Thursday, January 28, 2010

Adventures in Sunday School: What would you do?

As some of you might know I am back in my favorite calling teaching Sunday School, and I am teaching the best age group, the 16 to 18 year old teenagers.

So I am what most people would call a liberal Mormon and that is okay with me. Even with that when teaching Sunday School I try to be neutral, or at least present both perspectives with the kids. Basically my goal is for them not to take things for granted, like their testimony or gospel knowledge, and to really think about the material and their relationship with God.

That said we had a great moment in class the other day. I was teaching Abraham 322-23 about how many were called before they were born.

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;
23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.


From there I wanted to transition to the thought that this was not a unique event in scripture and went to Jeremiah 1:5.

5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations

Just as I was ready to move on one of my students pipes in with this question, “Why does it say ‘see birth control’ in the footnote?”

So you are teaching a class of teenagers in a small ward, how do you answer this? Be aware they were looking for an answer that discusses birth control. I will post my response later.

1 comment:

WonderKitty said...

That is an interesting question. I, not really knowing what to say, would probably have told them to research it, follow the foot notes, and come back next week and tell us what they found.

I am glad to hear that you teach that age, I teach the same group in my ward, and it has to be the best calling ever.