| The Gift of Story
One year I started thinking about Christmas in October, a rare thing for me. For the most special gift for my children I decided to create a bedtime story – a story that would unfold chapter after chapter throughout the whole year.
By Steffani Raff
Stand Back and Let the Story Teach
Lecturing children just doesn't work, but here's something that does!
By Steffani Raff
Tell it Again!
Tell stories from your own life's experience enough times that they are woven into your children's hearts.
By Steffani Raff
It's in the Eyes
Whether a story is entertaining or boring depends on the way you tell it.
By Steffani Raff
The Making of a Modern Parable
Parables are fun to create, and there are great benefits in the making of modern parables. Children would always rather listen to a story than a lecture, so creating a story for an important issue is an effective teaching tool. In the process of creating a parable, you can also see gospel principles in new ways.
By Steffani Raff
Painting
a Personality Portrait with a Story
A story creates more than just a thumbnail
picture; it captures who a person is and how he loved. At some point
down the road, the story you tell may be the only way for your posterity
to really connect with a name and date on the family tree. It is
a connection worth having and work worth doing.
By Steffani Raff
Why
Wait?
Why wait until you're in you seventies or eighties
to write your life's history? Why wait to share your most important
moments in life, in a book that is read only after you are dead?
Why wait to share the things you've learned through your experiences?
There is so much power in sharing your stories, why wait?
By Steffani Raff
The
Trouble with Pink Bubblegum
Your own childish misadventures can
become family tales that will bring gales of laughter to your children
every time you tell the story.
By Steffani Raff
Garage
Sale-Proofing Heirlooms
Whether your heirloom would stun its receiver with a $32,000 appraisal
on "Antiques Roadshow," or bring in a measly 25 cents
at a garage sale, the heirloom you are giving is worth something
to you. What separates an heirloom from garage sale rubbish? It's
the story behind the object.
By Steffani Raff
Discovering
the Red Rust Dust Planet
Your face and body reveal your curiosity as much
as your questions do. Even reluctant talkers will open up if there
is someone listening with enthusiasm. When someone really wants
to hear your story, it's hard not to tell it.
By Steffani Raff Listening
for Giggles
When someone listens, really listens,
with their whole self, their whole energy, something magical is
unlocked.
Steffani Raff
The
Thing on the Back of the Rice Box
One of the best ways to encourage
your family to tell stories is to start by sharing a story of your
own. One story seems to mushroom into a dozen other variations on
that story, or new stories altogether.
Steffani
Raff
Can
Corn on the Cob be the Key?
Every family has a treasure chest. Whether
you feel like your treasure chest is lost on a deserted island,
buried in the bottom of a sunken ship, or hidden in the dense, tangled
undergrowth of the jungle, there are keys to finding and unlocking
this chest.
Steffani Raff
The
Importance of Squeeze Pudding
Even someone who believes he doesn't
have a story to tell can strengthen the bonds of a family by sharing
a distant memory.
By Steffani Raff | 
