Middle schoolers know more than they think they do

When I teach middle schoolers the Bible, it can be a real challenge.  A challenge I relish, understand, but a challenge.  Not because they're "that age" or "act like that," or anything. It's because many of these kids have heard the Word of God so often, all their lives, that they do not ask themselves what it means beyond overall "do what is right" or "don't do what you know is wrong."  (Yes, they get a bit more specific than that, but this is a broad generalization.)

Which is why it is, to me, enlightening to discuss what some words and phrases mean with them when I teach them.  They haven't thought about what these words MEAN, only what they should make them do.  And really, knowing the meaning of words is important.  Yes, those results are necessary, but when one has a better grasp of the "what" the "how" is often made more plain.  At least, in my experience.


I helped teach the "children's part" of a family seminar at church this past weekend.  Any time you have one of these, the above verse will be part of what you teach the kids.  Now, I was supposed to have fifth graders.  No fifth graders came. Instead, I got middle schoolers that parents felt were too young to go to the "regular" seminar and too young to stay home alone for hours and hours.  Why no other provision was made for this age at church, I don't know. But they came to me.

Which, of course, was extremely cool.  They're my best group. :)  I was allowed to modify some of the stuff we were doing (on the fly, which is always fun, but I got my first Varsity letter for Impromptu Speaking in competitive forensics...) and we spent Friday evening and Saturday morning hanging out together while their parents were in the main seminar.

So. We had that verse.  Honor your father and mother.  "What's that mean?" I asked the kids.

"Um. Obey."

First thing out of their mouths. Obey.

Nothing wrong with obedience, you understand. And yes, the Lord God Almighty does appreciate it when we do obey...but...that's not the end-all, be-all meaning of "honor your father and mother."

"What does it mean to show honor?"  I asked my group.  Honor is a word that comes up and I consider it to be a personally important concept, after all.  Has no one taught these young people what it means?

They hemmed and hawed and looked at one another uncomfortably. And then, one of the lads sat up straight and offered me a salute.  "Honor!" he said, a goofy look on his freckled face.

Thing was...he was right.  And it was my great pleasure to show him.

What did he do? He presented his best self in that salute. (Even though he was messing around, the kids understood "salute.")  He was tall, straight, and focused.  He presented me, his teacher, with the best self he had, and gave me his undivided attention.  Even if only for the time it took for me to grin at him.

See, he'd given the others something to take away with them.  Not that they should salute their parents, as I told them, but that when we show someone -- anyone -- honor, we should present them with the best we have, give them our focused attention and...then...sure, we should obey if they request it. But that other stuff should be there with or without the need for immediate obedience.

So, a middle-schooler's goofing off moment turned into one of the coolest moments of my Friday night.  I love it when kids toss stuff like that out.

The boy, when I had used his example as "the" example of this word, and incorporated all of the above into a lesson on how to interact with our parents, could only say, "Wow."