Out of Babe's Mouth: Jonah by 4-year old

Daniel is lively and silly like a four-year old should be.  But as well, his family sees Daniel as having a spiritual nature that needs to be nurtured. Every evening Daniel's father reads a small portion of the Bible to him, and then father and son discuss it together.

Awhile back, Dad decided to ask Daniel to tell the story back to him, and what you see in this film is the result.  The filming was done at an Advanced STS Training. This was the first time anyone outside of the four-year-old's family had heard Daniel tell the whole story. After Daniel finished telling this story, you will hear Grandma ask Daniel a few questions about the story. Of course it is wonderful that this child is learning a complete Bible story, but one might wonder if this young child has any understanding of the meaning of the words he is saying?  You decide for yourself. 

Could other fathers and mothers and grandparents follow this example and seed into the lives of the precious little ones whom God entrusts to them?  Of course, and some are doing that. May many more see the value of investing in the very young while their clay is soft.

You may notice that this 4-year old boy tells the complete story of Jonah chapter 1 and 3 verses from chapter 2. - 20 verses!

Daniel's dad explained to us that that at first he had been reading to Daniel out of a Children's Bible. The dad said, “When I was young, the stories that had been read to me out of a Children's Bible impressed me and stuck in my mind.  But I noticed that, at times, as an adult, I was confused, as my strongest memory was the content of those shortened, simplified stories that had been read to me. Sometimes, I still have to sort out and relearn information as the words from the children's version had been imprinted on my mind when I was young."

So this dad decided he really preferred to read to Daniel out of the full Bible. He stated, "I want Daniel to learn and remember the complete story so he will not be confused when he grows up, as happened to me. I go slowly and discuss the content and high level words that Daniel does not yet know. This way I am both educating our son in vocabulary and talking with him about spiritual truth from the Bible."

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This was one dad's decision … but perhaps the reasons for this dad's decision parallel our reasons in STS for teaching villagers and the uneducated complete, unedited Bible stories?