Stories Make for Healthy Children

Thanks to Traci Smith for inspiring this Great Idea!

In her March 21, 2023, Treasure Box Tuesday post, Traci Smith featured Do You Know Questions, writing, “I’m intrigued by the ‘do you know’ scale that asks kids questions like, ‘Do you know the source of your name?’ and ‘Do you know some of the lessons your parents learned from good or bad experiences?’ Children who score well on the ‘Do You Know’ scale have greater feelings of identity, belonging, and rootedness. I learned about the DYK scale from MARK’S BOOK and you can read more about the scale HERE.”

While the Huff Post article (the latter reference), includes the 20 DYK scale questions, it warns that ‘correlation is not causation’, that is, ‘Simply knowing the answers to questions will not produce the good outcomes…’ Instead, they encourage families to ‘sit down with one another and not be distracted. Some people have to talk and some have to listen.’ And there needs to be repetition to the stories.

Sounds a little like what we do in worship, no?

How might the church support family cohesiveness so families can share their own stories in non-distracted settings?

And how might we, the church, become a place where kids without a cohesive family unit, without opportunities to learn their familial histories, without access to self-shaping stories, can sit down, not be distracted, and hear, again, and again, and again, stories that help them know they belong, are loved, and are held in God’s family?

Mark Yaconelli’s, Between the Listening and the Telling (Broadleaf, 2022) is a great place to start. Find additional Truth-Telling & Story Telling prompts and Intergenerational ideas in our lib guides.

And, as always, members can consult one-on-one with our ED to get inspiration for approaches that might work best in specific contexts.