I Love a Good Story!

Megan Follows as Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables

Finished watching the first and second movies of Anne of Green Gables with my daughters tonight. I think they are thoroughly in love with Anne and Gilbert, at least in the movies... now to get them to love the books as well.... I love Anne Shirley, and I identify with her in so many ways... I love her Anne with an E!

My sister introduced me to Anne Shirley many years ago. She first loaned me her copies of the movies, and I can't even count how many times I watched them. Eventually, the vhs tapes were worn out and no longer worked, and I had planned to buy new copies for my sister, but that never happened...

Recently, a friend loaned me her dvd's of the first two movies in the series, and I cried in all the places I have always cried with these movies. Sometimes, my girls just stopped watching the movie to watch me. At one point, when Matthew Cuthbert died in Anne's arms, I was sobbing so hard, I could barely speak.

My 7 year old said, rather unsympathetically, "Mommy, why are you crying? It isn't real."

I whispered to her, "Because I have lost my sister..."

And then, she leaned over me and hugged me, and laid her little head on my shoulder.... and, just like that, my little girl learned empathy...

And that is why I love teaching Christian literature and watching movies that move my heart. I have told my co-op students that by reading good, Christian literature, we are given the opportunity to look at a conflict or dilemma ... some kind of problem... through the eyes of the author, and it gives us a chance to problem solve with them. We get to learn from the story the author's worldview, and through this, even if we disagree with the author, we get to think about our own worldview... we have the chance to have our thoughts and emotions shaped; convictions are formed and sharpened.

Forgive my passion on this subject, but I didn't really love great literature until I started homeschooling. I loved to read when I was little, but I didn't really have much opportunity for reading classic stories except the little that was introduced in textbooks. When I began homeschooling, it occurred to me that all these classic stories should be read if they are classics... I decided I needed to RE-educate myself. I started reading one each summer, and occasionally, I would read some during the school year... plus I read a few out loud to my kids... So much was learned through that time.... History, science and morality and death, anger, grief, and misery, redemption, virtue, and integrity, survival and loneliness, man's inhumanity to man.... and the strength of the human spirit...... it was all there.... all depths of human emotion came alive in those books.

And, you can't really imagine how important it has been to me that my children.... with all their dyslexic tendencies.... LOVE the blessing of STORY.... Granted, it is harder for the older boys to sit and read now that they are adults with jobs, but in their own way, they all love STORY... whether it is listening to audiobooks, reading books off my library shelves, going to a movie together on the premier night, acting in a drama, or telling their own stories in speeches in their classes, or just processing their day with me.... they do love story...

These stories are important because they reflect the REAL STORY.... We learn the most important story where we have a HERO who rescues and saves us from a villain who truly wants to destroy us. We read God's Word each day and we memorize the verses that will be hidden in our hearts for whenever the need arises to recall them to fight temptation and to encourage hope.
Our lives will play out in our own stories, and each chapter will reveal more and more of who we are and what we are designed and ordained to be... and the Author of all things... the Giver of Life and Death has written each page of our lives....
John Eldridge says in his book, Epic: The Story God is Telling:
"What if all the great stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears-- what if they are telling you something about the true Story into which you have been cast?.....For when you were born, you were born into an Epic that has already been under way for quite some time. It is a Story of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a Story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal."
It is an amazing thought, isn't it?

Now, I am teaching my younger four children the same, and I admit, the three girls are a lot easier than any of the boys ever were. My youngest son is a hard sell at his age.... but, I have no fear... because story is always a part of our lives in one form or another... He will learn this too, and I am patient.

I love a good story! <3