by Ray Van Neste<\/p>\n
We give our children all sorts of stuff, but how much of the Scripture do we give them from their early days- the Scriptures – which you have known from your infancy which are able to make you wise unto salvation’ (2 Timothy 3:15)?\u00a0 This came crashing home to me some time back when I realized that my children were more familiar with some cartoon characters and their stories than with Bible characters and Bible stories.\u00a0 I think this has been corrected now (I hope!), but it reminded me of the need to be proactive and diligent in passing on the faith to my children.\u00a0 One thing I have begun doing is watching carefully for quality bible story material for our boys and holding these things up as more special than any other gift they might get.<\/p>\n
However, so much that passes as bible stories for children these days is a sham.\u00a0 The great stories of scripture are turned into cute and cuddly little tales.\u00a0 The result of this is that many people think of Bible stories as something for children; but, I submit to you that if you read them they most certainly were not written primarily with children in mind.\u00a0 There are enough cute cuddly little stories around without domesticating Scripture to turn it into one.\u00a0 Our children need to encounter the Scripture not emasculated stories.\u00a0 Of course, they need not have every gory detail, but renditions of Noah and the ark which are only about nice animals and fun on a boat but fail to deal with the wrath of God against sin are perversions of the story.\u00a0 Renditions of David and Goliath whose main point is that little people can do things too, simply miss the point.\u00a0 If we want to raise children who have the same deep reverence for God and passion for His glory which compelled David to take on the giant, then we must give them the pure milk of the Word.<\/p>\n
What then are some good resources?<\/p>\n
I have obviously not seen everything, and there has been an absolute explosion of Christian children’s literature, but here are some resources which are particularly good for younger children.<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0 The Learn About God<\/em> series (Christian Focus, $3.99 each)- God is kind, has power, never changes, knows everything, is everywhere, is faithful.\u00a0 These are simple little chunky board books covering some of the attributes of God.\u00a0 Each page repeats the title, gives a specific application and a related verse.<\/p>\n 2) God’s Little Guidebooks<\/em>, by Hazel Scrimshire (Christian Focus, $1.50 each)- This series of little booklets covers the 10 Commandments.\u00a0 Sibling duo Sam and Katy present each commandment and explore how it can be applied to young lives.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0 Bible Time <\/em>& Bible Wise<\/em>, by Carine Mackenzie (Christian Focus, $2.99 each) – These are some of the best bible storybooks we have seen.\u00a0 The stories are faithfully retold pausing at key points to make appropriate applications.\u00a0 For example one story tells that Gideon was afraid when he saw the angel and here the author mentions the propriety of the fear of God.\u00a0 Several of the OT stories are particularly good in how they make application to the new covenant.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0 Hear Me Read<\/em> series, by Mary Manz Simon (Concordia Publishing House, $2.99 each)- There is a level 1 and a level 2 in this series and we have used level 1.\u00a0 These colorful books use a minimal number of words (about 12-20) to tell basic bible stories.\u00a0 They help children learn to recognize certain words and are easy for them to learn to read on their own.<\/p>\n 5) Big Truths for Little Kids<\/em>, by Susan and Richie Hunt (Crossway Publishers, $10.99)-\u00a0 My wife recently purchased this book, and it may be the best Christian children’s book we have.\u00a0 The book divides a children’s catechism into units of about five questions and provides a modern story to illustrate the truths of those catechism questions.\u00a0 The stories form a continuous narrative of some young children (8-10 years old) who are in Christian families and are being taught the catechism.\u00a0 They deal with everyday situations in a realistic and fresh way illustrating lives in which God is not simply a nice addition on the side but is central and all things are done for His glory.\u00a0 The children also befriend another young boy who subsequently comes to Christ.\u00a0 The stories and their application of Biblical truth are excellent.<\/p>\n The book uses the Children’s Westminster catechism.\u00a0 It is very good except that, as would be expected, it contains a section on infant baptism.\u00a0 However, a Baptist revision of this catechism (which only changes the section on baptism) can be found on the internet at http:\/\/www.toto.net\/npbc\/bgcat5.html<\/a>. One can easily print off the baptism section and substitute it.<\/p>\n 6) My First Study Bible<\/em>, by Paul Loth (Thomas Nelson, $10.99)- This is actually a collection of bible stories going through the entire bible.\u00a0 It has little asides for children a bit older to fill in some more details.\u00a0 The stories are faithfully told using sizeable quotations directly from Scripture.\u00a0 This is a refreshing contrast to other books which add so much extra (non-biblical) detail that distracts from the actual story.\u00a0 Also this book does not shy away from the issues of God’s wrath against sin and even includes some lesser-known stories.\u00a0 For the wisdom literature, many of the prophets and the New Testament letters where it would be difficult to actually present a story, a page is given with the prophet or author giving a summary of the book.\u00a0 While one might wish they had given more on these books, at least with this format they have covered every book of Scripture.\u00a0 One of the great things about this book is it allows one to read straight through the bible with your children.\u00a0 Of course not everything has been covered but something from each book has been covered- which is more than many adults have ever done.\u00a0 As we approached the end of the book on our first time through I began building up the fact that we were close to having read through the entire bible and our boys got really excited.\u00a0 Even today they speak with excitement about having read through ‘the whole bible story.’\u00a0 Of course a side benefit is that the parent can begin to see connections across the whole of scripture in ways they have not before!<\/p>\n Of course there is much more and we have not touched on other sorts of Christian books, videos, activities, etc.\u00a0 But perhaps these brief observations of a fellow traveler will be useful, particularly at a time of year when we begin to think of presents for our children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Ray Van Neste We give our children all sorts of stuff, but how much of the Scripture do we give them from their early days- the Scriptures – which you have known from your infancy which are able to make you wise unto salvation’ (2 Timothy 3:15)?\u00a0 This came crashing home to me some …<\/p>\n