There will be times when one or more of your Bible class students are facing some sort of challenge. It may be something relatively minor, like a not so great week at school. Or it may be life shattering. It may just impact one child and his or her family or the entire community. It may be something hardly anyone is aware of or something everyone in town knows about. Whatever the situation, your Bible class students need to feel your class is a place where they will be loved, supported and nurtured. A safe space and refuge from the troubles in their world.
You probably naturally provide this support when you hear about one of your students who is struggling. Do the rest of your students know how to be supportive of their peer? It is an important Christian life skill that you need to teach and coach them about so they can do it well. It begins with regular classroom conversations about the emotions and needs of others. You can start with the people in the Bible stories you are teaching. Ask them how the person might have felt emotionally at certain points in the story? What might he or she have wanted from those around them? What did they actually need? (Note that what people want is not always what is best for them in the long run.) Did anyone in the story provide that support – like Nathan to King David? Or did the people around them cause more harm than good, like Job’s friends?
Once students seem to understand emotions and ways to provide support to others, help them begin applying those skills to current situations in the world around them. It can be a nearby community that experienced a natural disaster or friends from school who lost their home in a fire. Gradually discuss ways to support each other while still respecting people’s need for privacy and safety. You can even make it a practice that in every class period you not only ask for prayer requests, but specific ways you can help your students or the people they know.
Making it a habit for your students to notice and meet the needs of hurting people around them will provide opportunities for them to serve others and teach them about God. It’s a Christian life skill they need you to help them master.
