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Involve Me, And I Understand

As an elementary school teacher for 27 years, my wife had a sign sitting on her homeroom desk that contained a message which emphasized personal involvement in the learning process.

The sign read:

• Tell me, and I forget.
• Show me, and I remember.
• Involve me, and I understand.

The retention of information in listening to someone “telling us” about something, is minuscule (cf. John 14:22-25). This is why the Holy Spirit’s purpose was to “bring to their remembrance” all things that the Lord had taught His disciples while here on earth (John 14:26).

We’ll retain much more information, if someone “shows us” or provides an illustration of what they are talking about (cf. John 13:1-17).

However, real learning and understanding takes place, only when there is an involvement of both the student’s mind and body in the learning experience (see quote). We have to engage in the activity ourselves if any real learning is to occur.

It is not enough just to have people “tell” and “show” us how something is properly done, we must “involve” ourselves in the learning experience if we are to fully “understand” how something is done (Ephesians 5:1-17).

If we want to learn how to fish, we must fish ourselves. If we want to learn how to operate a computer, we must operate a computer ourselves. If we want to know more and have a greater understanding about the Bible, we must study the Bible ourselves (2 Timothy 2:15 ASV). No amount of “telling” and “showing” will get the job done.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the church is not growing spiritually as it should. We tell folks about the gospel of Christ — we show them why they should become a Christian — but we don’t get them involved in teaching others about the saving gospel of Christ (2 Timothy 2:1-2).

In teaching others, we are teaching ourselves (Romans 2:21-22; cf. Matthew 23:3). And in teaching ourselves, we ourselves gain a more complete understanding of God and His Word (2 Timothy 2:15 ASV).

This is exactly what God emphasized to Moses when He instructed him to:

“Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren…..” (Deuteronomy 4:9 – emphasis. mine).

By involving ourselves in the teaching of God’s word to our children and grandchildren, we not only gain a greater knowledge of God’s word, we gain a greater understanding of God’s word, thus becoming a more mature child of God in the process (Ephesians 4:11-16; note specifically Ephesians 4:13; cf. Hebrews 5:12-14).

We can now more fully understand why our Lord instructs us to “teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Only through the medium of teaching, can we as followers of Christ properly “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).