A problem with Sunday School materials

I recently had to send this message out to the other leaders in my class, to make them aware of an issue with the Sunday School materials we are currently using (which will remain nameless to protect the guilty). Actually, it's a problem with many different Sunday School materials.

"Hi Explorers' leaders. Just thought I should flag up an issue to look out for with the [Sunday School] materials.

There is often a problem that it assumes the children are believers. We should never assume that!

So instead of saying, for example "the Holy Spirit is with you" - it's much better to say, "If you belong to Jesus/Jesus has forgiven you/you believe in Jesus (or similar) the Holy Spirit is with you."

You don't need to labour the point, but just make sure you're not making statements or false promises that may not be true of the children."

Bearing in mind these are evangelical SS materials, this is quite concerning.

How many times have we heard a testimony from someone who realised at the age of 9, or 15, or 21, that they had just been assuming they were a Christian, and had never believed for themselves? Never mind those we know who were brought up in church but never come to faith?

Of course, for children brought up in a Christian family, this may be a subtle, gradual thing. Not everyone has a crisis conversion. But children need to know that salvation is by faith - not by having Christian parents or being in my Sunday School class.

Down arrow

I used the down arrow on my keyboard today.

This may not seem particularly unusual, but I have only just replaced the keyboard I spilt Irn Bru on in 2013.

The down arrow hasn't worked since then.

Sometimes I would turn the whole page upside down and use the up arrow instead, though that's often not possible.

Keyboards are not expensive.

I am an idiot. 😆

Hobbits

Some pictures I did a loooong time ago!

I appear to have misinterpreted the description slightly, and made the soles of their feet hairy instead of the tops 🤦‍♀️. Otoh, I have given them "thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly)", unlike the film-makers...

 

I think the one in the black suit was meant to be Bilbo, but then I drew a whole family. Not sure if they're meant to be modern-day hobbits, or it's unintentional anachronism.

 

 

 

And here's one I did much more recently!

Blind ballot

The lady I clean for is blind 👩‍🦯, and I thought I'd show you how we did her postal vote 🗳️, in case the info was useful to anyone else!

 

I put a paperclip between each box. Then I read out all the options, numbering them as I went: "Number 1 - Conservative. Number 2 - Labour" etc... 22 options for the list vote 😆

Then she counted down the paperclips, put her cross under the one she wanted, took off all the paperclips and put the ballot paper in the envelope. 

 

(The white paper is a test run we did to check the crosses would consistently land in the right place).

 

 

The difference

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - CS Lewis

"His name unfortunately was Eustace Scrubb, but he wasn't a bad sort."

The Silver Chair - CS Lewis

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!"

2 Corinthians 5v17

Same problem over 100 years later

"But exactly the whole difficulty in our public problems is that some men are aiming at cures which other men would regard as worse maladies; are offering ultimate conditions as states of health which others would uncompromisingly call states of disease."

~ GK Chesterton

Women's work

Google's doodle today is for International Women's Day.

It shows a series of women's arms doing various things: writing, science, being an artist, winning the Nobel prize*, voting, singing, typing, making a political speech, climbing a mountain, conducting an orchestra, getting a degree, making a film, being a judge, astronaut, pilot, animator, footballer, photographer, architect, etc...

I'm glad that women have so many opportunities today.

But I was disappointed that, in all the pictures, there was not a single domestic thing represented. No cooking. No cleaning. No childcare.

Are women not worth celebrating when they're doing stereotypically 'feminine' things? The things that no-one will particularly notice, or applaud them for?

"Honour her for all that her hands have done,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."

Proverbs 31v31 (emphasis mine)

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*At least, some medal like that