"Once upon a time..." beats "Thou shalt not..."



"Once upon a time…" is a better teacher than "Thou shalt not…"

Gotta watch this one. It is so easy to get excited about helping another person, only to burden them with rules, disguised as helpful hints.

How many times have you been "put off" by someone who crowds you to do something? They may have the best intentions in the world but…

It is always easier for people to "snatch and grab" truth when it comes packaged in the form of a story. Especially nice are true stories from your own life or other people's stories.

If there isn't a true story that makes your point you can always make up a story. That's fair, Jesus told stories and we call them parables.  They've also lasted for 2,000 years and are much easier to grasp than the moral codes of Moses.

A simple metaphor can work wonders. But you need to be careful that the hearer is familiar with the metaphor—The other day I heard a guy compare a fast growing church to a bamboo forest—anyone who has tried to root bamboo out of their yard knows what a nice thing he was saying. But, those who don't know bamboo would be lost in the same forest. 

However "A heart melting like ice on a hot summer sidewalk" works well for just about anybody. Or, "Good people will prosper like tall palm trees…virile still in old age."

Learning seems to be all about the pictures.