Wise Words With...

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23 (ESV)

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23 (ESV)

By the time you read this, Book Week will be a pleasant, warm memory. There should also be lots of photos to remember it by. Our students (thanks to parents and carers) and staff have dressed up in various costumes from the literary world. Participants represented various characters from picture books, early readers, chapter books, novels, graphic novels, and comics. 

There have never been more books! On one level, this is good. After all, when a child dislikes reading, reading anything is better than reading nothing. Right!? 

While we are rightly enthusiastic about encouraging our children to read, we must also recognise that the stories they absorb shape their hearts. By heart, I mean a child's imaginative world and moral compass.

In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, one of the characters named Eustace comes across a dragon's lair. At that point, the narrator explains: 

"Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon's lair, but, as I said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books."

Now, Eustace surely knew there would be treasure in the lair - he had read that much! The narrator infers that Eustace didn't know what the dragon's treasure would do to him once he took it.

While Eustace did read, he needed to read the right kind of books. Whatever he had been reading had misshaped his imagination and moral compass.

The right kind of books don't come in a particular package or from a specific shop. It is not about whether they are chapter books or graphic novels. It all depends on the vision of life presented in a story. Each story presents a perspective on what is good, true, and beautiful. 

So, what do we do in a world flooded with books and their screen versions? When you read (or watch) books with your children, help them see characters who triumph by exercising humility, integrity, and kindness. Focus on characters who show perseverance, respect, and gratitude. These things are good, true, and beautiful. 

Finally, how do we define humility, kindness and integrity? Which character, in what story, illuminates these character traits for us?  

Countless books do this well; we should encourage our children to read them. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus is 'the character,' and the gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the ultimate 'stories' for seeing Jesus in action.

Helping our children see Jesus in action will shape their imaginative world and moral compass toward what is truly good, true, and beautiful.