Whether your first student runs into the Christian Science Sunday School with a Superman cape on and poses with his hands on his hips, or hides in his grandmother’s arms because he doesn’t want her to leave, you are in for a treat. Teaching the three- and four-year-old children is a true treasure. Every Sunday they teach me about innocence, joy, patience, and much more. And when I watch some of them hold hands as we go out of our Sunday School classroom for the opening hymn, to sing with everyone in the main auditorium of my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I thank God for each of them!
In accordance with the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, my lessons for the preschool class include the Ten Commandments and Christ Jesus’ Beatitudes, as well as the Lord’s Prayer with its spiritual interpretation from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I also include selected Bible stories, especially stories of people who listened to God, such as Daniel, Moses, Ruth, and so forth. “They listened to and loved God” is the common thread in our stories. I remind students to listen to their good thoughts, thoughts from God.
In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will make them happy and good” (p. 236). For me, teaching the youngest class includes reminders to listen, followed by my acknowledgment of how happy and good the children are. They are reminded that they are God’s spiritual, pure ideas. For example, they are kind, loving, generous, hardy, resilient, and so forth.
