Musings of a Church Girl – (Part 2 - First Sunday School Teacher)

 

This is the second in a short series of blog posts about being raised a church girl and those who influenced me along the way. The “Church Girl” theme of a recent women’s conference at my church acknowledged the stereotype that labels a church girl with a long list of unrealistic expectations. And it clarified the real definition that a church girl is imperfect and accepted and called whatever God calls her.

I don’t know this church girl’s name. I can’t even picture what her face looked like. I was a toddler. And she was my teacher in my very first Sunday School class.

What I do remember are the little wooden chairs we sat in, nailed together from old lumber and painted mint green. I remember the sandbox. Not outside on a playground, but in our classroom on a table at just the right height for us to stand at and drag little trucks through the sand.

Most of all I can see the teacher’s form sitting beside the famous flannelgraph board. Flannelgraph was top1960’s technology for Sunday School.  No big screens or flashing lights there. The board was covered in baby blue flannel. Paper cutouts with stripes of yellow sticky on the back would adhere to the flannel. My teacher placed the visuals to build up the scenery of the story while she began to tell it with drama befitting the two and three year old’s sitting around her.  Then she brought the characters to life as she placed them on the flannelgraph. The character I can see in my mind right now is Joseph, sporting his coat of many colors.

Dozens of Bible characters joined Joseph in my mind as my collection of Bible stories grew. They became my heroes and sheroes. Because I was a church girl.

The Sunday School teacher in that class is my shero now. She must have had a million other things to think about that week. Her job. Her family. Her insecurities. Her dreams. Her calling to teach the toddler class. The calling that Christ Himself gave when He said, “Let the little children come to me, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” [Luke 18:16, CSB]

Thank you, faceless Sunday School teacher, from one church girl to another.

I hope my memories have jogged yours. If you are a church girl, who helped make you one? Think beyond the ‘praying grandmother’ and those whose job was to mold you. What about those with a more distant or brief encounter. Who influenced you? Who are you influencing now?