Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
Mark, we’ve all seen that a lot of so-called “character-building” Christian literature frankly isn’t all that well-written. I know one of your goals is to find books that are examples of great writing, not only great character. Putting morality aside for just a moment, what are the benefits of real quality writing?

Mark Hamby:
Well, Mike, books that are well-written have an accumulated affect on the way that that we think and the way that we speak. You might not even realize that, but when a child and an adult reads literature that kinda stretches them—you know, maybe they don’t understand a word or two—it actually has an effect on the brain. Not only do they expand our vocabulary but they stretch us and help us to exercise our thinking skills.

Words have an art if they’re expressed well. And what we’re trying to do with our children is help them to be artistic in their lives. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pitchers of silver. We need to give our children the standard of excellence, and words are really the basis for everything.

That’s how God chose to communicate with us, through words. And a man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word—and I believe that every word should be spoken well. And those are the books we need to read.

Mike: Thank you, Mark, for giving such a clear call to pursuing total excellence in the books we read and give to our children. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.