I’ve got alot on my plate this weekend. All church related.
1. Do this slideshow for the senior grads luncheon. 4 seniors. Approximately 60 pictures. Scanning.
2. Work up my youth devotional on the sower. I’m looking forward to this one. I always enjoy being given the chance to speak to the young people. There are so many things that I want to say to them when I am up in front of them, but I always get some sort of stage fright and end up flubbing it up.
The parable of the sower is an easy one. Easy to understand. Easy to convey to the young people. I’ve giving the devo to 4th through 6th graders. They really should know it, because we already went over it in class a few weeks ago. So they should be able to teach themselves.
3. Work up my Wednesday night lesson on cursing. A few weeks ago, I told the kids I’d do a lesson on cursing. They’ve been asking for one. So I guess they might be listening to my lessons. Who knows? I never really thought they picked up on things. I guess I’ve learned my lesson because many times I figure they’re staring off into space or talking to their neighbor. Nope. They’re really listening.
Cursing. It’s something that some up us deal with every day. The kids that I’ll be teaching have probably just recently learned to experience it. And either they are shunning it; tolerating it; or doing it themselves. I do know people who once they get away from their family and church…and are with their friends…they choose to curse. I hope this isn’t the case with the kids in my class.
I remember when I was in 6th grade at the elementary school. Rarely did you ever hear a curse word. Bathroom topics were usually around. But people rarely became vulgar. Then we moved into the Junior high in 7th grade. It was like night and day with people cursing. More and more seemingly. I say all that to tell you I know what these kids are thinking, and perhaps why it is such a big deal to them. Am I to convince them that cursing is always wrong?
I’ve already been put on the spot by the kids when they asked if I’ve ever cussed. I told them I’ve said some things that I’ve regretted….and left it at that. Maybe they’re trying to justify cussing. I don’t know.
I’ll probably spend some time on the verses about taking the Lord’s name in vain. There are probably plenty of more verses about that one.
The problem is that I think the kids are going to ask why a certain word is considered vulgar while another word is considered so tame. I am not sure if I’ll be able to explain that one without totally confusing them. Something about Anglo-Saxon usage verses Norman (proper) usage. I can’t even understand it myself.
On a side note….we had a Norweigian exchange student in our high school marching band. Somehow he told us a vulgar Norweigian word. So they’d yell out the word in the middle of marching band practice, just to get him to laugh.