The Parable of the 10 Lepers

Today in my Sunday School class, we learned the Parable of the 10 Lepers. In this story, Jesus is approaching a city when 10 lepers come to him, asking him for mercy. He tells them to go show themselves to the priests. When they did that, they were healed from their horrible leprosy.

Only one of the 10 came back to thank Jesus for healing him.

The purpose of the lesson was to get the girls to thank Heavenly Father for all the blessings that they have.

One of the questions that I asked them was "Why do you think nine of the lepers did not return to thank Jesus?" and I have to admit, that all my life that I have known of this parable, I just figured the nine lepers who didn't thank Jesus for healing them, were selfish and unthankful. But of course, I always learn something from the kids!

"They probably were so excited that they were healed, that they forgot" one girl pointed out to me.

And that is probably true. In thinking about it, if I was healed of this deadly disease, I would run to my family and be overwhelmed with excitement. I would definitely be thankful, too. I am willing to bet that they were ALL THANKFUL. Maybe by the time they went to find Jesus to thank him, he was already gone.

So, the true lesson that is even when you feel thankful in your heart, express it, and do it right away!

Unfortunately no funny stories in Sunday School today, not like last week. But I look forward to next week when I tell the story of the ungrateful servant, and we are going to act it out; and I am going to bring my tiara from my wedding when we roleplay. Someone gets to be the King (wearing a sparkly tiara, haha!)

Some stories from my Sunday School class - the antics of 10-year olds! And Osama bin Laden

I just started teaching the 10 year old girls in Sunday School. My first lesson was about the Good Samaritan, most people know this story, but to re-cap, it was about a Jewish man who was robbed, beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. Soon, a priest came walking down the road, and just passed the dying man, on the other side of the road, not even bothering to help. Then a Levite came walking by, and he, too, crossed to the other side, not bothering to help either. Lastly, a Samaritan, an enemy of the Jews, passed by, and not only did he clean the man's wounds, he put him on his animal (let's say a donkey), and took him to the nearest inn, where not only did he put the man up for a night, but paid the innkeeper 2 pence to have HIM care for the man, while the Samaritan went on his way.

I wanted to try to apply it to our lives, and thought of having the girls think of someone they didn't like, and then I was going to ask them what to do if they saw that person on the side of the road, beaten and robbed. So I asked them.

"Osama bin Laden!" they cried!

Ok, well, I wasn't really thinking that they would pick that ONE MAN that most of the world hates, and is a modern day Hitler and a murderer. But, I went and tried using their example anyway.

"What would you do if you saw Osama bin Laden on the side of the road, badly beaten?" I asked.

"We'd kill him!" they said. Oh, my sweet angels. Out of the mouths of babes, right?

Well I kinda screwed up this lesson, right? Because certainly that is what I would do, too!

They explained their reasoning, and it actually made sense: "because if we helped him he would just turn around and kill us"

I tried to salvage the lesson and said that we should pick another person as an example... maybe a bully at school... and was able to finish the lesson and get the point across (I hope).

I am going to have fun teaching these girls!