suggestions please

At church I teach the teens Sunday School class, I have noticed here lately that no matter what I do it seems my students aren't paying complete attention. Sunday was a bit different and gave me some serious encouragement because I have tried to create lessons of interest to them and I always try to get them involved so that I am not the only one speaking throughout our class time, sometimes they are up for talking and sometimes not so much. Sunday my lesson was titled "Living in the Sunshine" and my point was how we can live a positive life in such a negative world no matter what is said or thrown at us, I used Proverbs 15:13-17 for the first part of my lesson and Philippians 4:6-9 for the last part. I was so surprised when immediately after reading the scripture to them they started talking about incidents they have had in their lives that relate to the lesson. By the time the bell rang I still had about five minutes of teaching left but was out of time. The best part about Sunday was I only had two students in my class and they were my daughters. On those rare days when I am getting the students to interact my girls will say a little and that is it, they mostly let the other students talk. I have talked to my Pastor a couple of times about this and told him that maybe someone else needs to be teaching that class since my daughters were in there and I felt like they weren't interacting because I was the teacher and maybe they didn't want to say anything about what they deal with to me. Don't get me wrong my kids talk to me about things they deal with but there are some things where the advice from others would be put to use instead of my advice, my Pastor said to hang in there and continue to do as I was doing and if God wanted someone else teaching the class he would send them in.

Yesterday while cleaning I was thinking about that class and what I could do to get interaction out of them every Sunday and while thinking I noticed that the students have been more attentive the past couple of Sundays so that lead me to wondering what had changed for them and I started backtracking over previous lessons building up to this last one. Three Sundays ago the lesson I done was called "Stay Sober." The point in that lesson was the damage that can be caused by substance abuse of any kind and included in "any kind" I used the world as a substance that can control you. I talked to the class about staying in control of their mind, body, and soul and being alert so that they are ready to deal with what comes their way. I don't think that lesson was what made them start paying more attention, it was what happened when we went upstairs for the message. Once everything was done and it was time for our Pastor to stand in the pulpit to deliver his message my students, who all sit near me upstairs, were settling in to listen halfway then the Pastor read the title of his message. I have to say I was surprised myself and it gave me goose bumps. The title of his message was "Stay Sober." The Pastor used different scripture but the message was exactly as my lesson had been and my students were sitting there with big eyes and their mouths agape. I turned to them and whispered "isn't it amazing how God works when He really wants someone to hear something", from that moment on those students didn't hardly move, they were all caught up throughout the entire message.

The classroom that we are in was used as the Young Couples class a year ago until all the young "married" couples started splitting and going to the Womens and Mens classes. At that time I was teaching my class in the small balcony upstairs in the auditorium. In May or June I was told to start using the classroom that the Young Couples had used. There wasn't that many decorations in that classroom and since I didn't think it was a permanent room for us I haven't done much to remedy that but my students have been talking about wanting to decorate it and I have came up with an idea that I think they will enjoy, this is where I need suggestions/advice or whatever you want to offer. I want the class to get involved with decorating the room and I don't want to use ordinary art for the decor. My idea is to go buy some 5x3 or 4x6 unfinished wood frames that the students can paint themselves. I want each student to write down their favorite verse from the Bible and their favorite color then at home I will type up their verse and print it on colored paper to put in the frame, I also want them to write their names with paint on the frames and after a year they can take that frame home and we will do another one. Another idea is to also have them write about a time that they were dealing with a problem and how God came in and worked in their lives, these would be printed on printed stationary paper of their choice, matted and framed so that it can be a reminder to them and their classmates that God is real and He works on His own time not ours.

If any of you have any suggestions for decorating the room I would appreciate it. With that I am going to sign off and get busy. Y'all have a great day and thanks for listening to me go on about my Sunday School class.