Some of you may be asking Why STORIES? Well…
There is a universal struggle in every country including the US. That is to find ways to truly connect parents and children or teachers and children. One of the best ways is to allow adults to read to children. Very often the adults don’t know what to do beyond reading and even though reading to them helps them to bond, it becomes even better if the adults know how to communicate about what has been read. It’s amazing how many parents just aren’t qualified to do that. So, we put into the notes at the end of each book, not only Biblical principles, but questions to ask the children that allows for dialogue between the parent and the child. Questions that are very simple but provide a starting point for them to “communicate”. This is perhaps the most valuable part of the program. One of the core values of organizations like Rethink or Orange, is to develop family curriculum very similar to this to help parents know how to talk about important things with their children. We are following that example by offering this program.
Green Eggs and Ham is one of the books that will be sent out in the STORIES program. Below is the message that Lanny Donoho, our founder, wrote that will go in the back of the book….
Did you ever try to get someone to do something that you thought was great but they just wouldn’t try it? Was it some kind of food you liked or some activity that you liked to do? Tell me about that?
Sam I Am tried and tried and tried to get his friend to eat those green eggs and ham.
But think about it. Would you want to eat green eggs? I wouldn’t. It doesn’t seem like green eggs would taste very good. Eggs are supposed to be a different color than green. Would you eat blue rice? Or purple chicken? That just doesn’t seem right does it?
There is an interesting bible verse that reminds me of this story.
The verse is in Psalms 34 verse 8. It says this:
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
There are a lot of people who don’t know much about God. They think He doesn’t exist or that He is like a mean person who wants to punish us when we do bad things. Some people don’t know that He loves us and wants good things for us.
They haven’t been taught about His goodness and His love and mercy so when others try to tell them about Him, they just say they don’t want to hear about Him.
That’s the way our character felt about green eggs. But he had not tried them so he just didn’t know how good they were.
The writer of Psalms is trying to say the same thing that Sam said. When he says taste and see that the Lord is good, he uses the word taste to simply mean, find out for yourself. Don’t just say God isn’t good. Try Him out. Trust in Him. And if you do, you will discover great joy. He isn’t what you have heard or thought. He is really good. Can you tell me things that you know about God that are really good?
