I did a health class experiment with some of my students a few weeks ago. I'll admit that it didn't go quite the way that I had intended it to. The premise was that abstinence will prevent STDs 100% of the time. One student was abstinent, two more were in a monogamous relationship with each other, and the others had "sex" at will with anyone else included in the activity. One color of the Starburst candies represented HIV/AIDS. The final result was to show that those who are abstinent for life and those who wait for marriage (in the case where their partner also waited) would not contract a STD through sexual contact.
At the end of this experiment, I let the kids eat whatever candy was in their bag...
The next week, one of the students who participated came up to me and asked, "Miss Liz, do you have any more STDs? I'm all out." Another piped up with the comment, "Yeah, they were good. When are you going to bring more STDs?" These comments just happened to occur right in front of a new student and his father. The dad gave me a look that asked a hundred questions. The son was momentarily taken aback, but quickly recovered and declared "TMI!" I proceeded to explain about our health class experiment and that the kids were asking me to give them more candy. Everyone became visibly more relaxed when a clear explanation became available.
Yesterday, I took my niece to church with me. It isn't the first time that she has gone, but it is the first time that I've taken her with me to the early service. At seven years old, she is starting to get pretty good at reading new words, but she doesn't always understand the meaning. This became pretty clear throughout the service. She would grab my hand and look up at me with a confused and concerned expression, wave me down, and urgently whisper a question in my ear. There was no getting away from it; I had to explain to her several of the words. I saw her relax as she realized that one of those "big" words really meant the same thing as several smaller words that she knew.
During the sermon, she was carefully flipping through the hymnal. Mid-sermon, she found the song "The Old Rugged Cross." The question that immediately followed this discovery was "Will you read this to me?" I told her that I would find it for her and she could hear it when I got home. (I did find it on Youtube, and played her the Johnny Cash/ June Carter Cash version. She was so drawn in that when asked a question, it had to be repeated twice before she was able to answer it.) When she asked me what page we were on, I told her that she was in the wrong book. She looked appalled, but quickly found the Bible under her seat. With some help, she found the right page. Her next question, I'm certain, left me with a shocked look of my own. She asked me if she could go up front and read from the Bible. I hope that I gave her the right answer when I told her that she couldn't do it this time.
I do know that she loves to go to church with my husband and I because we will sing along with the songs on the radio. The idea is to try to prepare ourselves ahead of time for worship, since we are serving in the church. Several times, I caught her picking up on the chorus of the songs and singing along with us. God definitely has something awesome planned for this precious little girl.
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