Don't Stop the Stories

    

     We crack open the bent, tender pages of the Children's Bible.  We flip and scour searching for the favourite story of old - again!  Then the page falls open to the "hoped for story" and  I feel the legs of my child quiver with excitement under the blankets as we begin to read . . .

     When the music plays, everyone must bow down and worship the statue.  Those who disobey will be thrown into the fiery furnace.

     "You know what, Mom?"  His sweet face turns up towards mine.

     "What's that?" I ask, as I stroke the blond hairs away from his forehead.

     "I wouldn't bow down!  If that was me, I would say, 'Put me in that hot furnace'."  The firmness of expression is locked on his small face.

     His words are spoken with such seriousness and passion that my heart swells with pleasure as I simultaneously stifle a smile.  I don't want to break the solemness of the spoken commitment of the moment.

     This, I think to myself, is why we read God's truths each night and not fairy tales.  This is why I will not stop the telling of God's truths through stories with my children.

    We don't know what the future holds for the next generation, but God does.  We don't know what our children will need in order to be equipped for the challenges they will face, but God does. 

     It is God and His Word that will summon our children to higher levels.

     The only way I know to fully arm our children with the tools and knowledge they will require, is through a deep understanding of God and His Word.  And the only way they will grow in that is to begin now and not stop the stories.

     Don't stop the stories until your sweet ones are able to pursue God passionately on their own -- until then, our highest priority is not ABC's or 123's, but God and His truths found in His Word.

"God's Word goes on and on forever.

This is the Word that conceived

the new life in you."

I Peter 1:25