Teaching children, learning myself

I don't feel qualified to teach small children. I'm used to teaching older people, and to be honest, I'm much more comfortable with them. Part of my preference stems from the fact that I barely have any experience teaching younger kids (except one time in Abilene when I co-taught 3rd graders). But I also prefer teaching older people (teenagers, college students, adults) because we can delve deeper into the content of things, explore questions, and discuss more mature matters.

In the past few days, though, not only I have been challenged to get beyond my comfort zone and teach young children, but I have also been moved to re-think what teaching different age groups can teach me. As I said in a previous post, Wednesday night I taught 4 year-olds through 6th grade (A large age-span, which proved rather difficult) about how God was in charge of the events when Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh and how he took care of his people. I enjoyed the teaching but was really nervous throughout and don't think I did very well. I had a hard time figuring out what level these children were on and what was too much information for them or too far above their heads. But God gave me the courage and I persevered.

And then last night VBS began at our church and not only was I an actor (at which I am also VERY bad!), but I also taught four different groups of children. I was dressed up as the Samaritan woman that met Jesus at the well, and I told my story of "Encountering Jesus," our theme for VBS. I really had a good time with it, even though I was nervous and a little edgy. The experience was really nice for me. I learned more about this story than I had ever really thought about before, or that I even knew was there. When you lay things out in simple terms for children, you might even learn something yourself, or at least be reminded of the important things.

Amongst other things, I asked them, "After the woman met Jesus, do you know what she did?"
[Pause]
"She ran back to her village and told all her friends about Jesus, and they believed because she told them."

Isn't that the heart of the gospel? Loving God and loving people? The Samaritan woman got it. She met Jesus and was so changed by him that she wanted to share Him with others. Isn't that what we should do? When we get back to the basics, the simple concepts of faith, we can be reminded about the heart of the matter, the most important things. Sometimes children know more than I give them credit. Thank you, pure, sweet children of God. You have taught me so much.