Master Your Medium by Duane Bolin

Do your children ever complain about Language Arts? Perhaps they sometimes struggle with why they have to do dictation, or they see no value in grammar? Is “Because I said so!” no longer a satisfactory answer?

Don't worry. It’s common--and laudable--for your children to question why they study a particular subject. While their questions can be frustrating (it may seem like they're just trying to escape the rigors of dictation!), I believe they're most likely expressing their desire--and maybe need--for a guiding purpose that will give their studies more meaning.

How then should you answer their questions? It’s probably obvious to your children why they need to learn to read, write, and speak with at least basic proficiency. So how can you inspire them to want to excel at Language Arts?

I was reading A. W. Tozer’s The Size of the Soul: Principles of Revival and Spiritual Growth when I came across a comment that I thought put the study of Language Arts in an eternal light. I wonder if your children might find these thoughts helpful the next time they appear to need a reason to excel at Language Arts:

For the very reason that God has committed His saving truth to the receptacle of human language, the man who preaches that truth should be more than ordinarily skillful in the use of language. It is necessary that every artist master his medium, every musician his instrument. For a man calling himself a concert pianist to appear before an audience with but a beginner’s acquaintance with the keyboard would be no more absurd than for a minister of the gospel to appear before his congregation without a thorough knowledge of the language in which he expects to preach. [pp. 41-42]

In other words, those of us who want to share God’s eternal truths should be more than ordinarily skillful in the use of the language in which we want to communicate.

Tozer’s thoughts on mastering the medium of language were echoed by John Piper in an article titled “A Compelling Reason for Rigorous Training of the Mind” (accessed at http://www.desiringGod.org/library/fresh_word... on August 4, 2005):

. . . [A] basic and compelling reason for education--the rigorous training of the mind--is so that a person can read the Bible with understanding. . . . This is an overwhelming argument for giving our children a disciplined and rigorous training in how to think an author’s thoughts after him from a text--especially a biblical text. An alphabet must be learned, as well as vocabulary, grammar, syntax, the rudiments of logic, and the way meaning is imparted through sustained connections of sentences and paragraphs.

Of the limitless gifts God has bestowed upon us, one of the most precious is undoubtedly our language. May we never underestimate its power to transmit the good news of God’s Word. Remember the reaction of the residents of Jerusalem when Ezra and Nehemiah revived the tradition of reading the Law aloud in the open square:

And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. [Nehemiah 8:12]

Let us be faithful servants who appreciate and seek to master our medium: His precious gift of language.