Webster dictionary defines a parable as "a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle." In Children's Worship class, some of our lessons have been about Jesus' parables. I tell the kids, before I start the lesson, that we have to figure out what Jesus is trying to teach us. Having a range of ages in the class, I know I'm going to get many levels of understanding. After the kids feel like they have figured out the lesson from the parable, I help them apply it to their daily life. So far this school year, along with stories of when Jesus was a child, we have studied these parables: The Good Samaritan, The Lost Sheep, The Mustard Seed, The Leaven, and The Sower.
My first Sunday back after summer break in September I used the parable of The Good Samaritan. School had started back, and I used that shared experience of starting back to school with a different teacher and meeting new students in their class as a point of discussion. Everyone had a story to tell about a new kid in their classroom, or they had a new teacher, or they were in a new (to them) school building. After we talked about the lesson in this story, I asked them how they felt about how someone new to their school was being treated and if they needed to help. It made me happy to hear how they helped a new person with their tray in the cafeteria, gave up their swing or said "hi" first.
We spent a couple of Sundays in October on The Lost Sheep. The series of lessons were presented on different levels of understanding who the shepherd was, passing through the rocks with a wolf hiding and what the "sheep fold" represented. Everyone got that the shepherd was Jesus, and that being lost in Walmart or in the dark was very scary, but I got several different answers of places that the "sheepfold "could be or places that they felt safe. We did finally agree that heaven is the best "sheepfold."
Our lessons in February were the parables of The Mustard Seed, The Leaven and The Sower.
These parables have started discussions that have lasted long after the lesson has ended. The point we all agreed was the lesson in The Mustard Seed and The Sower was growing and strengthening their faith. There were many useful ways suggested to grow their faith or mustard seed. I loved hearing their ways of not getting stuck on the first three paths in The Sower (hard path seeds eaten by birds, rocky soil where roots wither in the sun, seeds fall in a thorny patch and roots cannot take a hold). One of the older kids told us that reading or having the Bible read to them, prayer and coming to church was the way to keep their faith growing. Although, I got the same type of answers for The Leaven, I was surprised by one of the answers that was given. Instead of the leaven or yeast helping your faith to grow, this one child said the leaven was put in all of us to help spread the word about Jesus. I was surprised because his response was the same as I had found in my "googling" of the parable. I love that this kid had no fear in expressing his opinion that was different from all the others.
The children have enjoyed these and are very willing participants in the discussions we have afterwards. I encourage the youngest to have a say in our discussion, even if it is only to say that they don't like mustard. I hope the kids are taking these lessons to heart and will always remember them.
--Tina
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