Stories Teaching Godly Morals
My Stories
I have had some people ask me why I decided to use sea creatures in my stories rather than human beings. I feel that the Holy Spirit led me to use anthropomorphic creatures. Before I write my stories, I always pray and ask the Holy Spirit to work through me. I want to do God’s will, not only through what I write but in all I do in life. So, back to the question: why do I use anthropomorphic creatures? What even is an anthropomorphic creature?
Let’s start with the formal definition. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities. In other words, my characters are sea creatures that exhibit human characteristics.
Why did I choose to use anthropomorphic creatures in my books? First, they allow me to tell stories in a world that is mysterious and beautiful for children. Children love the ocean and all the interesting animals that live below in the sea. Secondly, my stories allow me to avoid inadvertently portraying a specific nationality in a negative light and to avoid showing favoritism towards any one specific culture.
For example, in What A Bragger, Melissa brags that she can climb the highest, that she can swim the fastest, and that she even has the best Snappy Cat Lunch box. In reality, she cannot do these things, nor does she have a special lunch box. One day, her friend follows her home and realizes that Melissa lives in poverty in a shabby cave. For a story like this, rather than portraying Melissa as a human character and risk suggesting that one particular human race or nationality has a tendency to be “poor,” the best choice was to use an anthropomorphic sea creature. Doing so helped me portray the universality of the issue of poverty instead.
My books teach little ones to pray to Jesus and to be kind and loving to others. My books contain no judging, no labeling—only loving!
Within the first five-years of life, children learn some of the most important lessons in life: love, compassion, connection, language, etc…. The first five years is when they need to build a strong foundation in Jesus. He is the cornerstone of faith, and we need to begin to train our children in the faith as soon as they are born. The first time they say, “I love Mommy and Daddy,” they should add Jesus to that claim. In fact, they should learn to love Jesus even more than they love Mommy and Daddy! After all, they ultimately belong to Him alone!