Thursday is for Thinkers: Sally Lloyd-Jones
Thursday, 02 February 2012 08:00
Today marks the 2012 debut of my Thursday is for Thinkers series, and I am pleased to welcome Sally Lloyd-Jones to the blog. Over the next few months I will sharing guest posts from Kelly Minter, Jen Hatmaker, Eugene Cho, and a host others.
Many of you know Sally as the author of the Jesus Storybook Bible. We have the book and use it in our home. The unique quality found in many of Sally's books is the Christo-centric nature in which she directs the story. So today, I asked her to talk about that and how she shapes the stories she writes. Sally will be interacting today on the blog, so feel free to ask questions you may have in the comments below.
People have approached me, holding up one of my children's books, flicking through it backwards--awful for a writer because it implies the order of the words don't matter--and cheerfully announcing, "I'm going to do one. I mean. REALLY. How hard can it be?"
How many of us would dream of going up to a surgeon and saying, "I'm go... ing to do an Angioplasty. I mean. REALLY. How hard can it be?"
That people feel free to say this about children's books tells you a lot--not so much about what they think of children's book writers. That's not important. It tells you what they think of children.
I think it's because they don't have a high enough view of children.
Our proper attitude before children should be humility. We need to be writing up to children--never down.
It also tells you something else: that they have too low a view of Story.
What is the lesson in that story? What is the message? I'm often asked that. But a story is not a sermon.
As writers we know we better not preach on the page. Our job is to tell a story. Not teach a lesson. If we have an agenda, a message in code we want to get across, a moral we want to teach in our writing--it might be an excellent lecture. But it won't be a good story.
It's too low a view of what a story is, of what a story can do. A story can do more than teach you.
A story can transform you.
One Sunday, I was reading the story of Daniel and the Scary Sleepover to some 6 year olds. One little girl in particular was sitting so close to me she was almost in my lap. Her face was bright and eager as she listened to the story, utterly captivated. She could hardly keep on the ground and kept kneeling up to get closer to the story.
At the end of the story there were no other teachers around and I panicked and went into automatic pilot and heard myself--to my horror--asking, "And so what can we learn from Daniel about how God wants us to live?"
And as I said those words it was as if I had literally laid a huge load on that little girl. Like I broke some spell. She crumpled right in front of me, physically slumping and bowing her head. I will never forget it.
It is a picture of what happens to a child when we turn a story into a sermon.
When we drill a Bible story down into a moral lesson, we make it all about us. But the Bible isn't mainly about us, and what we are supposed to be doing--it's about God, and what he has done through Jesus!
When we tie up the story in a nice neat little package, and answer all the questions, we leave no room for mystery. Or discovery. We leave no room for the child. No room for God.
Our focus needs to be not on giving all the right answers. But on raising the right questions.
There may be things just above the children's heads. They may not know every word. They may not understand everything. But let the story do its work, let the language weave its spell.
And then let children do what they love doing best--standing on tiptoes.
A Chinese proverb says: "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."
Sally has a new picture book out all about love. Its called Just Because You're Mine. How does a daddy love his little squirrel? Is it because he so fast? Or strong? Or brave? Or good? He's all of those things but the answer is a heartwarming testament to the bond between a parent and a child and the nature of unconditional love. You can connect with Sally online here.
