Skip to main content

Awana Lessons

Tonight was my worst night at Awana ever.

I teach the Sparks, which includes Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade. Tonight, I was teaching a lesson about Joseph (he of the fabulous coat and jealous brothers; not Mary's husband). I was trying to make a point about how Joseph's brothers must have felt about their father having a "favorite" son.

I went to Gabby, one of the older girls in Sparks, ahead of time and explained to her what I wanted to do. "I'm teaching a lesson about how Joseph's brothers must have felt when Joseph was the favorite son. I'm going to call you up front and tell everyone that you are my favorite and how special you are, and then I'm going to act like I'm giving you special treats, but it's all just an act and to teach the lesson. Okay?"

She was thrilled, and asked me about six times how much longer until she got to help me with the lesson.

Finally, her big moment came. I called her up in front of the class and told everyone that Gabby was just really special, and that she was my favorite Sparky, and that she was the best Sparky.

At which time, Gabby's younger sister Mattie- who is also in my Sparks class - became enraged and screamed, "That's not true!" and threw her jacket over her head so she didn't have to listen any more.

I told all the Sparkies that I was giving Gabby all the cookies which normally went to all of them and that she would get lemonade while they all got water.

Then, I asked them how they felt about all of this and compared it to Joseph and his brothers. I very carefully explained that they are all my favorites, and they are all wonderful and that we should all share, treat each other kindly, and not do anything to make others jealous.

Then we all lined up to go have our cookies.

Mattie promptly walked up to her older sister Gabby and whacked her on the arm. Then she looked at me and yelled, "You're mean! You said mean things to us!"

I had to sit Mattie down and explain to her that she hadn't listened to the whole lesson and I re-explained to her that I love them all equally and that it was just an object lesson (like we have every week).

Then as we went to get our cookies, I found Gabby incensed that she wasn't getting all the extra cookies I had told her she could have. I reminded her, "Remember before the lesson tonight when I told you that I was going to act like I was giving you extra cookies and lemonade? Remember how I told you it was just going to be pretend and that I was just joking?"

She pouted her way back to her seat. A few minutes later I saw another leader talking to Gabby, who had dissolved into tears. I walked over in time to hear Gabby wail, "She said she really liked me and then she said it was just a joke!"

I had to sit down with her and explain again, "Gabby, I do really like you. That part wasn't a joke!"

"You like me better than all the other Sparks? I'm your favorite?"

"You are all my favorites," I replied. "I like you all the same!"

"But you said I was special," she wailed.

"You are special! You're a very special girl," I told her.

"More special than anyone else?" she asked.

"You are all special, Gabby. Remember how we learned in the lesson that it isn't nice to have one favorite person? It would make everyone else feel bad if I thought you were more special than anyone," I explained (again).

"But I really am THE BEST Sparky," she snapped.

The worst part was, I had this conversation over and over all night. Gabby really wanted me to tell her that she was the best in the class and that I liked her best and that she was the most special girl on the planet. I told her she had beautiful eyes, I told her I liked her hair, I congratulated her on being so smart. None of it was good enough. She was aiming for the top spot.

I eventually had to go find her mother and tell her that I had upset both her daughters and that if they told her on the way home that I was mean and a liar, then I was really sorry.

If I were being graded as an Awana leader, I think I would have failed tonight.

Comments

  1. Thank you for your time that you give to these children. I just started having my children go to Awanas again and am very blessed by volunteers like you! To me you did not fail.....you blessed. You blessed another mother like me...
    Trina

    ReplyDelete
  2. I teach T&T's....so I feel your pain. I have to agree with Trina...you didn't fail...you blessed! God will take our sometimes-not-so-great efforts and make something beautiful - He promised, and He delivers!
    Brian

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have been serving dual roles this year as commander and sparks leader and I agree it sounds like you did a wonderful job, definitely not a failure! Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o

A Week After Surgery

Katie went back to the surgeon yesterday to have her foot checked.  It was the first time we saw the stitches.  When we saw her after surgery, her foot was already wrapped up in three inches of gauze and it's been wrapped like that ever since. The doctor decided that the sutures were not quite ready to be removed. There are stitches in the side of her foot where they inserted one of the screws.  The surgeon told us that she has to be very, very, very careful not to put her foot on the ground.  Any pressure at all could cause the screws to shift or break and that would be very, very, very bad. They knew we were going out of town for the wedding this weekend.  In order to protect her foot as much as possible, she was put in a hard cast.  It will come back off on Monday so they can check the sutures again.  This cast has a very limited time to be signed! Katie may not get to have a lot of people sign her cast  but she currently still has the initials of the sur