God is Patient with Us!
Throughout February we have seen God continue to pursue His people even in the midst of their unfaithfulness and the dividing of the kingdom. In March we will finish learning about Elijah and Elisha and look at some of the other prophets God sent throughout the years, first to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and then the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Check out the unit overview.
In all of it we will see, as our key verse for Unit 14 tells us, that God is so patient with His people (including us!) as His kindness leads us to repentance.
For Teachers
We hope you were all encouraged by the team training at the beginning of February as we encouraged one another with the growth we’ve seen in the kids, filled in the coming schedule in our teams (contact Jenn to sign up) and revisited the core values of our gospel-centered ministry! In case you weren’t able to attend, check out this short 5-minute video as a reminder of what we mean by gospel-centered teaching and why it is so incredibly crucial.
We also took a few weeks in adult Sunday school to share the awareness training we all go through as part of our safety system with the congregation. Hopefully this was a helpful refresher for you, I would encourage you to revisit the handbook for a further refresher on the policies we have in place to keep our kids safe, as you are on the front lines in this important mission!
Memory verse for Unit 14: This unit’s verse is 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
- There is a simplified version for the younger kids in Pre-K: “The Lord … is patient toward you, … wishing … that all should reach repentance.”
- You can always find a printout of the current verse in the curriculum folder.
Teaching tip for March: As we’ve been talking about child safety this month, an area that can be one of the biggest challenges in this is check-out. Sometimes the kids don’t understand the importance behind the policies and are eager to run off to the playground and turn the last few minutes between ROCK and their parents’ arrival into a remake of The Great Escape. Try to be prepared with a fun way to engage the kids that will keep them seated as they wait (can be something as simple as hangman or Pictionary) and bring them one at a time to the door as their parent arrives with the correct name tag to claim them. Work together with your supporting teacher to have one person leading the activity and one matching students with parents as they come to the door.
Training videos: Check out these Gospel Project videos for each of the upcoming lessons in March. Click on the date and lesson title to expand and show the video.
March 1: Session 13.4, Elisha and the Army
March 8: Session 14.1, Jonah the Prophet to Nineveh
March 15: Session 14.2, Hosea the Prophet to Israel
March 22: Session 14.3, Israel Taken Captive
March 29: Session 15.1, Isaiah the Prophet to Judah
For Parents
We are so thankful for the privilege of partnering with you all in the discipleship of your children and honored by the trust you place in us to be a part of that process each week.
We take very seriously the responsibility of teaching your children the gospel as well as keeping them secure while they are in our care on Sundays. Hopefully the conversations we had in adult Sunday school in February on abuse awareness were informative as well as reassuring that we are aware of these issues and prioritizing that our community be a safe place for kids. We do ask that you would partner with us in those efforts in a few key ways:
- Please be sure to pick your children up in a timely manner after Sunday school or service so that teachers can get to their next thing on time (be that service after Sunday school or home for their own kids’ naps). If everyone waits until the last minute before service starts to pickup from Sunday school the process gets chaotic, which isn’t conducive to safety.
- After you have picked your children up from Sunday school or ROCK, please continue to supervise them rather than letting them run off. I know some of our kids who have been at ROC for many years may be used to that and feel very comfortable roaming about the space, but especially as the church continues to grow it’s just not a good policy to have kids going about unsupervised.
- If you know your child is one who tends to be chomping at the bit to get out the door on Sundays before the teacher is able to check them out properly, help us reinforce the importance of this process. The kids don’t know (or need to know) all the reasons we covered in the abuse awareness training why this is important so it’s understandable that some of them have a hard time taking it seriously. As teachers we can encourage them to follow the rules but as parents you are the primary authority in their lives so it’s important we are in unison on this.
Family worship tip for March: Pray without ceasing! All of life is worship, so don’t limit your spiritual modeling for your kids to a formal time of family worship. Prayer is one particular area most of us could grow in this — it’s easy to only pray at times that have become traditional reminders for us: meals, bedtime, travel, etc. But what would happen if next time your child was struggling or was happy about something you stopped to say a prayer with them asking for God’s help or thanking Him for His goodness? Give it a try and see!
