On Wednesday nights I help teach the 4 and 5 year olds in bible class at my church. My friend Emily does most of the teaching this quarter and I've been assisting her. Last Wednesday night she was teaching the story of Doubting Thomas. While these kids are exceptionally bright it is not easy to convey the meaning of the word doubt to 4 and 5 year olds.
To illustrate Thomas' doubt, Emily asked the class "If Miss Molly told you she could fly, would you believe her?" She quickly realized this wasn't the best example and then asked me, "Miss Molly, what's something you can do that we wouldn't believe?" I took a quick mental catalog of my innumerable hidden talents and for some reason "a headstand" is what came out of my mouth. Emily asked the class if they thought I could do a headstand and much to my dismay they answered with a resounding "No". What? Don't these kids know I took all of 3 months worth of gymnastics classes when I was 6? Don't they know I was Daddy's little gymnast? So that hurt my pride a little, but I was happy to see that they were starting to grasp the definition of doubt.
As fate would have it I was in a dress that night and not able to demonstrate my abilities. I promised to wear pants on the following Wednesday so as to dazzle them with my skills. Which works out perfectly because Thomas had to wait a week to see Jesus after the disciples told him of his resurrection. The only potential flaw in this plan comes if I am unable to actually do a headstand this Wednesday. It's been a while since I've tried. I guess I better start practicing. It wouldn't do to lie to the children. Why couldn't I have said something like "eat an entire box of girl scout cookies in one sitting"? That would have been much more fun to prove.
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