When my children were very small, they would come home from daycare with papers that had letters to trace, and pictures of something that started with the corresponding letters on them. Amanda and I would help them to trace the letters and then color the pictures. For the first few times with each letter, we would actually take their little hands in ours to do it. I remember wrapping my adult sized hand around Taylor’s little one and helping her move the crayon over those dotted lines several times. We would move our hands together until she learned to make the movement on her own. Maybe it was an excuse to hold hands with her, and then a little later with Nick, for just a little longer, but it was the best way to help them develop the skill when they were starting out. Eventually, we would make letters on the paper and encourage them to mimic what we had just written. And we would explain why. If they didn’t shape their letters in a certain way, what was formed would be unrecognizable. Once they had the basics, it was up to them to practice and become better. And they did. Well kind of… I can read their handwriting MOST of the time LOL. (And don’t get me started on Shae! But we didn’t get her until later though, so I’m not totally responsible for her handwriting.)
Teaching people how to live a life of faith is
like that in many ways. When we’re new, more
mature followers must take our hands and guide us to living by demonstrating
actions that become habits. Then when we
get a little “older” in our faith, begin will mimic what we see them
doing. Likewise, our ability to explain
why becomes more and more important. If we
do things simply because “we’ve always done it this way,” then we will never
grow and become better at living lives of faith. What we form will be unrecognizable because
it isn’t really a faith. It’s simply a
motion. And finally, people have to come
to a faith of their own, a belief in Christ that is theirs personally, before
they can move beyond simply mimicking movements to a practice that helps them grow
in Christ.
