Storytime

One of the highlights of my week is reading to children on Saturdays at our local Barnes & Noble’s Storytime.

I take my guitar and sing a few ditties then read the announced book for the day. It’s a lot of fun.

In the process of conversing with the children (typically ages 3 – 9) I hear all sorts of comments about their schools, friends, families, trips, etc. It is so refreshing to sense their energy and hear the honesty from these little ones.

Today there was a little boy named Caid who talked about his visit to the doctor and another little boy who was proud to show me his new blue shoes. Then, of course, his little sister has to show me her new red shoes. A little girl named Isabel, age 4, will start Preschool on Tuesday and she was excited about her new backpack. Delaney demonstrated how she could name dinosaurs from “A to Z”.

In spite of their interruptions, we were able to get through the story of Pig the Fibber and stress the importance of always telling the truth.

Years ago, Art Linkletter’s line was, “Kids say the darndest things.” How true.

Jesus had some things to say about the children:

“Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”                  Matthew 18:16-17

And Jesus was the greatest story teller of all time. Most of His stories were called parables and were aimed at the grown-up kids.

May I never become too “big for my britches” when it comes to learning the lessons of life from His stories.