New Testament Survey for Kids (An Accidental Conversation)

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New Testament Survey for Kids (An Accidental Conversation)

He was flipping through the tiny blue New Testament he was given as a baby, wondering about the words in red. “The words are red when Jesus talks,” I explained, smiling as I remembered that was even a thing. What a wonderful thing!

What came next was an accidental New Testament survey, six-year-old style. (I thought I’d retell it to you because sometimes talking to a kid about the Bible makes you love the Bible more.)

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Discipleship and Direct Objects

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Discipleship and Direct Objects

Confession: Indirect and direct objects never made sense to me. This is not spicy information except that I’m writer, a former writing teacher, and a former writing curriculum writer. (Whew.) The point of all those inbred terms is this: based on my skill set, indirect and direct options should have made sense, but they didn’t.

(Don’t worry—this is not a post about grammar. I wouldn’t do that to you. I also wouldn’t do that to me.)

I suppose I could have asked for extra help from one of the many teachers who taught indirect/direct objects to me, but I didn’t care that much, and it didn’t seem to matter much. I also have this problem in which I don’t pay attention to things that aren’t interesting to me (I’m working on it), and it’s hard to ask for help when the truth is that you just couldn’t bring yourself to pay attention, and worse, you suspect you’ll zone out again the second the teacher starts answering your question. Man, I’m a gem.

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Teach What Matters

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Teach What Matters

"I think this is a true statement: Jesus is a psycho for purity. It’s not because He wants a bunch of good girls. That’s boring. It’s because He paid the ultimate price to save us. You don’t pay that kind of price for things that aren’t precious beyond description." -Knocking Over Tables by Caroline Saunders

For most of the last decade, my husband has worked with students. I, being the token student pastor's wife and a middle school teacher, have been asked many times to talk to girls about sex, purity, and marriage. And so I always have, sharing with them things I'd learned, how purity matters because of marriage and morality and whatnot, how there are so many benefits, how it's worth it.

Then one day, I felt convicted. I realized that I'd been teaching things I'd always heard rather than seeking God for fresh revelation and wrestling through scripture to fight for the wisdom myself. This is not really like me. "Fresh teaching" was one of my core values as a writing teacher, and I flat-out refused to simply pass along what had always been taught until I wrestled with it and knew it to be valuable, and I created new content whenever necessary. I have always practiced the same thing as a small group and discipleship leader, refusing to lazily lean on someone else's hard-earned wisdom. But for purity? I phoned it in. It was too icky of a topic, and I just tried to be funny as I shared what I'd always heard. Kind of like, "HAHA WE'RE TALKING ABOUT SEX AT CHURCH, SO LET'S LAUGH SO WE DON'T BARF."

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