At West Point they were struggling with how to implant character traits of leadership into the future Army officers. They found that studying definitions of the traits didn’t help much – the cadets quickly forgot. But when they told the cadets stories about others who had been courageous or decisive or bold or humble the cadets not only remembered but also clearly saw how to apply it to their own leadership.
Stories are powerful teaching tools. No wonder Jesus used them so much.
In part 1 of this post I shared two huge benefits of lying down with your kids in the evening. Here are benefits 3, 4 and they have to do with storytelling.
- It’s prime time for news and views.
- It’s prime time for imparting faith and values.
- It’s prime time for passing heritage and legacy.
I used to tell my kids a lot of stories and some of their favorites were stories about dumb stuff I did as a kid – tossing snowballs at passing cars, slamming into the dangerous tree on our favorite sledding run, the fight when my brother hit me in the head with a hammer, the Christmas tree fort that earned my dad a call from the health department, exploding our neighbor’s mums, etc, etc. I had a lot of “When I was a kid …” stories.
Later they told me how these stories encouraged them when they made dumb mistakes. They realized it’s ok to mess up. After all, Dad did dumb stuff, too.
Plus, it connected us in a way that they understood that I could, at least somewhat, relate to their struggles because I had been there one time, too. I had gotten in trouble, got some spankings, had problems just like theirs. Kids don’t always know you were a kid, too. And, sometimes we even forget what it was like. So these help remind all of us.
- It’s prime time for fun stories.
Here are some of the types of stories I told.
- “When I was a kid …” stories helped the kids connect with me as a real person – not just the Almighty Dad.
- Aesop-type fables are great. They impart a values message in a fun and sly way. One of my favorites is the Greedy Dog. What a clever way to teach an important lesson.
- Just so stories are theologically atrocious but lots of silly fun. (And if you’re too stuffy to be silly you can use them to explain how the elephant really got his long trunk – Creation by Design.)
- Good stories I remembered hearing – mostly from Captain Kangaroo – when I was a kid. I love Stone Soup. Keep it simple and adjust the length for their age and attention span.
- Made up stories – These are the toughest but also perhaps the most fun since I would tell the kids I needed their help telling these.
Once there was a turtle named – now what was that turtle’s name? _____________.
This turtle’s favorite thing in the whole world to do was _____________.
The best part about these stories is that you can include your child in the story and, of course, they end up being the hero. It’s nice if these can have an Aesop ending with a good lesson but I found they don’t even have to make sense or have clever endings. The kids just like making up stories with you.
I hope this helps you take advantage of this prime time to lie down, have some fun and create some memories.
Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
Ephesians 5:16
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