There’s a lady at my church who is the best teacher I’ve ever seen.  She works with a handful of people or a hundred with equal ease.  The age of her students makes no difference: toddlers or teens, men and women–and hardest of all, groups with all ages together.  In every case, she has them in the palm of her hand, listening, learning and participating enthusiastically.  I’ve even seen her teach subject matter that was beyond her normal sphere of knowledge, yet she inspired her students to do great things.

 

And she never took a single class in college about how to be a teacher.  She never went to an educators’ seminar.

 

How does she do it?

 

She tells stories about every day things.

 

She has learned that teaching is about taking the content or the skill and getting it into the hearts and minds of her students in a way that they will, in turn, be able to use them.  In a way that will inspire them to change for the better.

 

That requires building connections and trust.

 

She tells stories that instantly grab us because they ring true.  Sometimes they are from her life, and we laugh in recognition of a familiar experience.  Sometimes they are emotion-filled stories that call out our sympathy.  By the end of her story, we feel connected to her.

 

She ‘gets’ me.  She knows what I’ve been through. She’s real. I can trust her.

 

No matter what the story, she ties the concept of her lesson back to it.  The story, now a part of our shared understanding, enables us to understand the abstract or new things she presents because we see the parallels.  We begin learning as soon as we start connecting and trusting that there is something worth hearing.  We open up our minds and hearts to listen.

 

It’s what Jesus did with His parables.  He spoke of familiar things in story form, and taught profound, life-changing truths.

 

Your writing can do the same thing.  Writing tells a story (even if it isn’t fiction) that draws readers in to a familiar place.  It builds a shared experience between the writer and the reader, one in which the reader connects with and comes to trust that the writer has something to say.

 

And then the lesson can be introduced.  ”The moral of the story”, if you will.  And we understand and feel moved to action of some kind.  Physical, mental, emotional.  Seen by all, or hidden in the soul.

 

Teaching and writing–if they are inspired–invite change.

 

But to change, we must feel safe enough to try.  Stories delivered with a genuine desire to affect good will empower the listeners and readers with a context for success.

 

My friend didn’t take classes to become an inspirational teacher.

You don’t have to take writing classes to become an inspirational writer.

 

Just write.  Tell a story.  Build trust with those who read it.  Trust yourself and your story.  And invite them to change.