Second Graders and Swine Flu

“We’re all going to DIE!!”
That is one of the first comments my students made as they entered the classroom Friday morning. Spring fever-like energy has already captured the minds and bodies of my little dears and the Swine Flu buzz did nothing to calm them down. Sweatshirts were pulled over noses and mouths.
“My mom says that I cannot breathe in the other germs.”
Another child pulled her hands inside of her jacket to grab a chair and pencil. When asked to take her hands out in order to properly take her chair for the morning she replied, “My mom says I can’t touch things the other kids have touched.”
Well guess what? You can’t hold your chair in that precarious manner either. The metal legs have fewer germs on them. Touch the chair with your bare hands.
The same child then took the disinfectant hand rub to cleanse her pencil before she used it. “My mom said…”
Yes, yes, I know, but our classroom must still FUNCTION with some amount of normalcy. You must have some germs to live.

After a good time talking about how to cough, how to blow one’s nose, how to cleanse one’s hands, what a virus is, etc, etc we then turned to God’s Word.
Our memory verse for last week was 1st John 5:11-12, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
So we spoke about who is in control, who has a plan, who we can trust. Who has already defeated death?! If anyone dies, who can we still trust?

We then moved to God’s will for our lives based on another memory verse from a previous week, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1st Thessalonians 5:16-18) And another one, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
Can we be worried anytime? NO! When we are worried, what does God tell us to do? PRAY! And what will He do for us? GUARD our hearts with PEACE! Who can we trust? JESUS!!! What can we thank Him for?

It didn’t help that during this conversation, though at the beginning, a student raised his hand to add, “You know, 1,050 people died in Texas from the Swine flu.”
Not QUITE…and not so loud, sir.