I am very grateful that my parents took me to Sunday school when I was a youngster. It’s where I learned about God, how much God loves me, how to pray, how to heal myself and others, and how to live a peaceful, happy, healthy, spiritually inspired life.
The benefits of my 20 years in Sunday school have blessed me for decades since. It gave me a solid grounding in Truth that stuck and has supported me again and again.
When I was a youngster, I doubt I understood the value of what my parents were giving me, but I sure can see it now. Like making a good investment, when you start out with a wise choice, the blessings of that choice multiply over time and yield great gain.
Sunday school is a super-wise investment for children. It teaches them that they are not alone in life, that they have spiritual help to get them through the tough times, that reliable good is spiritual and never subject to loss, that the important things in life are spiritual, not material, and that they can pray for healing and find it. They learn that God is always with them, loves them, cares for them, and watches out for them!
Sunday school is an investment. It requires sacrifice of other activities and indulgences of self-love that would compete, but the gain that comes from putting God first is monumentally above any sense of temporary loss personal sense might fear, for when you understand God, you have everything! You can cope with any problem. You can face any fear without fear. You can master sickness. You can find inspiration. You can live a happy healthy life.
There is no substitute for learning about God.
Knowing God is knowing Life, knowing goodness, and how to find happiness.
Not every child is blessed with the opportunity to attend Sunday school, but for those who are, the results can be very good. I’m grateful my parents saw the opportunity and took advantage of it.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
That was beautiful, Evan. ❤️ Thank you.
You were blessed by being given a rock to stand on. The gift of knowledge of the larger life. It seems to me that you have used it wisely for yourself and for those in need. We have all benefited from your early training.
Sunday school, all youth activities, were part of the foundation for my life, too! I looked forward to all those religious activities, which, at the time, did not seem “religious: in any negative connotation. Sunday School, Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF, we called it), Bible School as summer activities (we thought the best part was the Ice Cream Social held on the last day!). Regardless of the frivolousness of youth and our lack of understanding for the import of such activities for our future, it was a firm foundation.
We can but watch and pray and encourage.
Evan I really appreciate your phrase “Knowing God is knowing Life”. What greater gift than knowing that life has a deep spiritual purpose..
In the movie City Slickers the old cowboy said there is just one thing you need to know but he never said what it was..
Who about knowing God is Love and “Love alone is Life”!
Josh
Thanks for the reminder about the movie City Slickers!
I have thought about that scene many times in my work
as a CS Practitioner. Near the end of the movie the cowboy is asked what is the important thing in life and with his gloved hand, holds up one finger; and that is the One thing to remember. There is only One!
Thanks Josh1
Very fine, Evan. Thanks so much for this beautiful treatment.
The graphics are precious. Sunday school is shown as a place of pure JOY! And it is! It’s the refuge where are children get the facts of their being. Love this, Evan. Thank you!
Yes and we can take our inner child to Sunday school’s protective teachings even now. Thank you for the reminder, Evan!
Sheri I like the idea of taking my inner child to Sunday school, every day, by availing myself of all the wonderful resources offered in Christian Science to help me see Life aright.
I didn’t have spiritual instruction as a child but I’ve appreciated learning that I can look back and reframe the past, and know that God was always with me and with everyone around me whether I knew it or not. Just starting to see some light in this area.
Mrs. Eddy said in S&H p.236, “Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will make them happy and good. Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.”
Evan, thanks for the reminder that “reliable good is spiritual and never subject to loss.”
I chuckle as I remember my dear, sweet mother loudly playing hymns from the Christian Science hymnal on Sunday mornings to wake us up and get us ready for Sunday School on time! As teenagers it was not how we wanted to be woken up! However, now, I am so grateful for the wonderful opportunity and the firm foundation that Christian Science Sunday School has given me and my siblings. Thank you for the reminder, Evan!
Maybe someone will find this helpful. It is a website I just cam across called First Lessons in Christian Science. The author of the site describes it this way, “Home Sunday School Lessons for Children and Young People on the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Lord’s Prayer, Plus Essays on Christian Science and Teaching Ideas for Parents and Sunday School Teachers. Adults new to Christian Science will find simple explanations of basic teachings.”
https://firstlessonsinchristianscience.wordpress.com/
Thank you Rose. I haven’t seen this before and it’s very interesting. So thoughtful and helpful of you to include!
You’re very welcome J. Sending kind wishes to you!
Christian Science came into my life as a young adult, just beyond the qualifying age to go to Sunday School. How often I have thought about how liberating it would have been to have had this early foundation. Some of us have had to work our way out of the pitfalls of an early Sunday school education from other religious denominations that have emphasized the sinfulness of man, punishment of hell and damnation, and a concept of the dualistic nature of God.
How grateful I am to have been awakened to the pure, spiritual, vital, life-supporting teachings of Christian Science!… God is Good, man is good, Life is good,- and we have dominion over the illusions of sin and evil and can prove it!! As you emphasize Evan, this Science provides the firm foundation for a happy and healthy life experience. Thank you for your beautifully articulated, impassioned testimony of gratitude.
What memories you evoked, dear Evan. Long forgotten Sunday School memories.!My mother enrolled me very early on–nursery school time-then eventually S Sch time. I remember
learning a beloved hymn we were taught in nursery school time–“Shepherd –show me
how to go! ” We were not good readers yet so we mainly learned from repetition and memory.
I remember the loving nursery school teacher telling my mother what I had sung–“Lead
thy napkins to the fold.!” (instead of lambkins!!) Yes, eventually I sang it correctly.
I am so grateful for that early foundation, the loving teachers and eventually the C.S>
meetings while in college. My gratitude for C.S. is never ending.
Thank you for this wonderful thought about Sunday School. I grew up going to Sunday School and it has made a life long difference to me. I did not have the perspective in those early years of how much it grounded me in knowing that God loves me and all, that we each can look to God for answers, comfort, insight and healing. Learning Biblical stories and lessons which have an enduring message of triumph over the challenges of sickness, violence, disrespect, equality, home, restrictive cultural customs and so much more was foundational. We learned the challenges of the founding of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy and how she used the lessons of the Bible to overcome obstacles in her life of illness and lack of respect in founding Christian Science in in late 1800 hundreds. We learned of her tenacity in persisting to share and teach the spiritual message of God’s ever-present love. Sunday School is a Rock in my life. It is the foundation of my life and I am so grateful for the lessons learned and that I am still learning and sharing with current Sunday School students. The ability to reason critically and spiritually is the essence of Sunday School. This ability can be gained by anyone no matter when they take up the study of CS and if they are willing to spend some time to study, ponder and participate in digging into this Science. Support is available to everyone in CS periodicals, class instruction, working with CS practitioners, participating in church and getting to know other Christian Scientists. Praying and turning to our Father-Mother God, following the Christ example, and expressing loving-kindness in all we do supports our spiritual growth in gaining an ever growing spiritual consciousness of our one true relationship with God. Let nothing hinder your efforts to grow in your understanding of God’s law of divine Love. It’s worth it!
Amen! I ‘m not sure where I would be without the teachings of Sunday School! Sunday school offers such spiritual foundation and Understanding of divine Love which is ever available to heal and deliver from anything that comes our way! I always left Sunday school feeling uplifted. Whether it was just the words from a hymn or reading the sign on the wall” God is Love”, I always took something away that strengthened me and brought me closer to God. In my teen years, I probably would not have chosen to go, but it was a rule at my house, we all went to church and Sunday school on Sunday, I am grateful that my mom insisted on this. I still remember many of those lessons and lean on them today. Like Evan says, I didn’t know the value then but I do now. So grateful for parents that saw the value and didn’t really give me a choice.
Like others have said, I too am so grateful I attended a CS Sunday School from a very young age. I remember all my wonderful teachers so well. My first teacher told my Mum that when we were asked what we wanted to read “Linda always says she wants to read from the Jesus book” (i.e. the Bible). The first time I became Second Reader and stood up in church to read I remembered that and my teacher and have always loved reading from it. Sunday School was a wonderful foundation in my life.
Thank you Evan. I also feel very blessed and grateful to have had the foundation of Sunday school, which I loved. Sunday school helped get me through my teen years, especially. And I always think of CS as standing for Coping Skills, because it has always been such a lifeline, and still is today, for the very reasons you mention.
My parents took all of us to Sunday School without fail each week. My dad was of another faith, my mom attended Sunday School as a child. They did not go to church, but they were very appreciative of the fine teaching we received and that a large part of that instruction focused on the Biblical truths and stories of relying on God, learning about God and healing. Although my siblings do not attend church, they have a abiding fondness for memories of our Sunday School. And sometimes they even call me to ask “Where can I find this passage?” or “Do you remember the story about…?”
I continued along in Sunday School during college, and have now been a Sunday School teacher for many years. What a blessing it is to be able to share with young people how God sees us all and how much we are loved.
Thank you Evan, that you remind me to be grateful for my Sundayschool time. I went home joyfully after sundayschool. Sundayschool laid the foundation for my further life. It gave me the CS tools for praying scientifically. Through Sundayschool I joined the CS forum with the headquarter in Boston. Once a week we came together and once a month we created an evening dedicated to the Christian Science Monitor. That was a wonderful time! For some time I myself was a teacher for the little ones.
There is no substitute for learning God – that is so right. You also said: knowing God is knowing life, knowing goodness, and how to find happyness! That is so true, as well. Although I had to struggle in life I knew there are practitioners to be at our side to help us; and they helped me so lovingly. I am deeply grateful how lovingly Mrs. Eddy cared for Christian Scientists and CS followers.
Yes we really can be very grateful for Sundayschool, and I am grateful for this wonderful privileg that I came to Sundayschool with age 10! Thank you, dear Evan, for your extensive reminder how blessing, wonderful and valuable Sundayschool is for children and teachers!
This is the truth, when I attended Sunday school my mother told me I have to attend Though I was not in it when ever I am in Sunday school,, my teacher keeps talking and I do not listen,He was very patient and loving., finishing Sunday school, attended the service with the adults with all this years the memory of my SUNDAY School years are coming back. Surprisingly I can say all what my teacher had been telling me to memorize, like the lords prayer ,23 psalm and others.as I remember I never had not been paying attention during Sunday school .Inspite of this I am so glad I did . I Know God loves me .