Lately I’ve felt like I’m in a groove teaching 3rd grade and Pre-Teen. This morning I was in Lydia’s class. Paige joined Lydia and me for the pre-class huddle. Then she helped me setup the room. My adult volunteers were initially Chris and Dawn. Once we were all settled in, stepped out to take Paige down to Pre-Teen. When I got back they were sending Dawn down to first grade since Ralph wasn’t in today. That meant Brian Ward joined us. We also had another lady volunteer.

Our first activity was to break into our table groups and work on a Gospel presentation. The kids could write a poem or song or come up with a skit. I was at Lydia’s table, and they came up with a really good poem. All the kids got to perform their work, and it was a really neat time. Here’s what Lydia’s group came up with:

 The world was sad,

 the world was bad,

 the world was full of our sin.

 Our King was born in a stable.

 Though humble, he was able

 to rid the world of sin.

 He taught that God was just,

 so we should trust that 

 He had made a way in Jesus.

 Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

 He died for us and rose again and saved us from our sin. 

Afterwards, I did our Bible Story. Today we read from Nahum. They all listened well and asked great questions.

After Sunday School, I got into the sanctuary early with Beth joining me just before the service started. Greg preached today from Matthew 21. One key takeaway he shared was that the idea of repentance was foreign to the Jewish faith. The only ones who were to repent were the other nations (i.e. the Gentiles) so that they could change their minds about God and join his chosen people. Therefore when John and Jesus preached a message of repentance from sins, this would have been a foreign concept. It would have been reasonable for a Jew to assume he or she had no need for repentance since he or she was already in God’s kingdom. Therefore this simple message of repentance from dead works was radical in that it was pointing to a new kingdom of which no one was a part of except for faith in God’s son.

This afternoon we got lunch at Salsarita’s. Then we went by Michael’s craft store in Turkey Creek so Lydia could get a gift to take to Cora Callis’s birthday party. Next we dropped of Ella and me at home so Beth, Paige, and Lydia could go to the party. At home, Ella worked on some school work while I played a game of Tecmo Super Bowl on my old Super NES. Then I went for a 5K run taking the long way around the West Valley Middle School campus. It was cold out, but I was able to warm up after ten or so minutes of running. It was a really nice run with me easily clicking through the miles.

Beth and the girls got home from Cora’s birthday party around five-thirty. They’d picked up our Click-List grocery order from Kroger on the way home. It had taken a long time for the clerk to get it out to the car. They’d noticed others arriving and leaving. Then the guy finally came out apologizing. One of the other workers had sent out one of our crates with another customer, so the clerk had gone back in to quickly retrieve those items in our order. The only problem was once Beth and I unloaded the groceries, we discovered he’d accidentally gotten us only one pound of ground beef when we’d paid for three. So I went back to Kroger and exchanged our one pound for three.

Back home I fixed pancakes for dinner. Then we watched the last episode of Season Two of The Chosen.