Sunday School

So even though I'm not really supposed to, I went to church today. It was my first day of being a Sunday school teacher for the 8-11 yr olds. I was actually pretty excited, mostly because I was able to get out of the house. My parents and Erik tried to stop me, but I reminded them that I was not running a marathon...After much debate I put on my Sunday best and escaped to educate the youth about Jesus.

Now I must admit I was a tad bit nervous. I mean I haven't taught Sunday school in years. And I was scared that the kids would give me such a hard time, that I would have to yell...and yelling would lead to breathing issues.

At any rate, I walked into class (armed with treats) expecting a nice class. Yeah, pregnancy must be making me delusional. When I walked in the kids immediately started asking me if I was going to have the baby right then and there. I said not if they don’t stress me out. This lead into a discussion about where babies come from…I was so not prepared to have that conversation. So I tried to get onto a different topic.

Eventually everyone settled down and I introduced myself and ask them their names. It was nice because the kids seemed to like me right away and wanted to show me the ropes. One child, Leah, took it upon herself to tell me about each child in the class and if they were troublemakers. Little did I know that she was going to be my main problem…

This week’s lesson was about the first four commandments. We read a few verses and talked about practical life application of these commandments, all without too much trouble. We had a Bible memory verse and that was around the time everything fell apart. Most of the kids memorized the verse right away and were very proud to recite it to me. However there were a few kids who took a little longer than others. This made the kids who had already memorized the verse angry and they began to chastise the kids. They were calling them slow and were yelling at them. So of course I stepped in and told everyone to be quiet and tried to give the kids a chance to say the verse. Eventually the children all memorized and we had time to play games. I decided to pull out an old favorite…Heads Up 7up. Some kids played that with me while the others played air hockey. Next thing I knew kids were fighting about who got to play air hockey next. The littlest girl, Leah, ended up pushing a boy because he was in her way. He fell to the floor. The kids playing Heads Up 7Up were arguing about who’s turn it was to be the thumb pusher. It was chaos. I was told that the rule of Sunday school was that if I have to say someone’s name 3 times they get taken back to the sanctuary to their parents. If I had actually followed this rule there wouldn’t have been any kids left. Here is a list of the children who got sent back to their parents and their offenses:

Leah (age 8): Pushing a boy down, harassing the other kids, talking out of turn, and drawing on the board without permission

Sebastian (age 9): Diving on top of the air hockey table, wandering around while I was talking, yelling at the other kids, and hitting a boy with his jacket.

Basically after this experience I got a little panicky about having a kid. I mean, I forgot how energetic and crazy kids can be. Also I think one of the little boys had a crush on me….it was cute, he even lied about his age so he could be old enough for me. By the end of this day, I was ready to go back to bed rest (its much more peaceful here in the silence of the living room).
I have to teach Sunday school again in 2 weeks….I am going to need a lot of grace and prayer