Charlie "Tremendous" Jones, the great Christian speaker and proponent for great Christian literature, in particular biographies of the Heroes of the Faith, is known for saying, "You’ll be the same today as you were five years ago except for the people you meet and the books you read."

In one of my latest favorite parenting books, "Romancing Your Child’s Heart", Monte Swan, home educator from CO, gets to the heart of this issue and captures your own heart as you read, (although you may not agree with every specific application--we don’t, you’ll find it hard to disagree with his philosophy and conclusions). I'll begin here as Monte quotes from theologian Vigen Guroian, "’Our children are in jeopardy and so is the future of virtue and human goodness as well.’ (Monte continues,) The solution to this crisis in not more religious education, with the goal of indoctrinating a child by hammering home yet more dry tenets of orthodox thinking. Nor is the solution to offer more courses, and at a younger age, in "values clarification." Children do not need a shopping list of character qualities or values from which to pick and choose. They need adult guidance in knowing how to live well.

".... We must keep in mind that children learn almost nothing from abstractions and almost everything from stories. Abstractions are impersonal and detached. Stories are practical and personal. Children learn through stories because they internalize them. .... When the characters live happily ever after, the child is connected, if only for an instant, with the larger Story ....-- the Story that promises eternal happiness for those who come to God by faith. ....Stories are our primary method for romancing our child’s heart, first to ourselves, and then to God.

".... Children who grow up hearing and seeing stories are far better prepared to step into our culture. .... However--and this is crucial--we as parents need to select carefully the stories to which our children are exposed. The challenge is to find stories through which the larger Story runs like a thread. .... For children raised this way, their whole childhood and adolescence has been a rehearsal for living as adults in our culture. They are practiced in the art of living in story. ....They do not need to search for meaning--they have found it already. They become preoccupied, enthralled, fascinated, captivated by the larger Story, like deer panting after the water brooks--people after God’s own heart.

".... This desire and ability to live in the larger Story is described in the Proverbs as "the way wisdom." .... The ability and passion to live in the way of wisdom are best taught to children through stories. Stories bring biblical knowledge, doctrine, character, and virtue to life--they are the process of applying these to life according to God’s will. ....The way of wisdom is not a stuffy, boring religious concept. It is the literal and spiritual path that almighty God has designed for each of us to walk through this life.

".... Everyone has a story. We all live in a story in one way or another. And all our stories are part of the larger Story ....--and all are connected at the heart. The only thing we can do wrong is not try."

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