The other night at dinner our five year old, Mary Beth, surprised me by summarizing the doctrine of the Trinity. I know that I am more than a little biased, but for a five year old it was a pretty good overview of a difficult doctrine.
What got my attention was that I didn’t remember spending much time teaching her about the Triunity of God. So, I asked, Mary Beth, “When did you learn about the Trinity?” She said, “Oh my Sunday School teacher Miss Deb taught me.”
And, it wasn’t just that one lesson. I continue to be impressed by how much Miss Deb teaches pre-school children. So, with my daughter as a data source, I decided to conduct a study on what I think makes Miss Deb an effective teacher.
Here are my conclusions:
First, Our Sunday School program has chosen good curriculum. We use Desiring God’s Sunday School materials, an excellent Word-centered curriculum. Good teaching begins with good content.
Second, Miss Deb prepares throughout the week. I know from talking to her that she doesn’t wait until Sunday morning to prepare.
Third, Miss Deb deeply and prayerfully loves the children. My daughter, and the other pre-schoolers Miss Deb teaches knows that she treasures them.
Pray for Sunday School teachers who use Christ-centered curriculum, prepare for Sunday morning, love the little children. God will use teachers like these to store up treasure in heaven.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader blog has already posted initial impressions of Prince Caspian. Don’t go there if you haven’t seen the movie yet.
Our family went last night and I won’t give anything away, except to say that we do think it is worth seeing. (And, given the price of movies, that is saying something).
I finished my intense week of study at Lake Geneva with Dr. Dan Block. We focused on the book of Deuteronomy which is more foundational for understanding Scripture than most of us realize.
One of Dr. Block’s points of emphasis was the relationship between God, the people, and the land. He showed from Deuteronomy how the land suffers if Israel breaks covenant relationship with God.
One of my “cohorts,” Daryl Dashouse, of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) posted on this point. He does a great job explaining it. You can read his thoughts here and I can’t imagine how he got it up so quickly. He most be blogging from an airport.
