• Speaking Like A Fish?
I was giving my grandson, Benjamin, his first fishing lesson.
Jesus said, “follow me and I will make you fishers of men, and little wigglers!” I added the last part. However, it’s true that if you want catch fish you have to know something about the fish you want to catch. Or guess what? You will not be catching any fish today! What about those little ones?
I have had a life-long interest in fishing, from my youth and into my adult life I have had great experiences involving the catching of fish. It is true that to be a fisherman, one must know something about how fish think and behave. It is the same for catching the lost. We must know something about how unbelievers think and behave, even how they talk. The longer a person is a Christian the harder it is to remember how we used to think before Christ. I am many years removed from childhood, so I have to work at knowing today’s child’s culture. I think like a Christian, not a unbeliever. I think like an adult, not like a child. I think like a leader, a minister, not like a layperson. So I am three times removed from the unsaved child.
What can we do? Well, we can be a student of children and their culture. We call it Kidology, the study of child culture. It helps to be around children. That’s what happens when you become a grandparent? You are thrown back into the child’s world, to learn the humility and simplicity of the child’s culture again. At first, you might learn “baby talk” all over again. Then you learn about how children learn; you play with their toys; you play their games; you watch their cartoons, and you learn to use age-appropriate language. You even learn how children think and talk, that’s right!
Yes, to talk to children you have to know how they think and talk. So if you want to catch little wigglers (smaller fish), you have to speak like the fish you are trying to reach with your words. Many adults just have forgotten just how to relate to children. They attempt to relate to them, but unfortunately, they speak like adults. Adults, often, speak over their heads of children. So if you aspire to talk to children you have to know how to “speak like a fish.” A lot of what we adults value, by way of training, experience, prestige, even rank and power are of little value to children that you might want to reach. Can you get on their level or on their channel is the issue, can to you “talk like the fish you want to reach?”
Happy fishing for the young ones! If all your lures fail, try talking their language!
Here’s a young fella who just caught his first fish!
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