I ran across some incredible statistics today and they started me thinking. Did you know that a child’s brain development between 0-3 years is the most significant period of development the brain will undergo? Did you know that by age three a child’s brain has formed 3 quadrillion connections? That’s 3,000,000,000,000,000! By age five, 50% of the brain’s learning capacity has been wired. By age eight, 80% has been wired. Isn’t that amazing?
My first thought was…our Creator is awesome! Where there is design, there is a designer. Who but God could conceive of and make something so mysterious, complicated, and wonderful as a human being?
My second thought was…these statistics give a whole new meaning to teaching children about God and his word. Bible school classes, from nursery to elementary, are essential! From personal experience, verses I memorized and truths I received from God’s word as a child are permanently etched in my mind. You can probably say the same.
My third thought was…we need to see and value the great service Bible teachers give the next generation. For some, teaching is a joy. It is a lifetime, freely-given commitment. For others it is a true sacrifice. It doesn’t come easy. Either way, it can sometimes become repetitive, tedious and certainly labor- intensive. Just take Vacation Bible School for example. It rolls around every summer and the work from beginning to end is exhausting. Put in proper perspective, though, we have the opportunity to give children lasting memories of God and his purpose for their soul.
The Psalmist wrote about the need to teach children, I have uttered dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments (Psalm 78:3-8).
Bible class teachers everywhere, your role is important. Each time you prepare a lesson for children, make a bulletin board, or create a craft, remember that you are wiring little brains with spiritual things which will last a lifetime and beyond!
Today’s Verse: Paul to Timothy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also (1 Tim. 1:1:4-5).
Sources: http://www.early-childhood-education-degrees.com/milestones/ and http://www.fastrackids.com/brainbasedresearch
–Teresa Hampton