"A story is a great life-message that passes from one soul to another. It steals as quietly as a canoe into the hidden places where naught else can go; it is as soothing as a song...It is quickly given, but it lasts in life through eternity."

--Margaret Eggleston)

​Art credit: A Tale of the Decameron by John William Waterhouse (1916) (Wikimedia Commons)

Storytelling is this month's Mother's University topic. I just pulled out a book I've recommended before: "What Music Can Do For You"--It's filled with good ideas, not just for music but all learning. Like this:

"Forcing is of no avail. It has to come through naturally, and the function of the teacher is to awaken, not to instruct."

"You cannot force children to learn anything, but you can so present a thing to them that you will arouse their interest and cause them to undertake the subject of their own free will. At first they may seem uninterested, but give them a chance to act on their own impulse, have faith in the child and his unerring feeling for beauty and truth, and this will pass."

So how do you 'arouse an interest'?? Storytelling is one of the most effective ways!! Read if you must, but telling 'by heart' is even better.

And one more gem:

"Motherhood is to the race what the keynote is to music. ..The right attitude toward motherhood is a subject that we are just beginning to treat with any degree of intelligence and common sense.

"Why, when everything depends upon bringing a better type of human being into the world, do we treat the subject of sex and children as though it were something to be ashamed of? The greatest of all teachers called the body the temple of the Holy Spirit, and yet . . . people have married and children have been born one might say carelessly, without preparation.

"We educate our young girls in all sorts of surface ways, give them social savoir faire, teaching them all sorts of superficial things, and leaving the great subject of motherhood and preparation for it, untouched."

What Music Can Do For You by Harriet Seymour

Art credit: Music Lesson by Lord Frederick Leighton (artrenewal.org)

Church is canceled for me today because of ice so I'm having my own little study time.

Here are 2 poems from the collection I just recommended, inspired by the Old Testament. Too many to love...

PRAYER

I asked for bread; God gave a stone instead.
Yet, while I pillowed there my weary head,
The angels made a ladder in my dreams,
Which upward to celestial mountains led.
And when I woke beneath the morning's beams,
Around my resting place fresh manna lay;
And, praising God, I went upon my way,
For I was fed,

God answers prayer; sometimes, when hearts are weak,
He gives the very gifts believers seek.
But often faith must learn a deeper rest,
And trust God's silence when He does not speak;
For He whose name is Love will send the best.
Stars may burn out, nor mountain walls endure,
But God is true, His promises are sure
For those who seek.

--Author unknown

SOME SINAI

"And Moses when up unto God, and the Lord called until him out of the mountain."

--Exodus 19:3

Each soul much seek some Sinai
Where God's great truths are told;
Must find God's revelations
Writ on shining plates of gold.

Some high and sacred place, apart;
Some sky-touched mountain peak
Where he may hear the thunders roll
And all God's voices speak.

Each soul much find some silent place;
Some high and holy shrine
Where all the stars and suns and moons
And plunging planets shine.

Here are God's revelations;
Here are His thoughts, sublime
To guide all human hearts and hopes
Through space and tide and time.

Each soul must seek some Sinai;
Some vision-haunted place;
Some silent, sacred, singing shrine
To see His lighted face.

--William L. Stidger

Art credit: Burning Bush by Sebastien Bourdon (Wikimedia Commons)