"Since the devil's weapon is a spear..."

Do I have a story for you! As you know, I have been going through the names of God with my 3rd-6th graders. Lately, I have been a bit discouraged about the whole thing. One Friday, my lesson did not go well. The kids were not listening, not focused, and driving me crazy. I was thinking, is this what I really need to be doing with them? I had been so sure this material was what God led me to but maybe I had gotten it wrong. Maybe it was above their level. I prayed about it and decided to push through asking God to show me if I needed to step back and change things up. What I really want for these kids is for them to know who God is. If that meant approaching it a different way, then so be it.

A week goes by that they have off for ski/skate week. (Yes, they get an entire week off to ski) And then Monday roles around... the name of God I was doing that day was Malek Yahweh Tsabaot- King Lord of hosts. I explained to the the kids what Lord of host meant. We talked about how in those days it meant Lord of a multitude of warriors or a vast army. I had the kids look up verses to see if we could figure out how big this army is. They soon discovered it was thousands of thousands, millions of millions, and as the last verse we read said "unnumberable". I asked the kids who they thought made up God's army. In my 3rd and 4th grade class they were quick to respond with people that follow God and Angels (all of this was in the verses we had read). We talked about how you can be a follower of God. (We are sinners, Jesus died, etc.) And then the best part... I told them that there is no in the middle with this. They are either a part of God's army or a part of the devil's army. I watched them process this information. This is when it got good... hands shot up, with so many questions. One of them was, "Since the devil's weapon is a spear, what weapons does God's army have?" Whoa, talk about a loaded question. First thing I addressed was that the devil's weapon was not a spear. He does not walk around cutting people. I asked them to think for a minute about what the devil's weapons really are. Raising his hand one boy said, "I bet when we are mean to each other, that's helping the devil." Another child, "and when we lie". They kept going with more and more things. I saw they were really grasping this and so I turned it around and asked them, "If these things are the devil's weapons, then what do you think are God's weapons?" Immediately, the little girl next to me said "When we are kind to each other." And still another, "When we love each other". Some of the older kids mentioned how reading our Bible and praying are some of His weapons. Yes! They got it. Good choices help God's army and bad choices help the devil's. Lastly, I talked about how even when we do make those bad choices God still loves us and will always forgive us. NO MATTER WHAT. but we can't just ask forgiveness and then continue to make those bad choices. We have to change the way we act. I ended our lesson reminding them that there is no middle ground. We are either helping one side or the other. Whose army do you want to be a part of?

What a great day. I am going to stick with these names of God. My prayer is that by the end of this they really will know who God is. At least, as much as is possible for us to know.

Today, I saw God in His faithfulness.