When I was at the CEF thing last week, I was thinking about teaching some of this stuff to our people. It isn't just passing on information or techniques, but what you pass on is more a heart for working with children. There is so much to teach people about, that is just fun stuff, but what you teach, hopefully, becomes a heritage and a part of their family.
I thought of passing on the idea of beginning a lesson with a story. You don't do that all the time, but sometimes it gets the children’s attention and eases their hearts into learning. What you also want to teach is how to come up with your own stories, from life, that somehow apply to the lives of the kids. I remembered the first story I heard at a daycare. I was going to teach the lesson on Elijah, but a woman got up after the lady who did the songs and she told the story of "Fluffy." What a funny thing the Lord did. Fluffy became part of our family and over the years, as was needed, Fluffy's friends joined us. There was his sister Suzy, and two stories with his brother Oscar and then there some stories with Browny and Sparky and Sally Robin and Mary Appletree and Little Boy Donut and Little Robby Ranger…am I forgetting anyone? And not only our family, I've told these stories in German in churches and camps.
So what do you do with all this stuff? Well, it's been fun, but mostly as I've used them and shared them and if a parent got the bug and got motivated, they could tell stories to their kids, right out of their day, right to the life and heart of their kids. But it all has to be shared. Someone shared "Fluffy" with me and I've used Fluffy countless times to tell kids about Jesus.
Then it hit me, I just need to share this stuff. If the Lord were to "graduate" me today, it would all go out the door with my computer…hidden in a folder, deleted with the touch of a button.
So, for this Christmas I'm going to give anyone reading a gift. It's not a children's story…those will follow later.. but a story I wrote for … I don't know, teen guys. But the story is a parable, like most stories are. Since this story is short, the parable isn't too subtle, but I tried also, not to be preachy. The story is ok, but not a classic of American literature, and I'm a pastor, not an author.
I realize in making any of the stories public they can be shared. That's what I want. What I'd ask is to respect the "copyright" and if you "share" them, do it by pointing people to the blog to read them, or at least give credit where credit is due. Obviously, don't steal them and publish them under another name, but if you do and you actually make money on them, at least help me fix my car.
Ultimately, all we do belongs to God and His Spirit stirs our hearts to come up with some pretty interesting stuff sometimes. The reward is to give glory to Christ and see the lives of His disciples stirred aflame to stir others.
The story has been removed from the blog as of June 2015 and is now an e-book on Kindle. The Amazon link is
I thought of passing on the idea of beginning a lesson with a story. You don't do that all the time, but sometimes it gets the children’s attention and eases their hearts into learning. What you also want to teach is how to come up with your own stories, from life, that somehow apply to the lives of the kids. I remembered the first story I heard at a daycare. I was going to teach the lesson on Elijah, but a woman got up after the lady who did the songs and she told the story of "Fluffy." What a funny thing the Lord did. Fluffy became part of our family and over the years, as was needed, Fluffy's friends joined us. There was his sister Suzy, and two stories with his brother Oscar and then there some stories with Browny and Sparky and Sally Robin and Mary Appletree and Little Boy Donut and Little Robby Ranger…am I forgetting anyone? And not only our family, I've told these stories in German in churches and camps.
So what do you do with all this stuff? Well, it's been fun, but mostly as I've used them and shared them and if a parent got the bug and got motivated, they could tell stories to their kids, right out of their day, right to the life and heart of their kids. But it all has to be shared. Someone shared "Fluffy" with me and I've used Fluffy countless times to tell kids about Jesus.
Then it hit me, I just need to share this stuff. If the Lord were to "graduate" me today, it would all go out the door with my computer…hidden in a folder, deleted with the touch of a button.
So, for this Christmas I'm going to give anyone reading a gift. It's not a children's story…those will follow later.. but a story I wrote for … I don't know, teen guys. But the story is a parable, like most stories are. Since this story is short, the parable isn't too subtle, but I tried also, not to be preachy. The story is ok, but not a classic of American literature, and I'm a pastor, not an author.
I realize in making any of the stories public they can be shared. That's what I want. What I'd ask is to respect the "copyright" and if you "share" them, do it by pointing people to the blog to read them, or at least give credit where credit is due. Obviously, don't steal them and publish them under another name, but if you do and you actually make money on them, at least help me fix my car.
Ultimately, all we do belongs to God and His Spirit stirs our hearts to come up with some pretty interesting stuff sometimes. The reward is to give glory to Christ and see the lives of His disciples stirred aflame to stir others.
The story has been removed from the blog as of June 2015 and is now an e-book on Kindle. The Amazon link is
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