This school year, I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer as a Bible study leader for 5th grade girls in our church’s midweek discipleship program. As a mom of a 5th grader (not to mention a former 5th grade teacher and longtime Sunday school volunteer), I was primed to feel right at home in this position, but I was nervous in the months leading up to this new venture. There was something about working with the female counterparts to my own child that left me feeling hugely inadequate.
Often (in my experience, at least), situations that prompt massive anticipatory anxiety are nowhere near as hard or frightening as I’ve imagined them. That rule has proven to be true in this new leadership role that ceased to intimidate me the very moment it moved beyond the hypothetical and into part of my real-life weekly rhythm. Spending time with these girls every Wednesday has gone from something I dreaded to a highlight of my week!
My Discipleship girls are unlike the kids in our other circles because they come from a variety of backgrounds and church experiences. Some are growing up in Christian homes and have attended church since they were in the womb. Others have never stepped foot in a church before this year. We have some girls who have memorized whole passages of Scripture, and others who have never cracked open a Bible. And I’ve loved getting to know ALL of these girls, hearing about their experiences with God and talking with them about their faith. These young ladies are unafraid of asking tough questions, and we’ve gotten to have some really great conversations in our time together.
Bible study with this group of 5th graders is different from studying the Bible with my own kids (for reasons beyond the size of my pupils). Since I don’t know each girl’s specific situation, I do a lot of pre-teaching and scaffolding as we read and discuss passages that are familiar to some of the girls but brand new for others. We spend less time on Bible minutia so that we can focus on the core truths of God’s goodness and sovereignty, man’s sinfulness and Christ’s redemption. We repeat the good news of the Gospel again and again, ensuring that every girl has the opportunity to say yes to Jesus.
When I am with my Discipleship girls, I’m slow to express my personal opinions or present my own interpretations of ambiguous passages because I don’t want to overstep the faith teaching the girls may be receiving in their own homes, or contradict ideas from other Christian denominations and traditions that are potentially part of the girls’ backgrounds. Instead of stating my personal takeaways, I let Scripture do the talking for me. I don’t want these girls to know what I think about the Bible; I want them to know the Word itself so that the Holy Spirit can use it to begin working in their hearts. I hope that my 5th graders come to see me as a trusted guide in learning about God and studying His word, but trust in me is not the goal; of far more importance is that they come to know God and trust Him and His Word as their ultimate authority.
In an era of ubiquitous information pouring forth from highly unreliable sources, it’s more important than ever that these girls are developing strong Biblical literacy as they learn to turn to the one True Source for answers to life’s biggest questions. They need to know their Bible—what it says, what it means, and how to discern its truth. Their world is flooded with opinions; my hope for them is that they will learn to tune out every other voice as they tune into the voice of their Father.
Of course, it’s not just 5th graders who need to be sharpening their Biblical literacy and cultivating healthy discernment. Working with these girls (and with my own children at home) has been a poignant reminder of how important this is for me, too—as their teacher, and as a fellow follower of Jesus. The outside voices and opinions ring loudly in my ears, too, and it’s crucial that I tune my heart to Christ alone.
Jesus told His followers to beware of false prophets, and we are seeing them in every nook and cranny of the modern world, including the contemporary Church. But the obvious culprits are not the only stumbling blocks on our path to God: sometimes even the “good stuff” can get in the way of the “best stuff.” Spiritual guides abound, and many offer great counsel in helping us understand the character of God and the truth of His Word. Still, nothing can replace time spent in the Bible as I read it for myself and take God’s truths for my own. God’s Holy Word is our best weapon in combatting the world’s disinformation.
Every morning, my kids and I recite The Bible Pledge:
I pledge allegiance to the Bible,
God’s holy Word,
I will make it a lamp unto my feet
And a light unto my path
And will hide its words in my heart
That I might not sin against God.
As we pray these words aloud each morning, I add a silent prayer that God will help me to make time in His Word a priority. I seek His guidance in understanding the words on the page and knowing how to apply what I read. I pray that Scripture will be the guiding light for my life, and that it will illuminate my path as I speak into the impressionable young ones I have come to know and love.
