Read Some More! – What I’m Reading


“Children need to hear stories. The reason is that they must learn to interpret stories, and they must do this so that they will come to understand the story of their own lives. The gospel story is of course the center of this process. But we learn to understand this story the same way we come to understand the language of Scripture. We learn the language, and because of this, we can hear the language of God in Scripture. We learn stories, and therefore we learn to hear the gospel as a story. When children are steeped in stories, they learn that they are characters in a story as well. This kind of wisdom is the result of hearing countless stories: Bible stories, fairy stories, family stories, stories about work, short stories, humorous stories, serious stories, and many more. When children come to see themselves as characters, they then come to that wisdom which asks the really profound questions. “Am I a Peter? A Eustace? An Edmund? Am I Samwise? Lucy?” In short, they learn to ask what kind of character they are in the story being written all around them.” (My Life for Yours, p. 110)

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2 Comments

  1. I agree with the point of this excerpt; however, I think it necessary to point out that great care must be taken in selecting the stories.

    Fantasy stories with an occult overtone such as C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Peter, Edmund and Lucy) and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (Samwise) are harmful to children, in that they portray magic as a good thing. (I’m familiar with these names because I read the books as a child). It leads children to role-play these characters.

    I’m not suggesting it is the same thing, but it is one step in the direction of the Pokemon / Digimon / Harry Potter craze.

  2. Can’t you look at your schedule and block out an hour or two every day to write what I think you call your “prospectus?” I admire someone for getting up at 4:30am to do almost anything, but is this the best time to keep writing every day without wearing down and out? I can take one blow-out night a week.

    Is Wilson defending children’s reading material with this argument from role-playing? Enough biblical characters exist to fulfill the quota. I believe better arguments exist for reading ‘secular stories,’ and I think his reason might be a bad one.

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