Tell Your Story

Tell Your Stories Here by Tantek Celik
Flickr.com_/photos/tantek/5335291744_CC BY-ND 4.0

Return home and tell how much God has done for you. Luke 8:39 NIV

If you're visiting from the Christian Children's Authors blog, welcome!

Summer camp stories told 'round the evening fire were the best, especially Friday nights. After week-long encounters with Jesus--being stretched and challenged both physically, emotionally and spiritually--we shared our God stories around the campfire. By the end of the night, story after story, God's presence was palpable. 

We wanted to stay there in that moment, forever, basking in God's glory and our unified faith. But, Saturday came and it was time to return home to the routine of our lives. 

Jesus met a tormented, demon-possessed man, chained and banished inside lakeside caves. He ordered the Legions to leave this man and they obeyed. Immediately, this man felt relief and his sanity returned. Thankful for the return of normalcy in his life for the first time in years, he wanted to spend all his time with Jesus. But, instead of inviting him to go with him, Jesus ordered the man to return home and share all that God had done for him.

When we experience God's healing or a divine breakthrough in our lives, isn't it tempting to stay in that moment--at the foot of the cross--and bask in God's presence? Don't you just want to pitch your tent and live in that moment forever? 

But what good is God's glory in our lives if we keep it hidden in our secret places? How will others know that God's healing and redemptive mercy and grace are for them as well? 

Like that healed man of Legions, Jesus says, "Return home and tell how much God as done for you." Tell. Your. Story. It's risky business, yes, but tell it anyway. Be God's kingdom conduit of grace, mercy, and healing. 

Tell...Your...Story! We're waiting to hear it. 

Click here for my story...May God use it mightily.

Prayer: 

Oh, Jesus, thank you for risking everything to bring God's healing into our lives. Thank you for offering us your mercy and grace to forgive and the courage to share our stories with those around us. May we be obedient to do as you ask. Amen.

Everyone Loves a Good Story

He taught by using stories, many stories. Mark 4:2b  (The Message)

"Tell me a story, Grams" she begs, snuggled beneath cozy covers. So I begin to spin my yarn from the beginning and just when I whisper, "the end," her eyes open wide begging for another.

In wakeful hours, I find this little, animated storyteller herself, "reading" amongst piles of picture books. Her insatiable craving for story fosters learning through imagination that trickles down mastered skills, life lessons, and truths. 

Knowledge disguised as entertainment, story is a powerful tool that offers us freedom to ponder, imagine and voluntarily apply the hidden lesson to our own experience.  A good story teaches on two levels: first, it's entertaining to the immature audience, and secondly, it teaches a lesson. Children's authors write for both children and adult audiences. Successful story entertains a child's imagination through relateable characters and experiences but also grabs the adult reader's attention through life lessons.

Jesus was a fan of story, too. He was a master storyteller teaching primarily through parables (short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson). His stories left the immature listener entertained--sometimes scratching their heads. But mature listeners--the ones pricked by the Holy Spirit, made ready to receive truth--chewed on Jesus' hidden morsels of soul food-- turned his words over in their minds, questioned him further, pressed him for more depth.

Jesus' storytelling, recorded in the four gospels, (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), revealed his true followers--those ready to accept and apply Kingdom truths to their lives. Age, education and societal rank did not presume maturity. Rather, Jesus spoke of wisdom as a gift from God:

"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." Luke 10:21

As we read Jesus' stories today, let's ask the Holy Spirit to prick our ears to hear, our eyes to see, our minds to understand and our hearts to accept God's truth. Jesus' words, like all of Scripture, were God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, training, and equipping us to live righteously.

"Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." Luke 10:23

Lord, thank you the freedom to receive your truth through stories. Thank you for creative imagination partnered with your gift of wisdom that teaches us your truth through the written and spoken word. May we search and find all your hidden morsels.

Storytelling: Sharing God's Goodness from Generation to Generation

We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. Psalm 78:4

My father-in-law was an infamous storyteller. You wouldn't know it by his quiet public manner, but gathered around the dinner table with family or friends, his storytelling flowed for hours. He had great material from growing up in the rural south during the depression, serving in the U. S. Navy after Pearl Harbor, forty years of repairing failed factory production machines, fishing and hunting trips, retirement golf tournaments...well, you get the picture. 

While most of his stories may not have intentionally imparted any moral lessons, they taught us more about history and the storyteller than he ever imagined. So many times we said, "We should really record his stories for future generations," but we didn't. 

Storytelling is a wonderful teaching media. Whether spoken or written, it ignites our imagination and helps us connect-the-dots between the story and our personal life experiences. It's exactly why Jesus taught God's truths through parables. 

Not all stories are parables, but admit it, everyone loves a good story. If this weren't so, there would be no books, no movies, no theater. Have you noticed how our souls long for a captivating story with a hero, a villain, a battle, a rescue, and a happy ending that instills hope? 

(Psst...to hear the end of this story, click here. See y'all in a second at Christian Children's Authors blog).

My Children Taught Me How to Read

"Jesus taught them many things by using picture stories..." Matthew 13:3a NLV

My children cut their teeth on books like Pat the Bunny (Dorothy Kunhardt), The Little Engine That Could (Watty Piper), Goodnight Moon, The Golden Egg Book and Home for a Bunny (all by Margaret Wise Brown) and various nursery rhyme board books.

 

It all started when I received a lovely book basket overflowing with these colorful childhood treasures from my sister-in-law as a baby shower gift. I poured over every illustration and devoured every word like I’d never seen the likes of such playfulness. And, I hadn’t. 

Growing up just as television became a household item books went to the wayside in our home. Rather than a bedtime story every night, my sisters and I were sent off to bed after watching our favorite week night after-dinner sitcom or weekend variety show. On special occasions we stayed up past our bedtime to watch the latest Sunday night Wonderful World of Disney movie or holiday animated specials.  

I loved listening to stories: in school, during the flannel graph Bible stories at Sunday school and listening to family stories as we gathered around the dinner table. But, books just weren’t a priority in our house.

 

(Amazed that a children's author and writer didn't grow up loving books? Yeah, me too. Click here and join me at Christian Children's Authors blog for the rest of the story, won't you?)

Resurrecting An Old Art Form: DIY Flannel Graph Stories

Do you ever wonder what to do with all your children’s mounting Sunday school papers or your old magazines?

Why not use them to create flannel graph stories? It’s a simple and entertaining project sure to diminish your piles of paper and engage your children in a creative form of storytelling.

Hop over to Christian Children's Authors blog with me where I explain this easy, recycling project.