Sunday School

Growing up, I always attended Sunday School.  In fact, when I hear the words, "Sunday School," I immediately think of felt boards with those brightly colored, cut out Bible story characters and songs such as "Jesus Loves Me" and "The B-I-B-L-E."  Sunday School was always a place to learn more about the Bible and was a little bit more personal than "Big Church."  I can still remember many of childhood Sunday School teachers and the impact that they had on my life.

As an adult, Sunday School is just as important in my life.  Bible stories on felt boards have been replaced with flipping through the pages of God's Word and many of those songs have been replaced with real life stories of praise by other class members sharing what God is doing in their own lives.  Trey and I feel extremely blessed to be a part of such a wonderful Sunday School class at our church.  One of the first Sundays that we visited our current Sunday School class, a couple was sharing some of their life's struggles.  Tears were shed as this couple opened up about what was truly going on in their life.  At the conclusion of the lesson, our Sunday School teacher encouraged us to gather around this couple and pray for them.  As we all extended a hand and prayed, Trey and I could really sense God's presence as well as the community within this class.

Each week that I leave Sunday School, I am encouraged to hear how God is working.  The members of our class are constantly looking for ways to reach out to others in need around the Savannah area.  Recently, a member of our Sunday School class, who is a police officer in our area, started a drive to collect items for the tornado victims in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He ended up collecting an estimated amount of $15,000 in items to donate!!!  I am also encouraged by the stories people share about their own families.  This past Sunday, a girl shared about her pre teen daughter and how her daughter is already facing peer pressure at school (drugs, alcohol, etc.)  Through tears, she talked of how her daughter looks up to many of the other women in our Sunday School class as positive role models and how proud she was that her daughter called her from a party to come get her because some inappropriate and illegal things were starting to happen.  She attributed a great deal of her daughter's spiritual growth to being around other Christian families in our Sunday School class. I love that people feel free to share their trials and victories.

I am thankful for the body of Christ, the church.  We need fellow Christians to lift us up, encourage us, sharpen us, and draw us closer to Christ.  We need to be uplifted at the beginning of each new week and to be challenged to spread the joy of Christ to others.  Sometimes on Sundays, we need a shoulder to cry on and sometimes, we need to be a shoulder for others.  Always on Sundays, we need to come ready to worship and praise God for who He is and what He is doing.  I am so thankful for God's Bride, the church, and for Sunday School!