What opens the way for the "mustard seeds" of lasting communication?

Many Sunday School teachers will tell you they feel rewarded when one idea during the teaching hour really sinks in—when a single spiritual concept comes into focus for a child or a class. Such moments can be like the grain of mustard seed in our Master's parable (Matt. 13:31, 32)— something that eventually grows into an alive and lasting manifestation. Lives have been saved and healed when individuals have recovered spiritual truths they've learned, sometimes years before, in Christian Science Sunday School. (One example of this is the testimony beginning on page 1212 of the July 15, 1950, Christian Science Sentinel; and more recently, page 1773, September 22, 1986.)

How does it happen? Where do these precious grains of mustard seed come from? And how does such a grain find its way to the fertile soil of a student's thought?

Well, to be sure, there's no formulaic method for coming up with genuine breakthrough experiences in Sunday School (or in any other kind of teaching, for that matter) . At the same time, such moments of discovery are natural and expectable because of the actual nature of Christian Science Sunday School. Sunday School is really not a humanly generated attempt to spiritualize mortal children. Sunday School, as Mrs. Eddy established it in Article XX of the Manual of The Mother Church, is the direct and living outcome of divine impulsion. It's a human manifestation of God's limitless love for His children. Because, in truth, teaching actually takes place in the atmosphere of Soul, or Spirit, we as teachers can become more specifically conscious of this fact. And, as we do, we'll find ourselves and our students more regularly on the edge of discovery—exploring together the new-old world of Christian Science.