I will be the first to admit that my 2nd graders are super cute. They love to play and they are very social creatures and have welcomed me into their lives with open arms.

2nd grade. I don't really remember much of 2nd grade. I can't remember what books were read to me or what i learned in history or science. I probably ate peanut butter and jelly though. [because i did that every year....]

I also don't remember if God was a huge part in my personal life or not. I remember that He was a huge part in the life of my family though. For goodness sakes, my mom and little sisters sill sing the 'Happy Sunday Morning' songs that my grandmother taught my mother on the way to church on Sunday. I remember praying that He would come into my heart and life as my Savior to take away my sin because He died on the cross to take my punishment, so I could live with Him forever. I am pretty sure that was around 2nd grade...

But I am not sure if everything in my life changed because of Him then or if that came later.

My lack of remembering has got me to thinking about the importance of making sure my 2nd graders understand just how much Jesus changes everything.

The lesson plan: handwriting.....its pretty basic...every early grade does it.

We have not started using our curriculum books yet because its cursive and my 2nd graders are just now getting letter formation down in print...needless to say, we aren't ready for cursive yet. So I have the task of making and printing handwriting sheets for my kids to trace and then they get the task of copying it onto handwriting paper.

My goal: to go through the gospel, CEF style with them during handwriting.

week 1: we began with Heaven and how a perfect and holy God who loves us lives there.

When we talked through it, I pretty much got the "Can I just start this now so it doesn't have to be homework?" look. booo.

week 2: moved to sin. how its anything we think, say or do that breaks God's law or makes Him sad. We talked about how God created us, therefore He loves us and wants us to live with Him but our sin keeps us away from Him. Kind of a downer topic, but the discussion was better and they were more responsive to the idea that we sin and can't get to heaven on our own.

week 3: [which was today] talked about how without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness. We talked about how we can't die for ourselves because we break the law everyday...so somebody perfect had to die. They answered correctly with 'Jesus' but the more we talked about the cross and how somebody had to die so that each of us could live, they were pretty horrified at the thought of someone willingly taking nails to the hands and feet to hang on a cross, being whipped in such a fashion that it tore the skin right off your back and then hung on a cross and a few hours later stabbed to make sure you were really dead.

And then it turned to sweet awe as they realized that somebody took their place on the cross so that they could live.

I don't know if my kids know Jesus personally, not many of them come from believing families, but pray pray pray with me, that their hearts would soften to our gentle Shepherd. Pray that they will hear His voice and understand the sacrifice that it took for us to be His only. Pray that sometime in their lifetime, they would come to know Jesus in a real and powerful way. Pray that they would love Him mostest.

Pray that Jesus Christ would change them and that they would never look back once He does.