I believe that the smallest children can understand even complicated issues (such as Arianism and heresy) when they are conveyed in the form of stories.

Christ himself taught in stories. And I believe He continues to teach in the form of stories--weaving them into the lives of people.

This is why the saints lives are instructive for almost anything we need to know about the Faith. These stories are not valuable because someone has contrived them as morality tales (indeed they don't really fit the "moral tale" pattern of most cultures). Rather, God has worked into the lives of each one exquisite examples of His truth. And Christians throughout history have understood and come to treasure these simple tales.

Acutally God is faithful to weave teaching vignettes throughout each of our daily lives--and we would have a considerable collection of personal ones--if only we were p[r]aying closer attention.

I'll always remember the beach trip when my father, meditating on Psalm 1 as he walked along the sand asked God, "Do You really mean that if a man meditates on Your word day and night he will be prospered in EVERYTHING?"

That moment his toe turned up a sanddollar. The next few days our family amazingly found more sanddollars than we could count. Then we began finding sharksteeth--til we had more than we cared to keep . . and then another sea treasure--which I'd have to check with my dad--since I was only old enough to be really impressed by the first two. But this event, staged in 3 parallel events, is a story which will always be "instructive" for me.

A good example of an instructive, yet simple story from Church history is this brief account of the life and death of Arius:

Pick-Pocketing the Creed

Arius was a Christian priest who taught people new ideas about Christ. He thought that God the Father must be older than Christ, because the name Father makes Him sound like He came first. But the Apostles and bishops had always said that each member of the Trinity was alive together from before all time. Arius liked his own idea better. It simply made more sense to him, and he probably thought of his new ideas as a gift God had given especially to him to share with others.

The Church bishops saw the danger of each person teaching whatever ideas they liked about God, since God is really One and there is really one Truth about Him. When Arius refused to stop teaching his idea, the bishops said he could no longer take communion or teach in the Christian Church. He was confusing people and leading them away from the clear path of trustworthy teaching.

The bishops made a creed which listed what the 12 Apostles had carefully taught in all Churches everywhere and had been kept unchanged since their day. This was the best test for recognizing ideas which did not truthfully trace back to Christ.

So the creed became something which no Christian anywhere would change by himself. Believing the creed was really the clearest way of showing whether someone followed the True Faith of Christ or not.

One day Arius met with the Emperor asking to be received back into the Christian Church. When the emperor asked, "Do you believe the creed? Do you believe Jesus Christ was "begotten of the Father before all ages?" Arius dramatically struck his chest and said, "Thus I believe!"

Arius was sent to Patriarch Alexander of Constantinople, who agreed that on a certain Sunday, Arius would be received back into the Church. But the Patriarch prayed to God for help, because he sensed that Arius was not telling the whole truth. On the appointed day, as he was on his way to the church, Arius became sick and died.

It was later found that in his pocket he had carried his own false creed. He had been only pretending to agree as he said, "Thus I believe," and striking his hand upon that pocket, and thinking of his OWN false creed.

Thus God showed the severity of bearing false witness before His anointed ones, and the vanity of trying to enter the Kingdom of Heaven while clinging to our own hand-picked beliefs. I'd like to collect /paraphrase simplified stories of people throughout church history for my children. I'm convinced this is the best way to retain history.

Here's a website which has a helpful timeline presentation:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/7224/Rick/chronindex.htm

This site has enough wonderful detail for very informative reading, as well as being a great "outline" for a study of history.

I would really like to see developed a collection of chronologically arranged stories which punctuate the people and events listed on this timeline, and the many saints in between! Even the simplest forms of these stories--whether collected online with links, or published in a book--would be an invaluable resource for our children. I think it would form a lasting treasury, and a solid foundation for a Christian world-view. It would certainly be much more memorable than reading dry "regurgitated" theology. I welcome anyone with interest to help me locate good sources for such stories.