Whispers to My Soul

I am in a season of life where I am preparing and teaching Bible lessons for kids almost every week. In the process, I have to take the passage or story and tell it in a way that kids can understand, drawing out truth about God clearly and helping the kids to see the main point or the principle that is present. Along the way, I often find myself convicted or reminded of certain things. I find that I am not only teaching the kids, I am being taught by God myself. I sense a whisper to my soul telling me that this truth is not just for the kids, but for me as well.

Here are a few recent examples of this.

In teaching the kiddos about Ezra and Nehemiah, I was reminded that God is sovereign over everything. I talked with the kids about how God used pagan kings to accomplish his purposes both in bringing the people of Israel into exile as punishment, and in fulfilling his promise to bring them back to the land. I reminded them that we serve the same sovereign God. And the whisper to my soul said: God is sovereign over YOUR life too. You can trust him with your present and your future. He is in complete control, no matter what happens.

One of my co-teachers recently taught the kids the parable of the Good Samaritan. The point she made (that Jesus is making in the parable) is that if we say we love God, we have to love our neighbors. Loving our neighbor proves that we love God. And loving our neighbor is not reserved for those who are nice to us or whom we like. No, our neighbor includes those who are different from us or hard to love. She asked the kids to think about someone who is hard to love and to try to do something to love that neighbor this week. And the whisper to my soul said: You know the people you are having a hard time loving. They are your neighbor. Do something loving for them this week.

We also taught the kids the parable of the good tree and the bad tree. Good trees bear good fruit. Bad trees bear bad fruit. Our actions show what is in our heart. My co-teacher connected it to Jeremiah 17, where God says that those who disobey him are like a dried up bush, but those who are faithful to him are like a flourishing fruit tree planted by the water. Then God continues and says that he is the one who knows our hearts (the root of the tree) and he is the only one who can change our hearts. And the whisper to my soul said: Stop trying to change yourself. God in his grace changes you through Jesus. Trust in him and rely on his grace to see you through your sanctification.

As I am trying to teach the kids about God, it has become clear to me that there is still much for me to learn, much for me to be reminded of, and much for me to grow. I’m thankful that God’s word is always effective…even in the life of the teacher.