Recently I took my turn teaching for 1 quarter in a Bible class at my local congregation. It was a busy time of year for me and I was having trouble getting excited about teaching. I usually get really excited about teaching and spend a lot of time preparing by decorating the room, finding interesting ways to present the lesson, studying the lesson deeper to improve my own Bible knowledge.

Since I had such a lack of enthusiasm I decided to do things a little differently. I decided to teach strictly by the lesson book. I decided to prepare only a minimal amount and wait until I got to class to decide how I would deliver the lesson, possibly checking out the resource room to see if there was anything interesting in there I could use.

The quarter progressed, the students learned, all was well except one thing. I was so relieved when the quarter was over. If any of you know me, you know that’s not how I usually feel about a Bible class. I’m usually ready and eager to continue teaching but I was totally burned out after this quarter. I’ve been known to teach for years with no break. Why was I burned out after just one quarter?

 I hear other teachers say they can only teach one quarter before they get burned out. They are happy to do their time (typically one quarter a year) in a Bible class as long as no one asks them to do it more often — especially not consecutive quarters. Since I’ve always loved to teach and am happiest if I get to teach multiple quarters in a row both Sunday AM and Wednesday PM I have never understood how a teacher could feel burned out after one quarter.

Now I get it! I was burned out from just one quarter of teaching. What was the difference? I had taken the easy way out. I had put no thought or effort into my class. I quickly went over my lesson before the kids came to class. I did nothing to make the classroom engaging to the students. I offered nothing to excite the interest of the students unless it was something I had done before and was easily retrievable for this class. I learned nothing new about the Bible topics we were discussing because I did not dig any deeper than the surface knowledge a children’s Bible lesson book offers. I did the easy thing and it ended up being much more difficult than if I had just done the hard thing to begin with.

If I had gone ahead and planned the quarter before I ever stepped foot in the classroom, if I had spent an afternoon updating a tired bulletin board, if I had studied the Bible more fully bringing in other resources that would stretch my knowledge of our subject, it would have been different. Hard? Yes! All things worthwhile are difficult. Time consuming? Yes! Things worthwhile take time. Worth it? Yes! Offering the students a brief amount of time in their week to focus on the most important thing where they get excited about God and want to know more about Jesus and think the Bible is the most exciting book is worth it. Broadening my own knowledge of God’s Word which deepens my faith and draws me closer to God is worth it. From now on I’ll make it easy on myself and do the hard thing right from the start.