God... from Fifth to Eighth Grade
Let’s start off the New Year with a joyful look on some of our students’ thoughts on God and Love. If you missed the first post looking at our Kindergarten through Fourth Grader’s ideas, you can read it here. This post contains the Fifth through Eighth Graders that I interviewed. All of these answers are our students’ words that have only been edited when needed for clarity in written form.
Fifth Grader:
What do you know about God?
“That he created everything and the people and everything and night and day. “
What does Love mean to you?
Giggles… “You like them a lot. Like maybe someone in the sixth grade class, but we ain’t going to talk about that, and then I also love my family. It means you want to be with them.”
Sixth Grader:
What do you know about God?
“He made everything. He is our Lord and Savior. He died on the cross for us.”
What does Love mean to you?
“I love my family a lot. Love feels good. I like to go to fun places and talk and spend time with the people I love.”
Seventh Grader:
What do you know about God?
“Christmas celebrates Jesus’s birthday. Adam and Eve had a garden, they had three sons but one killed another one. Eve was made out of man. “
What does Love mean to you?
“It is affection, it’s not someone giving you a bunch of stuff but doing little things for you. My family and friends love me. I like watching movies, and cooking, and anything that we spend time doing together.”
Eighth Grader:
Our Eighth Grader’s perspective is a little different. Their perspective comes from a writing assignment that they had where their prompt was to write about their favorite person. Below is what they wrote.
“My favorite person, usually I would pick my nieces and nephews. I can’t pick out of them so my favorite person is God. God means everything to me. With just a simple prayer/conversation with God, He can fix everything. I’ve known God my whole life. God is never gone. You can’t see him, but He is always there. God should be everyone’s favorite. He created life. Without God, your favorite person wouldn’t be here. He’s the creator of feelings, people, plants, animals, and everything. God is a really important person. He died for all of us. He forgives our sins and gives us the ability of life. No one may know what he looks or sounds like but everyone should know what his presence feels like. He’s our protector from all evil. I also love Mr. Shawn. He’s a great teacher. He has inspired me to do so much. He cares so much for us and I’ve known him for years.”
In Theology there is a concept called Divine Simplicity that is discussed by many influential early theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas. Ironically the concept is not very simple and is used by them to talk of God’s form, but I think the same can be said of God’s character, there is a simplicity to it. It is Love, patience, kindness, goodness, in their purest, most simple forms. Our human minds like complexity and busyness and cannot always grasp concepts so simple, they are too easy, too good to be true. I think children often have a better grasp of this simplicity than we do as adults, maybe that is why the childlike enter the Kingdom of Heaven. If you read these answers from our students’ line by line, there are simple truths in there that have a vastness, a depth to them that you can meditate on for weeks. Simple truths that we say we believe and we agree with, but that we rarely get past the surface level of. If the New Year for you means starting a new devotional or new spiritual habits, look at our Eighth Grader’s writing, sentence by sentence, and see what richness you can glean from the wisdom of a child. Happy New Year.
Ethan
Sponsorship Opportunity!!!
We have found a company that is willing to install Gym Wall Pads in our gym at cost. This will allow us to continue hosting home games in our gym and will better protect our student athletes from injury. We are looking for a sponsor for this project. We will need to raise $2,000. If you are interested in sponsoring this project or would like more information please contact us at info@lovecityinc.org.
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Warm up today with a warm fish sandwich or some Churched Up Tots. Theres no better lunch for the first Friday of the 2024.
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