Easter Sunday

This month in Sunday School we've been focusing on the Atonement. There were 5 lessons in the outline, and 5 Sundays, but somehow I found that for today I didn't have any lessons left. Apparently I covered more than one of the topics one week (they seemed to nicely overlap).

I decided to bring my Easter Eggs and go through the story of the atonement and resurrection. I was really glad I did. I made this little lesson years ago and used it with my kids or with primary kids - but teenagers don't seem too old for it at all. I think they enjoyed it a lot. Each egg has an object and a scripture to go with it. It was a good way to read the easter story with them. I've really gained a stronger testimony of the atonement and the importance of turning not just our hearts, but also our heartaches, sorrows and needs over to Jesus.

Matthew 11:28

28 ¶Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

It's been interesting teaching these lessons. In the adult lesson afterwards the Bishop went through the topics the youth have been covering the past few months. Sometimes I feel like I don't put enough work into studying and preparing - but when I listened to his lesson today I realized I have learned quite a lot and have retained a lot of the things I have read in preparation for the lessons I teach each week. I'm really glad to have this calling.

I decided I need to work on ways I can make the lessons more meaningful when working with such a big group. Today I had 16 kids in the class. It's hard to give everyone a chance to participate in that large a group. It's also hard to keep them all on topic. Sometimes teaching them is like herding cats. They get off on tangents all over the place. I'm sure there are some Kagan tricks I could be using to make the lessons better. I need to work on that!