and any you’ve missed and sign up for the newsletter on our website. You’ll be glad you did!
Wednesday: How are your Bible students coping with life at any given moment? The same things that don’t phase one child can make another child anxious or depressed. Today’s kids are often reluctant to share their feelings and concerns with an adult who can help them process and cope in godly ways. Carefully observing your students, asking them thoughtful questions and giving them opportunities to talk to you about anything outside of class can help point you to students who may be struggling emotionally or spiritually. It takes extra time and effort, but it’s a great way to minister to your students.
Thursday: It’s easy to get discouraged about teaching the Bible to kids or teens in this COVID world. It’s important to remember though that many Holocaust survivors credit their survival to one crust of bread or one encouraging sentence someone said to them. Those little things you are able to say or do for each of your students may have a greater impact than you will ever know. Just focus on somehow touching the life of each child on a regular basis. Pray that God blesses your efforts. Have faith that your heart and efforts are known. And keep looking for that rainbow. This is just a season and it will eventually end.
Friday: It’s okay to occasionally group Bible stories around a theme, like water. With kids, try to keep the stories within a theme in chronological order. It will help them better understand the overall flow and big picture of the Bible better than jumping back and forth from time period to time period. In general, think of teaching the Bible like teaching a history class and not an English class – although as they get older, a few English class type thematic units are okay.