I have been teaching middle school for 15 years.
God’s first command to humans in the Bible is to “rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air…” Gen. 1:26. In Genesis 2:15 God shows how to do this when he placed mankind “in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”. Since we were made in God’s image we must rule and take care of things in the way that God rules and takes care of things. God didn’t rule over us by creating us to be his slaves, instead, when we turned against him, he send his son to die for our sins. We need to rule in a similar manner, we are to care for, maintain, and benefit from the creation but we need to remember that it is not our world, rather God has appointed us as his stewards of world.
This thread runs though everything that I teach. In science we focus on how our learning helps us take care of God’s creation and we marvel at all God has created. In social studies we study different places and people so that we can be better citizens in the time and place that God has placed us. In Bible we open our eyes to what God has done for us and we respond in joyful thankfulness.
