Given the impact Jellytelly was having on my two boys - especially my Captain Silly Wiggles, I was thrilled when I learned about Jellyfish Lab's next project. The beloved puppet cast would be hosting a new DVD series called What's in the Bible? that would walk kids through the Bible from beginning to end. I already knew that the folks at Jellyfish had the ability to make the "drier" parts of Scripture accessible to children, so I anticipated a wonderful resource as this new project dug deeper into the books of the Bible. When our copy came in the mail, we stuck it in the DVD player as fast as possible. I loved it. I've seen lots of Christian Ed. resources, but I have never been so impressed as I am with the stuff currently coming from Jellyfish Labs. I knew it was going to be great for kids. I was surprised at how great it was for me! Watching WITB, I learned a ton and came away with a new hunger for reading Scripture. I couldn't wait to tell everyone I knew about this wonderful new tool.
The boys were a different story. They were pretty excited about the shiny new box with Buck Denver on the front, but the show didn't really hold their interest. They would wander in and out, stopping for a few minutes to watch and then moving on to play with a toy and coming back later to watch a little more. That was ok with me. Even if they didn't get anything from WITB yet, I was pretty sure it would come in very handy as they got older.
On with life.... Cap is what many would call a strong-willed child. He's a high energy, rough-and-tumble boy. He's a very logical thinker who doesn't do well with deviating from his idea of what is the right way to do things. He tends to get in trouble. A lot.
Last fall, my husband and I decided to enroll Cap in a nearby preschool program. Suffice it to say that he has not been the picture-perfect preschooler. It wasn't long before I could tell with a single glance at his teacher how the day had gone. If she made eye-contact with me when I walked in the door I knew he'd had a decent day. No eye-contact meant trouble. It wasn't very often that she looked me in the eye when I walked into the building.
Cap has been a tough kid to discipline. I've spent a lot of time around all kinds of kids. When I worked with kids I always enjoyed the kids that were "difficult". For any L.M. Montgomery fans, I enjoyed the Davies more than the Doras. Davies just need more help. Well, God knows best and he certainly gave me a little Davy: a horribly mischeivous, adorably sweet little boy. Most of his trouble came in the area of self-control: Why sit quietly and the table and do my work when I can make the other kids laugh? Why come when I'm called when I know the teacher will chase me if I run away from her? Why play neatly at home when it's so much more fun to dump the entire 2 lb. bag of rice on the floor and play in the mess? The difficulty with disciplining Cap is that he's fickle. Take away his favorite toy and he'll be distraught. Take it away the next time he's in trouble? He could care less. Take away all his toys? So what? For every discipline style we've used, Cap has pretty quickly met us with a "that's ok" attitude. He's not being defiant (usually). He just stops seeing the punishment as being a big deal.
In the midst of our struggle to guide our little Davy in the right direction, Cap actually came up with the answer to our problem. And with one little discussion, God used the Jellyfish to change the way I parent my boys.
At the time, going to the corner was the punishment of choice. It was a devastating blow that altered the course of bad behavior for the few months it was in use before Cap decided the corner was ok. On this particular day, time out was over and I came to sit by Cap and discuss the problem behavior with him. Before I could utter a word, Cap started the conversation:
A distraught little Captain Silly Wiggles: "Mommy, when I do what I want to do, choose myself over others and go my own way, that's called sin."
Flabbergasted Me: "You're right."
Cap: "Sin breaks my arrationship with God, because sin can't be near God."
Me: "That's true."
(Suddenly brightening up) Cap: "But it's ok because God has a rescue plan so we can be with him again!"
This conversation was a direct result, and almost a verbatim quotation, from What's in the Bible?. And everyday we were having the same conversation. Cap would get in trouble and he would initiate a heartfelt discussion about sin and how God saves us from our sin. When he made bad choices, we prayed together. When I shared this with his preschool teacher (a private Christian school) she decided to use the same methods in the classroom.
A lot of things changed with that little conversation in the corner. I learned that it's never too early to point our children to God. By giving them the opportunity to learn about God and the Bible in ways that speak to them, kids grow and flourish with the ability to think about God's place in all of the little aspects of their lives. They have the capacity to understand so much more of our story as God's people than we often give them credit for. From that day on I've been a lot more open with my kids about the meaning behind my decisions, letting them know that things I do with and for them are for the purpose of helping them grow into men that love God and love others. My motivations haven't changed, but our communication has changed drastically.
We now own all 5 of the What's in the Bible? DVDs that have been released to date. All of them are well loved by both of my boys. All of them have sparked discussions that I never would have imagined having with a preschooler. Everyday and all day long we are talking about what's in the Bible (and it's not me starting the conversations). Cap wants to know how God feels about this or that. He explains the nature of the trinity to little Skidamarink. He chats with his aunt about the dangers of apostasy and has a discussion on the life and times of Ishbosheth with the lady sitting behind us at church. He wants to know if grown-ups and people from the Bible have sinned and how they responded to their sin. He plays Captain Pete, spouting off important pirate terminology like Arrr, Shiver Me Timbers and Septuagint. He picks up his little guitar and sings songs about Deuteronomy and Leviticus for his friends.
He doesn't know this stuff because he's super smart or super spiritual. He knows this stuff because, through the creative works of What's in the Bible? and JellyTelly, the Bible has been made accessible to him. He has soaked up information about the story of God and his people. The things he has learned have shaped his thinking and given him a special lens through which to view the world. My little Cap is learning, as a 4 year-old, to look at the world from God's perspective. And that is certainly enough to make me gush about how much I love What's in the Bible?.
DVD 1 First 5 Minutes
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