The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids

by Sarah Mackenzie

All the time and effort it would take to raise her would be worth it—not because it guaranteed good results, but because loving and connecting with her would always be worth my time and effort. Because she was mine. Because she was made by God. Because this was the great task I’d been called to.

We only have a certain amount of time available to us, after all. How we choose to spend that time has significant consequences in that it affects how our children live out the rest of their lives. That’s daunting.

Happily ever after is hardly a myth for those who believe in the promise of eternal joy in heaven.

Raising our children isn’t just about getting them ready for adulthood. It isn’t just about preparation for a career. It’s about transforming and shaping their hearts and minds. It’s about nourishing their souls, building relationships, and forging connections. It’s about nurturing within them care and compassion for whomever they encounter.

“Look,” Rea said, “we don’t want to create intellectual geniuses who don’t have humanity, compassion, and empathy. Intellectual genius without heart is a dangerous, dangerous thing.” A good education teaches us—and our children—to love fully and to love well.

Empathy, of course, is only the beginning. We must put legs on that empathy in order for it to become compassion. We must turn our grief and sadness into love in action. Stories help us take that first step with our kids. As Rea said, they help us “identify with the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of others, which is the beginning of empathy.”