The Power of "Story"

I hung up my laminated map... then noticed that the voyage of Nathaniel Bowditch that was traced on it was faded.... so I re-traced it... and remember the story... then I drew the voyage from a favorite book, By the Great Horn Spoon, on the map.... and then, I remembered the route of Gladys Aylward... and the Pilgrims... and Lewis and Clark.... and Esteban... The Witch of Blackbird Pond... and Mary Slessor and William Carey...

This sparked a discussion with my oldest son and my oldest daughter, my first and fifth children, as they recalled the stories that these voyages were connected with... and that led to us pouring over my library shelves, talking about various books that we have read... I am always amazed that when I read a title of a book that I have read in the past, not only do details come back to me that I would've thought I'd forgotten, but even moreso, the FEELINGS of how I felt when I read the book come back like a flood. We spent over two hours pulling books off the shelves and remembering the stories and the feelings... Someday, I'd like to be able to say that I read every book that I own, but right now, I could not say that... let's just say, I have a lot of books. ;-)

Listening to my kids talk about these stories, I thought about how passionate I feel about "story" and its impact on how we see the world.... The difference "story" has made in my life is incredible and hard to explain. It has made me who I am.

I can't say that I have been able to get all of my kids to love to read... partly because of learning challenges some have had..... but all of my kids LOVE "story." They all love what they learn from either reading "story" or hearing "story." A few have even learned from acting out "story" in plays or skits.

As I tell my Christian literature class, "story" is important to how we view the world and all truly good, classic stories will have an element of His Story... the story that our great Author is writing that we have become the characters in.... We step into the story at the precise time when He decides we should, and we do not know the next chapter until we step into it. When we read other people's stories and are confronted with their dilemmas, we have a little better understanding of the world we live in, what we believe about it, and how to cope with it.... and we are shaped, little by little, by what we read.

To me, reading and learning to love "story" is one of the most important aspects of becoming educated.... and when my kids talk about these books that I own...or relate stories from the most important Book-- THE Story.... my heart rests in knowing that they are truly becoming educated.