“Please tell us a story!”
Hardly a day went by that my children didn’t ask for a story. They loved stories. But the day finally came when I sighed and said, “I can’t think of one more story I haven’t already told you!” My oldest spoke up, “Then make up a story, Mommy.” “I can do that,” I thought to myself.
So I started spinning a story about Johnny and Carrie. “Oh, I know who Johnny is; he lives around the corner,” said one of them.
Since I didn’t want them to think I was talking about their friends, I chuckled and said, “No, this is not about that Johnny. Let’s start calling the children A and B. I will tell you whether A is a girl or a boy.” Thus a tradition of “A and B” stories began sometimes including “C, D, and E.”
I soon realized I could weave character-building lessons into the stories. I always invented a story about things they could relate to, such as a road trip with family, a campout, a birthday party, playing with cousins, or anything that interested them.
Sometimes, I included something that one of them did wrong. Then I would pause and ask, “Should A have done that?” They would all shake their heads and very seriously say, “No.” I’d follow up with, “So what could A have done instead?” They would all think up various ways to handle the situation.
When appropriate, I asked, “What would happen if B did that?” I wanted them to think about how their actions impact their lives. Usually, I asked them if it would help to ask Jesus what to do, and their agreement to that came quickly.
Other times I would ask, “What should the parents do?” Quite often their replies were nothing short of being “shot at sunrise.” I would encourage them to think of something a bit less severe and more in keeping with the wrongdoing. They grew to understand that parents are responsible for giving compassionate consequences so children could learn not to do that again.
The A and B tradition continued through all the grandchildren, who begged for “A and B” stories too!
