Story-Linking

I'm reading the book Real Kids, Real Faith by Karen Marie Yust right now and discussing it with my internship mentor. I just read a chapter that was fantastic and I want to share a bit of it here. Her work here is inspired by Walter Brueggeman, one of my favorite Old Testament commentators. The idea is that kids need to embrace stories from their faith tradition so that they see that the story is about us. He wants them to see the connection of the biblical story to their daily lives. The idea of story-linking is that children can connect their faith story with everyday stories. When I write this, it sounds obvious, but I don't think it is. If it was obvious, or easy to execute we wouldn't have so many teens, young adults, and older adults finding the stories of their faith irrelevant. We also would have churches and people of faith who are growing and changing and not stuck in the mud. I think the five aspects she lists show a holistic approach to telling the stories of faith.
Five Aspects of Story-Linking
1. Children need to be receiving the spiritual story of love and redemption through the compassionate care of their parents and faith community.
2. Children should be hearing the story of their spiritual tradition regularly in connection with the stories that make up their daily lives.
3. Children must be celebrating their stories of faith and personal spiritual stories through special holidays and the recognition of acts of charity and compassion.
4. Children need opportunities for telling spiritual stories in their own words, both to others and to God in prayer.
5. Children need ways of becoming "history-makers": people whose words and actions contribute to a more just and compassionate society an encourage others to do the same. (pg. 43)