A challenging Sunday School class and the Lord’s Prayer

I’ve always loved the Lord’s Prayer and its Spiritual Interpretation, but never more than this year, so I was happy to see it as part of this year’s Association readings and assignment.

This fall, my new Sunday School class of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds was more challenging than I expected. They just couldn’t seem to stay focused. Though I’ve taught Sunday School for many, many years, I found that I couldn’t simply draw on what I’d learned from the past. This class was difficult in a new way, and I discovered I had to pray in a new way. I’ve felt great resistance to doing this praying, feeling tempted to stew and analyze instead. But gratefully, God loves me and Sunday School enough to get me past this resistance. Each time I break through, it’s invigorating, joyful, and progressive – and ends up feeling natural.

One idea that came from prayer was to start focusing on the Lord’s Prayer and its Spiritual Interpretation in class. This is one of the four subjects for Sunday School children listed in the Church Manual. For some unexplained reason, most of my previous years’ classes centered on the other three subjects – the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount, and the Bible Lesson. The Lord’s Prayer had been playing a minor role. Now, though, it has been front and center for me and the class. I’m so grateful for this realignment. It’s reminded me that when Christ Jesus responds to the request, “Teach us to pray,” it behooves us to take notice. 

Our class began to focus on one section of the prayer each week. During the week, I’d see what the textbook and other writings by Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible Lesson brought out about that part of the prayer. I’d also find testimonies on JSH-Online where that section of the prayer had made a difference. I’d learned from Skip’s example that going straight to the books and also reading testimonies from the bound volumes helps keep our trust in God and Christian Science strong and pure.

When I shared examples of real healing, the students were riveted; they listened in a whole different way, hungry to be able to trust that what they were learning had real value. They loved hearing that with the Lord’s Prayer, children had been healed of earaches, headaches, food poisoning, animal stings, and injuries from a car accident. They were inspired to know that, thanks to this prayer, children had stopped a robbery, avoided fights with bullies, found lost items, found their way after taking the wrong school bus, and been able to forgive and to abstain from lying and stealing.

Our assignment each week was to pray with a specific section of the Lord’s Prayer. I found this discipline extremely helpful for my own spiritual growth. As an example, the first two lines have been particularly meaningful in my prayers for this Sunday School class. Acknowledging that God is “all-harmonious” and the “Adorable One,” the one thing that man can and does adore, helps lift thought to the natural place of trusting that God – not ego, silliness, sleepiness – is the center of our Sunday School hour.

Since we began focusing on the Lord’s Prayer, it has been a very present support for me. I’m finding that when I need to pray but there seems to be a gap between need and inspiration, the Lord’s Prayer is my go-to starting place. It quickly aligns my thought with Truth and Love. Sometimes it’s the springboard to other prayer. Other times, it becomes the inspiring pool in which I swim, soaking in the Science of being. It’s been bringing healing and peace – when I’ve prayed for ill family members and friends, when I’ve prayed before potentially contentious meetings, when I’ve prayed for the class, and when I’ve prayed about the many troubles going on in the world.

It’s easier for me to see the impact this prayer has had on my life than on my students’ lives, since I’m with them just an hour each week. But I do know the class has become more focused, cooperative, God-centered, and loving. It’s less competitive, frenetic, and pedantic. During class, the students actually pray during silent prayer and the Lord’s Prayer and actually sing the hymns (instead of just goofing off). They now quiet each other so that they can hear and be heard when they share things, such as, “Daily bread is like the manna they ate in the desert.”

Last week, one of the students said his school had been on lock-down one morning because a man with a gun had been spotted on the school grounds. I felt grateful that the Lord’s Prayer had been so much in his thought in recent months and that he felt comfortable in bringing this issue to class.

Parents have told me, in a surprised voice, that their children actually want to come to Sunday School. I’ve been told by the Superintendent and others that there’s been a remarkable change in these students’ behavior since last year.

It’s a work in progress. I can tell we’re having substantive classes…most of the time. Remembering we are in the kingdom is daily work – “Give us this day our daily bread.” I’ve been renewedly grateful for this prayer, for what it shows us about God’s present kingdom, and for its place in Sunday School and our lives.