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Ability at Seven Years

HOW able, do you think, a seven-year-old child can be in getting across important points about religion? Two recent experiences in Canada well illustrate that, even at the age of seven, a well-trained Christian youth can have considerable ability along this line.

At an assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses in British Columbia one seven-year-old girl related: “In my school the Grade One class came into the Grade Two class to sing Easter songs. When both classes were assembled and about to sing, I put up my hand asking permission to sing alone, since I had been taught from the Bible that Easter is not really a proper Christian celebration. With the teacher’s permission I sang ‘We Are Jehovah’s Witnesses,’ a song that I remembered from the songbook used at our meetings. When the song was completed, all the students clapped their hands. They never sang Easter songs after that.”

Or, note the experience of a seven-year-old girl in Ontario, Canada: “Prior to Christmas last year there was a program at school where different nationalities told how they celebrated Christmas. The teacher noticed that we children of Jehovah’s witnesses were different and so asked us to write out something about our beliefs on the subject.

“We [another seven-year-old and herself] went home and talked to our parents about it. We decided to present the information directly to the class rather than having the teacher read it, as she did with the other students. We arranged a short program of questions and answers, with one of us asking the questions and the other answering them. The teacher thought it was so good that she arranged for us to do it for two more classes. We covered questions such as, ‘How do we know that Jesus was not born in December?’ and, ‘How long have people been celebrating Christmas?’”

Her final comments helped to explain how she gained the ability to present matters so convincingly and logically. She added: “It seemed just like giving a talk in the Theocratic Ministry School.” She was speaking about a free weekly school held at each congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses where old and young learn to study the Bible and to explain it to others.