Grace Blanchard's SOS

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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Grace Blanchard’s SOS

          Elmer Homrighausen – How’s that for a professor’s name? – said one of the few things in a liturgics and homiletics class that I still recall: “When you get up there, deliver the turkey!  Don’t pluck it in front of them!”

          Anyway, I also remember Sunday School with Miss Grace Blanchard of the Forty Fort United Presbyterian Church that remains across the Susquehanna River from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

          Unlike today’s Boy Scouts of America, she believed girls and boys need same-gender academic, athletic, recreational, and relational opportunities because any ___ fool can see the genders don’t learn, grow, interact, mature, and all of the rest in exactly the same ways.

          Yeah, I know today’s social engineers want to eliminate gender distinctions; but that ain’t the divine design.

          While value equality is common knowledge/wisdom, so is functional diversity; or as I often say to my sons, “Your mom is a much better mother than I can ever be and I’m a much better father than she can ever be.”

          As Miss Blanchard would say when challenged by folks who wanted their daughters in her class instead of ___’s, “God made ‘em male and female.  They’ll have plenty of time to get together after we teach the basics to ‘em.”

          Parenthetically, she taught Sunday School until she was 104; which is one of the reasons why retirement has never been on my radar.  Just like Ben Franklin, Don Lyon, and many others truly called to their vocations, we don’t quit if we’re called unless we’re no longer emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, or physically capable…or…we’re called to something else…or…we want to quit because we were never really called to it in the first place which is why we wanna quit.

          Getting back to our Sunday School class, Miss Blanchard would say about once a month, “O.K., boys, today is SOS Sunday!  Same old stuff!”

          Then we’d have a Q&A for an hour or so on Bible facts, figures, and faith.

          BTW, no one ever came late because she taught us that it’s not rude to be on time for the privilege of worship and Christian education.

          Here’s an abbreviated summary of SOS Sunday with Miss Blanchard.

          GB: “How do you get to heaven, boys?”

          Boys: “By grace through faith in Jesus!”

          GB: “What does it say in the Bible?”

          We’d recite John 1:12-13, 3:16-17, 5:24, 20:31, Romans 10:9, and Ephesians 2:8-9.

          GB: “How do I know you’re going to heaven, boys?”

          Boys: “We walk the talk, Miss Blanchard!”

          GB: “What does it say in the Bible?”

          We’d recite Matthew 10:32-33, 25:45-46, John 13:34-35, and Galatians 5:22-23.

          GB: “How do you thank God for forgiving your sins so you can go to heaven?”

          Boys: “We forgive because we’ve been forgiven.”

          GB: “What does it say in the Bible?”

          We’d recite Matthew 6:12, 14-15 and 7:1-2.

          If you’re like me, I think Miss Blanchard’s SOS Sunday needs to be resurrected.

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Blessings and Love!

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Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

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