Teach to the Whites of Their Eyes!

Review your past few lessons -- are you using very general, wishy-washy examples in your illustrations and applications?  (They sound like this:  "In case you, you know, might have a neighbor guy who complains, you know, well, just keep lovin' him.")

This advice is probably only going to resonate with a subset of my readers, but will be very important for those teachers.  

Use specific, detailed illustrations.  Call for specific behaviors -- described well! -- in your applications.  Don't generalize all the time.  What struggles and challenges and fears do your students have at this time? As you pray for them, what burns in your heart that they need to hear in order to grow?  

It's been said that great golfers don't just look at the ball as they swing; great golfers focus on 1 dimple on that ball.  Great baseball batters watch the seams on the ball as it is hurled at them.  

In this same spirit, dear teachers, focus on the precise needs of your students.  Aim your illustrations and applications not at the amorphous crowd, but the whites of the eyes of individuals.  Speak not into the air around them but into their very chests!  Teach passionately, specifically, boldly -- this is teaching the Bible to change lives.