What Children Learn When We Stop Explaining Everything: Story, Scripture, and the Formation of Character
The hardest thing to do when we care deeply about growth is to wait.
From the beginning, God has been a Teacher who gives space. He does not rush growth or force understanding all at once. Instead, He teaches through pattern, repetition, example, and time—inviting His children to watch, to remember, to return, and to grow. Scripture gives us clear instruction and direct teaching, and it also gives us stories—lives unfolded across pages, choices made in real time, faith tested and revealed. As we read, we are invited to weigh those lives in the light of God’s truth, to discern what is good, and to learn how faith takes shape over time. In this gracious pattern, we see that some of the deepest learning happens not through explanation alone, but through watching truth lived out and quietly taking root.
God is the Master Teacher, and His ways are worth our careful attention. Throughout Scripture, He gives His people room to grow—through lived experience, through faith tested over time, through ordinary faithfulness long before visible fruit appears. He does not always explain what He is doing in the moment. Instead, He forms hearts patiently, shaping character before outcomes.
One of the clearest examples of this is the life of David.
This reflection is also available as a short video below:
Learning in the Quiet Places
Scripture does not give us a detailed account of David’s early years. We are not told how long he kept the sheep, how many solitary hours he spent in the fields, or when courage first began to take root in his heart. Instead, we are given glimpses: a shepherd entrusted with small responsibilities, a young man who learned to sing before he learned to lead, a boy whose relationship with God was shaped in obscurity.
God did not rush David’s preparation. He did not elevate him immediately after anointing him. He did not outline the path ahead or explain how each season would be used. Instead, He gave David time—time to tend, to sing, to trust, and to wait. The lessons that shaped David were learned slowly, through lived obedience and dependence, not through constant explanation.
What This Teaches Us About Learning
For those of us who teach, David’s story offers a gentle but profound reminder: formation often happens long before it is visible. The shepherd’s field mattered just as much as the battlefield. What David learned in private sustained him in public.
Learning, in this sense, is not merely informational. It is formational. It settles slowly. It deepens through repetition. It takes root as the learner observes, remembers, and internalizes truth through experience.
Why God Teaches Through Story
This is why, I believe, God so often teaches through story. Stories create space. They allow truth to linger, inviting the learner to notice, to reflect, and to return again and again. David’s life is given to us as a narrative—one we revisit at different stages of life, discovering new layers of meaning as we grow.
Story mirrors the way God forms His people. It honors time. It respects process. It allows truth to do its quiet work.
I have felt this tension personally as a writer. The impulse to explain—to clarify meaning, to ensure nothing is missed, to guide the reader toward the “right” conclusion—is strong. Letting a story stand on its own requires restraint and trust. It means believing that truth does not need to be hurried, and that understanding, like growth, unfolds in time. Learning to step back—to allow the story to do its quiet work—has been as formative for me as the writing itself.
This understanding has shaped the way I think about teaching—and about children’s literature. Rather than writing lessons that explain character directly, I have found myself drawn to stories that allow children to see faithfulness lived out in small, ordinary way. Stories that model rather than instruct and that trust growth to happen over time.
One such story is Mrs. Legume’s Story*, written as a gentle reflection of this larger biblical pattern. It is not meant to explain diligence, but to embody it—offering children the opportunity to observe steady faithfulness and to form understanding slowly, much like Scripture itself invites us to do.
God is patient with growth. He allows roots to deepen before fruit appears. As teachers, parents, and guides, we are invited to trust that same process—giving children space to learn through what they live with, not only through what we explain.
*For those who would like to explore the story further, Mrs. Legume’s Story can be found here.
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