Mary Baker Eddy has designated the Ten Commandments, the Lord's
Prayer, and the Beatitudes to be the "first lessons" of the Sunday
School pupils. She tells us the children are to be taught the
Scriptures, and those lessons, in particular.

My goal is to eventually post on this web site ideas for teaching each
of the Commandments and Beatitudes to children. However, this
will include background material which should be of interest to
anyone seeking to learn more about the teachings of these Scriptures,
especially in the light of Christian Science.

There will be links on each page taking you from one lesson to another,
in any order that you would like. I hope to have lessons on all the
Commandments posted eventually. Be patient! However, as a
shameless plug, I do have three books with ready-made lessons on
the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Lord's Prayer.

Go to the Publications page for information on how to order or visit

First Lessons in Christian Science by Vicki Jones Cole. These books

are not duplicates of what will be posted on this web site, as they contain

ready-made daily lessons focused around a single theme.

For those of you who are here in order to find ideas to help teach your
own children, or those in a Sunday School class, you might be interested
in the ideas below for little children.  Here, and at the bottom of this page,

are links to the lessons on the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes,

and the Lord's Prayer.

INTRODUCING YOUNG CHILDREN TO THE CONCEPT OF GOD:

Very young children understand the concept of a father and mother.
Use this to teach them about God, who is the Father and Mother of
everyone. Talk about the nice qualities of moms and dads, and then
relate them to God. Make sure your kids see you praying to God, and
studying the Bible. When they are curious, they might ask you who
this God is you're always talking about. You can explain that even
though we can't see Him with our eyes, He is everywhere. Show them
how the wind affects the leaves on a tree, etc., yet we can't see the wind.
We can sometimes hear God in our thoughts, if we listen closely.

Since you may also be reading children's books and fairy tales to them,
pre-school age children will be learning about kings and queens, and
how they rule over their kingdoms. You can introduce the idea of the
kingdom of God, of heaven, and that we are the sons and daughters of
this King. God is all-powerful and governs all the subjects of His
kingdom. Expand on this subject and how God rules over us.

Children appreciate the comfort of a loving embrace, and you can tell
them about the love of God, which comforts us with loving thoughts and
a warm sense of belonging to Him. Introduce them to the concept of
angels, God's messengers, which bring to us the spiritual ideas that we
need in times of fear or doubt, or to protect us when necessary. You can
read to them theBible stories that include angels, and discuss with them
the citations from Mrs. Eddy's writings which describe angels. Have
your child learn to stop and listen for angels when they need help. At
bedtime, you can remind them that God's angels are watching over
them through the night.

Introduce your children to the Bible. Show it to them, and as much as
they can understand, discuss the history of how the Bible came about.
If you need to, do some background reading of your own to learn more
about Bible history. Explain to them that the Bible is the "Word" of
God, His special message to mankind. Tell them God speaks to us
through the lives of the people in the Bible. We learn the lessons that
the Bible characters had to learn. We get to know God better by reading
the Bible and by praying to Him.

Teach them simple prayers. Mary Baker Eddy gives one for the little
children, which goes: "Father-Mother God, Loving me, — Guard me
when I sleep; Guide my little feet Up to Thee." Make prayer part of
their morning and bedtime routines, although don't force this on them if
they are not in a mood to do so. Most little children, though, will
love the comfort of a routine of prayer at night. They can also start
learning the words to the Lord's Prayer, and as they get older, add in
the spiritual interpretation given by Mrs. Eddy in the chapter "Prayer"
in Science and Health.

One of my favorite poems about God when I was growing up went
like this: "I know that God is where I am -- beneath, around, above;
providing, guarding, guiding; encircling me in love." You can teach
them hand movements to go with the words, and say this in the morning.

Your own life is the best example for your children. If you can, talk
openly about God and how much you appreciate His relationship to you.

 

 

 

"The entire education of children should be such as to form habits of
obedience to the moral and spiritual law, with which the child can
meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws a belief which
breeds disease." (S&H 62)

 

"Children should be allowed to remain children in knowledge, and
should become men and women only through growth in the
understanding of man's higher nature."  (S&H 62)

 

"Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian Science, among
their first lessons, and kept from discussing or entertaining theories
or thoughts about sickness.  To prevent the experience of error and
its sufferings, keep out of the minds of your children either sinful or
diseased thoughts.  The latter should be excluded on the same
principle as the former. This makes Christian Science early
available."  (S&H 236)

 

"Children should obey their parents; insubordination is an evil,
blighting the buddings of self-government.  Parents should teach
their children at the earliest possible period the truths of health and
holiness.  Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more
readily to love the simple verities that will make them happy and
good.

 

"Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and
their receptiveness of right.  While age is halting between two
opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid
strides towards Truth."  (S&H 236)

 

"A mother is the strongest educator, either for or against crime. Her
thoughts form the embryo of another mortal mind, and unconsciously
mould it, either after a model odious to herself or through divine
influence, 'according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.' "
 (S&H 236)

 

"Mothers should be able to produce perfect health and perfect morals
in their children -- and ministers, to heal the sick -- by studying this
scientific method of practicing Christianity."  (Miscellaneous
Writings 5)

 

"All education should contribute to moral and physical strength and
freedom."  (Miscellaneous Writings 240)

 

"A child can measurably understand Christian Science, for, through his
simple faith and purity, he takes in its spiritual sense that puzzles the
man.  The child not only accepts Christian Science more readily than
the adult, but he practices it."  (Message for 1900 6)

 

"Too much cannot be done towards guarding and guiding well the
germinating and inclining thought of childhood.  To mould aright the
first impressions of innocence, aids in perpetuating purity and in
unfolding the immortal model, man in His image and likeness. 
St. Paul wrote, 'When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood
as a child, . . . but when I became a man, I put away childish things.'"
 (Miscellany 261)

 

"The entire purpose of true education is to make one not only know
the truth but live it -- to make one enjoy doing right, make one not
work in the sunshine and run away in the storm, but work midst
clouds of wrong, injustice, envy, hate; and wait on God, the strong
deliverer, who will reward righteousness and punish iniquity."
 (Miscellany 252)

 

"All education is work.  The thing most important is what we do, not
what we say."  (Miscellany 289)

 

"It is a joy to know that they who are faithful over foundational trusts,
such as the Christian education of the dear children, will reap the
reward of rightness, rise in the scale of being, and realize at last
their Master's promise, 'And they shall be all taught of God.'"
(Miscellany 230)

 

 

 

"When our Leader gave the By-Law on 'Subjects for Lessons' in the
Sunday School, it was not her intention to limit Sunday school instruction
to the routine of memorizing the letter of the designated portions of the
Scriptures.  She meant that the children should be taught the meaning of
the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and its Spiritual Interpretation,
and the Beatitudes.

 

"These spiritual fundamentals should be so set forth by means of practical
illustrations and everyday examples of love, obedience, and good, that the
child will catch their spirit, understand them, and as a result be interested
in them.

 

"This work you will readily perceive, requires consecrated and intelligent
effort on the part of all connected with the Sunday School.  It means the
demonstration of that love which does things.  To teach a child the words,
'Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' is a comparatively easy task.
To teach a child the meaning of that commandment so thoroughly that he
can and will prove in his living that he actually has no other gods before
good, is the grand privilege of the Christian Science Sunday School
teacher."

 

The text of the other letter follows:  "In reply to your letter . . ., you may teach

the children in the Sunday school anything in the Scriptures or in Christian

Science that they can understand.  Your authority for this is Art. XX, Sect. 2,

of the Manual.  Sect. 3 tells how to begin, or rather what to teach them first. 

After that, you may teach them anything that is absolute Christian Science,

putting it to them in as simple a manner as possible, or in other words, adapt

what you teach to a juvenile class.  The Quarterly Lessons usually contain

good material for this work.  A Sunday School teacher should be governed
by wisdom, and teach the children in the Sunday school the same as she
would instruct her own children if she had any."

 

The Ten Commandments  The Beatitudes The Lord's Prayer