Little boys and Bible study don't mix.
We have been a little irregular with bible study lately (sickness, visitors, being away etc) and Alex seems to have gotten out of the habit of how to behave when he is there. Up until recently he would play/chat for a short time, before (mostly) going to sleep in his pram. Last time was not so easy
he refused to sleep in the pram - he doesn't seem to like being strapped onto his back to sleep, and lately has been taking longer to get to sleep (even at home in the cot)
He played noisily when he was up - not content with books, or sitting quietly Alex then insisted on wriggling and playing (noisily) with cars through the study.
The effect of this was that instead of properly concentrating on the bible study I spent the time attempting to corral Alex with the following monologue running through my head
"Maybe I should just put him back to bed... but then he'll scream and distract everyone and wake the other children...maybe he should be disciplined and made to sit still... but that will not be quiet (at all) and will distract everyone even more...I'll let him play so long as he is quiet.... which he isn't....maybe I should just put him back to bed"
and so on and so forth.
The point of this is that I am now not sure what to do. I would really like to keep going to Bible Study, but there does not seem to be much point if Alex is going to be distracting the entire time. I could try bringing the portacot - but that will involve dragging extra stuff through the house, and may not work anyway. Or I could perservere and get Alex back to sleeping in his stroller (or at least until he is big enough to put into a bed).
I think that I am going to have to pray on the issue and reassess what else we do that day (maybe a visit to the park in the afternoon will tire him out...), but if anyone has any other suggestions/thoughts/ideas etc then I would love to hear them.
Showing posts with label bible study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bible study. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
For the want of a nail...
Have you ever had something go not quite as well as you wanted it to, for reasons which were entirely understandable and completely out of yor control? I had that this morning.
I haven't led a bible study for a while (I think the last time was leading devotions at a kids club type of activity about 3 years ago). This morning, I was leading the study at KYB (Know Your Bible for those unfamiliar with the acronym - a ladies only bible study) to fill in for the leader who was away. It. Did. Not. Go. That. Well. (or as well as I had hoped it would). There were a lot of factors (none of them any body's fault), which all added up to a less than satisfactory experience.
1. I was feeling rather unenergised. OK this one probably was my fault - we stayed up to late watching a Stanley Kubrick movie, and then Alex was grumpy this morning (really wanted Mum for some reason) so I didn't have a lot of inspiring energy.
2. There was nobody to run creche so we had ~ 8 toddlers and preschoolers in the same room. This does not make it easy to run a study as they want your attention, need your intervention, - or possibly the intervention of more than one mother - or just play noisy games! This made it v. v. distracting.
3. About 1/2 the people had not done the questions to the study (for quite good reasons!) and combined with the distractions of the children found it difficult to keep up.
4. There were a few people missing, so there were less people to spread the questions between, especially if there were already a couple of people missing who had to run after children
5. I was leading a study from a book. This is not my preference. I don't mind the KYB study format, especially as it is split into 7 days, and it is written for a range of understanding, but I find it difficult to run a study someone else has written, especially if it is a "20 questions, answer round the circle, finish the study in an hour type". [This means with six people they can answer <30 secs per question...]. I would have much preferred to write my own study, as I could tailor it to the people that I thought would be there. It would have taken longer for me to prepare, but it would have been better, because I would have thought it through more.
[For the record, I had actually semi-planned one out. We were studying Ps 105 and 106, which are complementary history recounts, so I was going to do an annotated time line down the middle of the page and then we would have marked on each side the relevant sections from each Psalm. I may have even gotten creative with some sort of colour code]
So all up it did not go as well as I had hoped.
But - we did get through the study and have a good application and discussion re how we are in danger of doing what Israel did 'mingled with the nations and adopted their customs', and we did share and pray for each other. I think that I shall have to learn to be content with what God desires to come out of the study rather than my personal plans and ambitions.
I haven't led a bible study for a while (I think the last time was leading devotions at a kids club type of activity about 3 years ago). This morning, I was leading the study at KYB (Know Your Bible for those unfamiliar with the acronym - a ladies only bible study) to fill in for the leader who was away. It. Did. Not. Go. That. Well. (or as well as I had hoped it would). There were a lot of factors (none of them any body's fault), which all added up to a less than satisfactory experience.
1. I was feeling rather unenergised. OK this one probably was my fault - we stayed up to late watching a Stanley Kubrick movie, and then Alex was grumpy this morning (really wanted Mum for some reason) so I didn't have a lot of inspiring energy.
2. There was nobody to run creche so we had ~ 8 toddlers and preschoolers in the same room. This does not make it easy to run a study as they want your attention, need your intervention, - or possibly the intervention of more than one mother - or just play noisy games! This made it v. v. distracting.
3. About 1/2 the people had not done the questions to the study (for quite good reasons!) and combined with the distractions of the children found it difficult to keep up.
4. There were a few people missing, so there were less people to spread the questions between, especially if there were already a couple of people missing who had to run after children
5. I was leading a study from a book. This is not my preference. I don't mind the KYB study format, especially as it is split into 7 days, and it is written for a range of understanding, but I find it difficult to run a study someone else has written, especially if it is a "20 questions, answer round the circle, finish the study in an hour type". [This means with six people they can answer <30 secs per question...]. I would have much preferred to write my own study, as I could tailor it to the people that I thought would be there. It would have taken longer for me to prepare, but it would have been better, because I would have thought it through more.
[For the record, I had actually semi-planned one out. We were studying Ps 105 and 106, which are complementary history recounts, so I was going to do an annotated time line down the middle of the page and then we would have marked on each side the relevant sections from each Psalm. I may have even gotten creative with some sort of colour code]
So all up it did not go as well as I had hoped.
But - we did get through the study and have a good application and discussion re how we are in danger of doing what Israel did 'mingled with the nations and adopted their customs', and we did share and pray for each other. I think that I shall have to learn to be content with what God desires to come out of the study rather than my personal plans and ambitions.
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