Leading 10th grade boys has been a growing experience much more so than the year before when they were 9th grade boys. My most recent attempt to teach them something may not have been my best, but it may have had the most impact.
As one might imagine, high school boys have many things on their minds, and it can be hard to get them to remember what they did the week before. After confirming they could remember little, I asked each one what went wrong for them in the last week. I got not the list of issues I would expect, but I at least got their attention.
Our study was from Joshua and about the miracles God provides. The lesson plan skipped over the sin with the Gibeonites, but the concept that we sin when we do not go before God with our options did indeed ring true in the minds of the boys who were listening.
The most useful part of the lesson for me was the fact not one student could define accurately the meaning of the word “miracle”. I hope they know it now, but they had never equated miracle with the supernatural work of God.
I tried to get them to recognize that they had the power to ask God to perform something supernatural in their own lives. Asking for good grades or to win a game is one thing. Asking God to hold back a river or keep the universe from turning while they killed their enemies was not on the radar.
The lesson asked how we could play it safe without God or how God can be glorified through our mistakes. The thought that God saved them from the fallout of boys being boys was probably foreign to them. Realizing that they could ask God to pray for the miracle of His protection and relying on His promises in the Bible to keep them safe were most likely new, but should not have been.
I had each one attempt to think of a supernatural miracle they could pray for in their lives as Joshua did in his. They struggled. The lesson stated that self-reliance leads to defeat. I tried in a number of ways to let them know that life is too big for them and God made them to seek His help. I hammered home the meaning of omnipotent and I pray they left knowing God could and would do anything for them.
Each of these lessons has a main point. This one’s main point was that through God, we can be victorious even when defeat seems the only realistic option. I hope they learned the possibility of praying for a miracle from the Omnipotent God who loves them. If not, maybe someone will read this and do so.