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Share one or two ways you embed biblical principles in your lessons. If you don’t already do so, describe how a teacher you know does it.
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Thankfully our textbooks do a great job integrating biblical principles that are easily expounded upon. We always pause and take note and discuss during those moments. Science is the easiest place to do this by always coming back to the creator of the world. All that we learn about in science from ecosystems to sound and light was created by God and we can be good stewards of His creation. In math we discuss often how God is a God of order. Math helps us learn about money and time and we discuss how we can use both of those wisely and for God’s glory. In reading we often discuss the characteristics and behaviors of our protagonist and antagonist. We talk about ways the characters honored the Lord and the things they could have done differently that would be more honoring to God. Even in a novel that is not necessarily Christian there are many biblical principles to pull from the text. One novel we read had a family who prayed to Mary and set up a shrine to her. It was a great teaching opportunity to discuss why we don’t do that. I find integrating biblical principles happens naturally everyday as we discuss our studies and our lives. Sometimes something as small as flock of turkeys crossing our school yard is a moment to pause and talk about our good God. He loves us so but he cares about those turkeys as well. He gave us a moment of pleasure to enjoy seeing them up close.
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When we focus on units in Math, I like to use examples from the Bible where God calls out deceptive practices. For example, Micah 6:10-14:
“Is there yet a man in the wicked house,
Along with treasures of wickedness
And a short measure that is cursed?
“Can I justify wicked scales
And a bag of deceptive weights?
“For the rich men of the city are full of violence,
Her residents speak lies,
And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.Then, we talk about where this happens today and how we use our understanding of math and units to understand the deception and avoid being tricked.
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As my middle school students read literature, I have a question for them at the end of each book: “What biblical principles do you see in this story? Explain the principle and the Bible passage that you are relating it to.”
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Some of my lessons are easy to embed Biblical principles, for example the rainbow and God’s promises. Some lessons I do not have a Biblical principle to go with it. I came from a public school where we could not teach about God or any Biblical principles, so I am trying to integrate. I like the idea of having a template with the big philosophy questions, Biblical principles and Scripture.
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One of the ways I embed biblical principles into my lessons for my Biology course is that I start the beginning of each school year with a focus on the creation mandate and spend time breaking down what that means for us as followers of Christ. This allows me to revisit this material throughout the school year as we discuss new topics. This naturally allows for an embedding of biblical principles with new interactive lessons that allows my students to interact with God’s Word, the content, and how that directly affects them and God’s creation. The other way I embed biblical principles is that I always ask the question, “what is the end game?” before I start to develop each individual lesson for the unit. When I ask that question is allows me to focus on what biblical principles I can integrate into each lesson for that unit.
