Stories and Faith

Last year was a tough year for trying to study scriptures with my thirteen-year-old. I felt like there was no desire to learn, no focus, and no interest on his part. It felt to me like one big eyeball roll, or whine session, when it came to anything I suggested along this line.

Because he’s dyslexic, reading it out loud or to himself took so much effort in decoding the language that he didn’t get any of the meaning out of it.

We had the New Come Follow Me curriculum and I wanted to be diligent in doing my part with my family to be studying it in a meaningful manner. I wanted the lessons of Jesus Christ from the New Testament to be sinking deep into their hearts.

Previously, listening to scriptures out loud and having my son do something with his hands at the same time had been effective. I would ask questions after we were done listening to a chapter, and he would have a pretty good understanding of what he had heard.

Last year when I asked questions after, he would have no idea what it had been about. He hadn’t gotten anything out of it. I did all kinds of searches for helps. What helps were available for dyslexic kids? What helps were available for ADHD kids?

He was too old to be interested in kids coloring pages and projects. I downloaded different Come Follow Me supplements off Etsy. None really helped him at the time. A Facebook post suggested study materials from the Red Headed Hostess.

I purchased, printed, went through, prepared, and tried many different teaching materials with him, trying to find something that would resonate. Nada. I found that I loved the Red Headed Hostess study pages myself, they increased my understandings of the writings of Paul greatly. But even though they are great resources, with many ideas for teaching children of all ages, they didn’t help my son.

I put a lot of prayer into what I should be doing to help. We were three fourths of the way though the year before I felt like I was doing great with my own study, and I still felt like I was failing with him. Were there resources out there I just hadn’t found yet that could help?

In November, I was driving home from Salt Lake by myself. Quiet time. I felt the impression that there weren’t currently materials out there to help him. I felt that if I could figure out things that would help him, it might also help others who were struggling. I felt like the Lord was telling me he wanted me to go to work on the problem.

One thing that was on my mind was the power of stories. Stories have gathered my children in our living room with their listening ears on and their eyes full of interest. Even my teenage children at times.

Reading stories out loud has been something that has been a huge gift for our family over the years. On a regular basis, and also during tough times. I remember years when “the Brothers” (our older three boys), were small, and their dad was out to sea on a submarine. Reading out loud together gathered and calmed my busy boys.

They all brought some quiet activity to the living room. Coloring in Civil War coloring books, building with legos, building with wood blocks, domino rallies, or making patterns out of color tiles. Color tiles were a big favorite.

One lonely summer in Connecticut, when I felt exhausted keeping up with three little boys on my own, and was totally shot by the time evening rolled around, my salvation was stories. I would read and read in the evenings until three little boys fell to sleep. They were happy evenings for all of us.

I believe in good bedtime routines and wouldn’t normally think reading the kids to sleep was a great idea. However, that summer, it was a real blessing.

One of my favorite memories is from right after we had moved from Wisconsin to Idaho. I was pregnant with our youngest and wanted to do everything I could to keep him from coming as early as his sister had. I was sick, had no energy and my blood pressure was running too high. I had a five-year-old, a thirteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old at home still. We had recently dropped our oldest off at college.

My husband was still in Wisconsin for another month. We had moved the family ahead of him to establish prenatal care before things got too dicey. I was worried we might have another very premature baby and I might get stuck in Wisconsin with a little one in the NICU and my family in Idaho. I can’t imagine doing that on my own without the support of my husband or having to be separated from my kids.

We didn’t have much furniture in our new living room yet. We had a few uncomfortable wooden chairs set out to sit in. We also had one older recliner, so I could lean back to help lower my blood pressure. I started reading a Tale of Two Cities out loud.

The nicest thing happened. My teenage boys got drawn in by the story. I’m not sure how much our five-year-old understood, but she was happy to be with us and listening. Things felt all topsy turvy in life: in a new home, family not all together, mom not feeling good enough to do anything, no new friends yet, different ages and interests. Yet in our largely unfurnished living room, with Tale of Two Cities, we created happy memories as a family. It brought peace during a chaotic time.

Stories have power. Reading together is something that has consistently been positive for our family. It is something I feel like we have done well. When I think about what I remember from gospel discussions or study while I was growing up, it is always the stories. The stories have stuck with me and with them their messages.

I started thinking about what is most important for my young teen to be assimilating right now. What messages are most important to be sinking in? I thought, if I’m breaking it down, I think it is faith in Jesus Christ, the love of Jesus Christ for him personally, and all others, and repentance.

I thought, what if we did “read out loud time” in the evening with stories that covered these topics. If we kept it short, simple, interesting and not preachy (my son hates being lectured), that might just be what would help most right now. If scripture study wasn’t sinking in, maybe stories could. Not that I should abandon the scripture study, but maybe this was a natural, simple, teaching method that could help.

I went looking for stories of faith in Jesus Christ. I looked at stories of the miracles involved with missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints leaving Germany and Czechoslovakia at the start of hostilities during the second world war. I started reading excerpts from them at bedtime.

The holidays were upon us and we transitioned to Christmas focused reading each night. It’s time for me to focus again on stories of faith and repentance. I would like to start gathering and writing them regularly and building a collection.

Thinking about what to read until I've got some stories put together, reminded me of some books we enjoyed with the older kids but I'm not sure my youngest has heard.

The first book I thought of was Here Stands a Man by Blaine and Brenton Yorgason.

The second book I thought of was In the Eye of the Storm by John Groberg

I'm going to go dig through our library and pull those out. I think we'll start with those books while I'm working on gathering more.