Did you know the stories we tell our kids can make them more resilient?
Lately, I’ve been reading the story of Gideon and so much has been jumping out at me.
Gideon’s family had an altar to Baal — an idol — on their property. One day, while Gideon is threshing wheat in the winepress, instead of on the threshing floor, Gideon is confronted by the Angel of the Lord.
So many things fascinate me about this story, but one of the most important things is that when Gideon is confronted, he knows the stories of how God freed the Children of Israel from Egypt. And He wonders why God isn’t showing up in the same way for his generation.
You can see in the story a clear juxtaposition of Gideon asking why isn’t God showing up like He did in the past while the altar to Baal looms in the background.
How can his family sit comfortably with both narratives? Both faith stories? Both allegiances?
From my reading, it seems the Israelites, at that time, were supplementing their faith.
Baal was a visible God while they were serving an invisible God.
If God was good for 80%, then Baal would make up the other 20%. If God took care of getting them out Egypt, then Baal would take care of their crops.
However, when you look, back in Deuteronomy 6, God tells the children of Israel to be faithful to Him while continuously telling the next generation the stories of faith.
Deuteronomy 6:20-22 says, In the future, when your son asks you,“What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household.
The stories of faith were supposed to be the supplement.
The stories make the next generation resilient.
But if they’re not told frequently, with meaning, they lose their power.
By the time the stories landed on Gideon’s ears, and likely the ears of his whole generation, they had lost their “umph!”. They were powerless stories, like fables or fairy tales.
The question must be asked, didn’t his father, Joash have any stories to tell. Did God’s goodness not follow on to the subsequent generations?
Psalm 23:6 says, goodness and mercy pursue us so surely they had experienced God as well.
I imagine when God was telling the children of Israel to share their stories in Deuteronomy 6, he intended for subsequent generations to also have stories to share.
The power of stories is not just biblical, it’s also scientific.
Dr Marshall Duke and Dr Robyn Fivush of Emory University studied the phenomenon and discovered lower levels of stress and anxiety in children who are grounded in their family’s history. This was measured by the “Do You Know” scale, which asked kids 20 questions about their family and its origin story.
So, today, after reading this, I went back in the recesses of my mind and dusted off a story of how I had experienced God and shared it with my son.
And I realised I don’t do this enough. I have so many instances of my faith being made real in my life, but I haven’t shared them with my son, and I intend to change that.
The only supplement to God I want our family to have is the stories of how He’s led us in the past.