Julián, who has served for many years as a special pioneer and an elder, explains that the Index is invaluable in teaching his youngest son to do personal study. “Jairo, who is seven years old, came home from school the other day and asked me, ‘Daddy, what has the Society said about dinosaurs?’ We went straight to the Index and looked up the word ‘dinosaurs.’ Almost right away we found an Awake! cover series on the subject. [February 8, 1990] That same day, Jairo began to read it. He already knows that our theocratic library has useful information on practically every subject. Personally, I’m convinced that when our children learn to make good use of a theocratic library, it helps them grow spiritually. They learn to reason, and what’s more, they discover that personal study can be enjoyable.”

Fausto, the father of Sherezade mentioned at the outset, believes that you cannot start too early in training children to use a theocratic library. “We are already showing Sherezade, who is now six years old, how to use the Index,” he explains. “Since she is fascinated by the prospect of the earthly Paradise, we began by showing her the word ‘paradise’ in the Index and then looking up Watchtower articles mentioned. Usually we would just show her the pictures. Nevertheless, by this method she learned that the Index is the key to finding information in our home library. We knew that she had got the point when she returned from school one day with a question about Easter celebrations. ‘Why don’t we look something up with the Index?’ she asked her mother.”

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Sherezade has already become a good Bible student

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Although young, this boy is using a theocratic library