What's in a Lesson Reflection Paper? (Posted by Gabe)

Hi guys--

I'm writing in response to a question from one of you. Here it is: "I had a question about the lesson reflection papers that I am required to write every week. The syllabus gives barely any guidelines on how these are supposed to be written. Should I be summarizing the chapter or should I be only giving my opinion on the reading? Any insights you could share would be much appreciated."

Part of any real learning process is application. Learning--especially for a practical course like this one-- is not just in reading a book, even a great book like "The Peacemaker." The purpose of the lesson reflection paper is really to help you go through that application process. You should use these papers to independently think through the lesson's topics in terms of your own life or your own Biblical analysis.

You can approach these papers from a multitude of angles. You can write them as a testimonies, how you did--or should have--applied this truth in your own life. You can write them as an analysis of situations you saw. You can write about Biblical situations, or Biblical analysis using your own Scripture study.

I would encourage you to take these papers and focus on taking the theory and personalizing it for real life.

Feel free to leave comments and questions if you have further thoughts!