I find when I do these blogs, there are certain themes. I seem to touch upon frequently. One theme I particularly like is the importance of individual. This week I attended a storytelling meeting where a very accomplished storyteller told us how she use storytelling all aspects of her family life. She gave a personal story that I thought would be a very good launching point for this blog. I hope this topic will be of help to youth ministries, family devotionals, family home evenings and family counselors.
The storyteller talked about her having a special needs child. due to his social challenges, he had little opportunity to interact with other children. Children were nervous around him and would not seek him out. But this mother, an accomplished storyteller, decided to use her talents to remedy the situation. She started having storytelling sessions at her home. She Invited children from around the neighborhood to come and listen. This gave the children the chance to hear some great stories and also provided an opportunity for the children to interact with her son and eventually start to feel comfortable around him. These new friendships became useful as her son later went to school.
I thought this is a wonderful example of how a woman used a skill that she specifically, maybe we can discuss how those tools can be used with those around us to solve a problem. It made me realize that many of us may not take full advantage of our skills and abilities to accomplish many of our own problems. We might even be able to help other situations with friends or family, because of our specific skill sets.
In my congregation, we have the opportunity to meet with fellow sisters once a month. We share religious messages while in each other’s homes. The nice thing about this is of able to share the message of Christ with one another, give encouragement, but we are able to also establish friendships. There were a number of times I’ve noticed how two sisters will establish a particularly strong friendship. Their personalities, interests just seem to jive. Or, two young mothers may hit it off well simply because they both have young children that they can share a common challenge to of the rising of the children with one another.
Objects for lesson: Have a board with a partially hammered nail in the board. Then have a hammer, a screwdriver, glove, and a saw. Have different family members or class members pick up an item. Have each of the children take turns trying to hammer the nail into the board leaving the person with a hammer to be the last one.
No one can successfully hammer a nail into the board as efficiently as a person has a hammer. The hammer can represent specific skill or set of personality types that give us a unique ability to accomplish goals in certain areas.
My invitation is for each of us to gather as a group and start discussion. Point out each other’s specific positive skill or what type of tool we are. Some of our skills may include our friendliness, a good memory, a musical skills. It might be the ability to communicate well with others or to share sympathy. Once we each identified a group of traits. We can discuss possible ways of how those tools or skill sets can be used in the world around us. It may surprise each of us to find what other see to be our individual talents and abilities.
If you have ideas that could contribute to this theme, please feel free to share it in the comment section of this blog. Thanks
