Every day I try to instill in my students the desire to seek God and depend on Him for everything! On Tuesday, I had a little boy come up to me complaining his head hurt. Now, I don't know about most students in the world, but mine LOVE going to the nurse. If they sit wrong in their chair, they complain that they might have a back problem and need to go. After a few days of constant interruptions in wanting to go to the nurse, I instituted a "rule". "We only go to the nurse if we are bleeding, going to vomit or going to die." (I know, it sounds funny, but so far it is solving the problem of always wanting to go to the nurse.) My student kept coming up to me at the beginning of the day, complaining and since he was one that did not usually want to miss class, I figured it was probably a legitimate concern. 10 minutes later he returns from the nurse stating he was given a couple of pills to help with his headache. Problem solved, right? What he did not tell us was that he hadn't eaten any breakfast, and you all know what happens when you take pain medication on an empty stomach! :) After I realize he hadn't eaten anything all day, I quickly try to get some crackers for him to eat, hoping it would settle his stomach. Unfortunately, I was too late. As I look up from the front of the room, I see him starting to cough and proceded to throw up all over his desk and the boy next to him! I quickly jump into "mom" mode and hand him the garbage can while trying to console this poor student. As I am holding the garbage can I see the boy next to him starting to gag (because he was just thrown up on.) Another student is in the back yelling, "LALALALA!" Another student says, "Miss, this smells I think I'm going to be sick." Another girl unpolitely shares, "If he keeps throwing up, I am going to throw up on him." Needless to say, my classroom erupted in chaos. As my panicking students are sitting in the room, I tried to calm them down by telling them to breath deeply. That did not work as well as I hoped, so, what is a teacher to do? Thankfully, we were in the middle of Bible class. I said to my students, "The Bible says we can come to Jesus in times of need and he will comfort us. Open your Bibles and start finding comfort in God's word." A student responded, "Miss, where do we look?" "Well, begin in Genesis 1, I guess." One little boy began reading Genesis 1 aloud as the class followed along. When my student would throw up, he would just read louder! "Miss, I am not finding comfort!" "Keep reading," I replied, "It will come!" Finally, a student shared, "I guess if God created the world, He knows everything. I guess He would know we need Him now."
I am pretty sure my whole class thought I was nuts! Honestly, I thought I was crazy for telling them to read their Bibles as I try to regain control of the class and comfort my sick child. However, how great that they were able to begin practicing using the Bible in times of need! Once I got past the initial feelings of all that was happening in my room, I began to laugh. It honestly was a hilarious moment in our classroom!
I was also challenged by my students. They sat and read while I took care of the mess! One boy even took the initiative to read the Scripture to the class (he will probably become a pastor one day;). How often do I go to the Bible when my life is in utter chaos? How often do I just sit and read the Bible when my world seems out of control? A funny moment in my third grade class caused me to reflect on my spiritual walk as well.
And may you find comfort today in 2 Corinthians 1:2-5:
"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows."
No comments:
Post a Comment