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So, a few very cool things happened to me at church today.
#1 I've always told the bishopric that I can be called on with 2 minutes notice to speak or to teach a lesson. Only the 1st counselor was there today, and the youth SS teacher was AWOL, so I got pressed into teaching at the beginning of Sunday School. The lesson was from Samuel about David & Bathsheba.
#2 My decision from October of last year to only wear white guayaberas to church has apparently now lost any taint, because I've been asked to teach and to give prayers. Slowly, the Victorian necktie hegemonic dresscode is crumbling.
#3 The kids actually responded to my lesson. I don't talk down to kids when I teach them. While I freely admit that I cannot teach my own children, when I get in front of a classroom, something takes over in me, and I just know how to relate to people. I probably sound like I'm boasting, and maybe I am, but I just want to communicate how much I love to teach. The time flew by, but for those 40 mins, I had them, and they were engaged, and I actually felt like I was doing something.
Instead of breaking out the Old Testament and hammering away at them with the stories, I asked if anyone knew the basics of what had happened. A few did, so I had them recount the stories. Then the idea came into my head that I should ask them what they would do if they had their Bathsheba moment. This class was the combined youth, 12-18 m/f. After getting the obvious jokes out of the way (stay off the roof at night, don't stare at your neighbor, etc.), I asked them if they were ever going to be in a situation like David. They all said, "no."
I then asked them, "what if you're over at a friend's house, and they start looking at porn? Or, what if you see someone at school, and they are gorgeous and sexy, and you can't get them out of your head...what do you do then?"
They gave me the canned responses like prayer and the rest, but I probed some more, and I got them to think more about it. I asked them if they ever let their thoughts get away from them. They all said "no." I then called them all "liars" and said I knew that they had. This caused a howl of laughter from them, even the girls. So, I asked again, and this time they opened up and started talking about real things. I pointed out that there was no fool-proof way (after we read D&C 121:45) to let virtue garnish your thoughts all the time, but that they needed to try and bring their thoughts back to righteousness, and that there would come a time in their lives when they would be married and able to think about these things and not get themselves into trouble. But, even then, I cautioned them that David and Bathsheba had covenants with other people, and that all it takes for anyone to fall is a moment's carelessness. I told them that being Mormon was no defense against sin, and that all they had to do was to read the Utah newspapers to see that crime and sin and heartache can happen anywhere.
I love teaching. I wish it were my calling at church.
#1 I've always told the bishopric that I can be called on with 2 minutes notice to speak or to teach a lesson. Only the 1st counselor was there today, and the youth SS teacher was AWOL, so I got pressed into teaching at the beginning of Sunday School. The lesson was from Samuel about David & Bathsheba.
#2 My decision from October of last year to only wear white guayaberas to church has apparently now lost any taint, because I've been asked to teach and to give prayers. Slowly, the Victorian necktie hegemonic dresscode is crumbling.
#3 The kids actually responded to my lesson. I don't talk down to kids when I teach them. While I freely admit that I cannot teach my own children, when I get in front of a classroom, something takes over in me, and I just know how to relate to people. I probably sound like I'm boasting, and maybe I am, but I just want to communicate how much I love to teach. The time flew by, but for those 40 mins, I had them, and they were engaged, and I actually felt like I was doing something.
Instead of breaking out the Old Testament and hammering away at them with the stories, I asked if anyone knew the basics of what had happened. A few did, so I had them recount the stories. Then the idea came into my head that I should ask them what they would do if they had their Bathsheba moment. This class was the combined youth, 12-18 m/f. After getting the obvious jokes out of the way (stay off the roof at night, don't stare at your neighbor, etc.), I asked them if they were ever going to be in a situation like David. They all said, "no."
I then asked them, "what if you're over at a friend's house, and they start looking at porn? Or, what if you see someone at school, and they are gorgeous and sexy, and you can't get them out of your head...what do you do then?"
They gave me the canned responses like prayer and the rest, but I probed some more, and I got them to think more about it. I asked them if they ever let their thoughts get away from them. They all said "no." I then called them all "liars" and said I knew that they had. This caused a howl of laughter from them, even the girls. So, I asked again, and this time they opened up and started talking about real things. I pointed out that there was no fool-proof way (after we read D&C 121:45) to let virtue garnish your thoughts all the time, but that they needed to try and bring their thoughts back to righteousness, and that there would come a time in their lives when they would be married and able to think about these things and not get themselves into trouble. But, even then, I cautioned them that David and Bathsheba had covenants with other people, and that all it takes for anyone to fall is a moment's carelessness. I told them that being Mormon was no defense against sin, and that all they had to do was to read the Utah newspapers to see that crime and sin and heartache can happen anywhere.
I love teaching. I wish it were my calling at church.
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