I Love Sunday School!

Parents, is this how you feel about Sunday School?

I have to admit, there have been a few Sundays when I'd have rather have that extra hour of sleep on a Sunday morning. Sunday School means getting up early on a day off from work, dragging your kids out of bed and cracking the whip to get everyone showered, dressed and fed before pushing them out the door and into the car. By the time you get to church you need a nap! Is it worth it?

I say "Yes!" Sunday School is a lot more than just another program or story hour, or just one more thing to add on to the kids' schedules.

For your consideration, here are some reasons to bring your kids (and yourself) to Sunday School, from Dick Gruber's book Focus on Children, "Sunday school provides boys and girls with the essential ingredients for proper Christian living. Some of these essentials include the following: Small group age-level fellowship, regular systematic study of Biblical doctrine, ministry training, and the building of good habits of church attendance" (p. 8).

Although the primary place of teaching should be the home, Sunday school allows people of all ages the opportunity to learn and fellowship with their peers. As children enter their teen years, friends become increasingly important relationships. Sunday School can be a place where strong Christian friendships are developed, and these friends can also learn to serve in ministry together through classroom service, projects and special events.

Sunday School attendance also allows children the opportunity for regular and systematic Bible study. I don't know about you, but to my shame I don't always have the regular family Bible-study time that I want to. Sunday school is an opportunity for parents to connect with kids about what they are learning. It is an opportunity to open up Biblical discussion. The curriculum that we use, Radiant Life, is set up so that children will have a full-Gospel study throughout their years in Sunday school. This regular study can help to form lasting habits of study and church attendance.

The Biblical basis for training children is plentiful:

Deuteronomy 4:9 "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them."

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up."

Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Matthew 19:14 "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’

...and there are many more.

Why Sunday School? I say why not! It's worth the effort.

by Amity Alicea