Tipped Back And Texting?

I sat at the table with my Bible open in front of me.  Five other teenagers sat around the same table.

It was a small church in Wyoming, and this was our entire youth group.  The teacher was a kind and devoted (if rather frumpy) country woman.  She had one eye that wandered a bit, which left me wondering if I should look at the steady eye or the one that was looking another direction.  She wasn’t the world’s most interesting teacher, but she was faithful and kind.

I remember the other students and how they sat.  Slumped over, bored.  Tipped back in the chair, daydreaming.  Whispering to each other, uninterested.

And then there was me.  Bent over my Bible, hungry to know God and learn truth.  I was the weird one because I actually cared.

When the other teens left, they left it all behind them, but I took those Sunday School lessons home with me.  I kept thinking about them and wanted to do what I learned.  The word of God settled down on my heart, like a thick quilt comes down heavy and warm on a cold day.  I wanted to live this stuff I was learning.

Everyone is a certain kind of learner –either disinterested or engaged.

Which kind are you?

It will show in your body.  If you could care less about God and the Bible, people will be able to tell by looking at you.  Texting or whispering to a friend or staring into space when people are talking to you about God, those are sure signs that you are disinterested.

If you’re leaning forward, focusing on the teacher, and asking questions, those are signs you really care about the things of God.

My husband’s a preacher, so when we’re all facing him, he’s facing us.  He notices the people who are leaning way back in their chairs all sloppy like and the ones whose heads are dipping in peaceful slumber.  If he can tell who is engaged in learning, we can be sure God can, too.

So what kind of learner are you?