This morning my daughter asked me to check the answers that she had in a crossword puzzle that had both cryptic and straight clues. After checking the answers that she had filled in, I helped her with a couple more clues. As I gave her some hints or told her what a few of the clues meant I was picturing (in my head) my Mum saying similar things to me. One of the cryptic clues was “Rings politician hot for power (5)”. I was able to tell here that “Rings” often means “OO” and that “politician” could be “MP”. From there she worked out that the answer was “oomph”.
I also remembered that my Grandma had helped me learn to do cryptic crosswords. In fact my Grandma helped me with lots of puzzles. She taught me how to do logic puzzles and would often work with me on puzzles when she visited. My Grandma also helped me in my faith journey. One time when she was staying with us there was a Sunday School competition to make a poster on the theme ‘God is Love’. She talked to me about what we could do and helped me find pictures in a magazine that showed examples of love or creation.
Just like we might pass our knowledge on about crosswords or some other hobby or skill, we also pass on our knowledge about our faith. We can do this by acting out our faith with our children. For example, we might model prayer by praying with our children and encouraging them to pray as well.
At lunch time a 10 year old visitor in our house asked if we’d said grace, so that he could start eating. I said that we hadn’t and asked if he wanted to say it for us. He did a great job of saying grace. He has obviously had this modeled to him and had the chance to say Grace or prayer on other occasions.
Today, I also came across this article about “Passing Down the Faith … A Biblical example” and decided that I needed to share my crossword story and thoughts about passing down faith.
What knowledge are you or have you passed onto your children/grandchildren?
2 thoughts on “Learning To Solve Crosswords and Learning About Faith”