being a story teller

I love telling stories. Stories from my childhood. Stories from my teenage years. Stories from College. Stories from early married life. Stories from the days of my kids. Bible stories. Since I can remember, I've loved to tell, write and make up stories. I hope I will always be a story-teller.

The stories I tell have gotten better over the years. They've been expanded. They've been made funnier. They've kept secret the identities that would be embarrassed by them. (not really) I've laughed at the stories until I cried and fell on the floor. I've cried at the stories that made me reflect (or had sad music attached to them).

One night, on the way home from an adventure with my kids to find some replacement swing set parts, my daughter Jennifer told us a wild story about the planet Venus. She talked for about an hour straight. It was amazing! At the time she was probably around 6 years old. Jennifer entertained us with her story for the whole trip back from Akron to Cleveland! I can't remember much of the details of her story, but I remember thinking at the time, "This girl is on a roll! I've never heard Jennifer do this before." Stories are amazing.

I'm trying something different this week in Kid's Church. It's the story of Elijah and the False Prophets done with Chocolate Mpire figures, a narrator, and sound effects. It's all recorded and video taped. I'm looking forward to seeing how the kids react to it. Over the years I've tried many different ways to make a story from the Bible come alive and be memorable. It started many years ago with a blacklight. Then there were Rock and Roll stories. Then there were Prop Stories, Sound Effects stories, Sunglass Stories, etc... I've never been afraid to try new methods. See how they work. Adjust it. Tweak it. Revise it. Make it shorter. Make it funnier. But usually with squirt guns. :)

Our lives are filled with stories. Share them with each other. Learn from the painful ones. Learn to laugh at the really painful ones! Learn to be a story-teller! And if you need encouragement, watch the movie BIG FISH. And then go out there and tell, baby! Maybe you're the story teller of the lady from Venus who lives on the planet of high hopes and dreams!