Are We Having Fun Yet?

Are We Having Fun Yet?

 “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).

• When do you have the most fun working with children?

• Would you describe yourself as a cheerful and fun person? Why or why not?

As a dedicated children’s worker, you connect with kids week after week. Your path crosses theirs at Sunday school, children’s church, midweek programs, or any number of other ministry events.

You’re spending time with kids, but are you having fun with them?

Is your teaching time filled with warmth, delight, and fun? 

God’s Word is serious stuff—but that doesn’t mean it should be stuffy.

A classroom where kids are learning is usually loud and punctuated by laughter. Fun opens the doors to relationships—and the best, longest-lasting learning takes place in the context of relationships.

Learn what your kids’ definition of fun is—what tickles their funny bones and makes them laugh. Then work that into your teaching. As long as it’s not from put-down humor, laughter is welcome.

Kids need to sense your genuine enjoyment of them; it’s how they know they’re loved. So step into their world, and start giggling. When you open God’s Word to teach, you’ll find that a happy audience is a receptive audience. 

And do this to keep things fun: dull-proof your Bible lessons. Try new ideas frequently. Pull out the stops with something outrageously new. For instance:

• Learn to speak a dialect and be your own guest speaker as you present your lesson using an accent. Take it up a notch and interview yourself.

• Ask to borrow some beach chairs and blankets, line them up in the grass, and take your kids out of the classroom and to the beach.

• Share prayer requests by borrowing some cell phones so kids can call one another—then put the phones away and call on the Lord together.

Ten years from now it won’t be what was written on a workbook page that your kids remember. It will be YOU—the teacher they knew as a fun friend.

Take this training deeper as you think over these questions:

• How do your kids define fun? What makes them laugh?

• How much healthy laughter can be heard outside the door of your classroom?

• How can you have fun with your students but still retain an atmosphere of order and respect? 

Lord, in your presence is a fullness of joy. As I spend time with my students this week, let my presence with them reflect your joy by… 

It’s easy to drag the weight of the world with us into our classrooms. When that happens, kids don’t see “burdened” adults. They see grumpy people who are no fun. Leave your finances, migraine, and hectic schedule at the Cross—and at the classroom door. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Use it.

Contemplate a recent event in your classroom that was anything but fun. Perhaps it was an annoying interruption or a lesson that went south. How could the use of humor and a fun-loving nature have helped turn things around?

Create a “before” and “after” comic strip. The first part depicts what actually happened; the second part shows how humor could have lightened the situation.