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)? 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. 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. 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.
However,
so much that passes as bible stories for children these days is a sham. The great stories of scripture are turned
into cute and cuddly little tales. 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. There are enough cute cuddly little stories
around without domesticating Scripture to turn it into one. Our children need to encounter the Scripture
not emasculated stories. 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.
Renditions of David and Goliath whose main point is that little people
can do things too, simply miss the point.
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.
What
then are some good resources?
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.
1) The Learn About God series (Christian Focus, $3.99 each)- God is kind,
has power, never changes, knows everything, is everywhere, is faithful. These are simple little chunky board books
covering some of the attributes of God.
Each page repeats the title, gives a specific application and a related
verse.
2) God’s
Little Guidebooks, by Hazel Scrimshire (Christian Focus, $1.50 each)- This
series of little booklets covers the 10 Commandments. Sibling duo Sam and Katy present each
commandment and explore how it can be applied to young lives.
3) Bible Time & Bible Wise, by Carine
Mackenzie (Christian Focus, $2.99 each) – These are some of the best bible
storybooks we have seen. The stories are
faithfully retold pausing at key points to make appropriate applications. 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. Several of the OT stories
are particularly good in how they make application to the new covenant.
4) Hear Me Read 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. These colorful books use a minimal number of
words (about 12-20) to tell basic bible stories. They help children learn to recognize certain
words and are easy for them to learn to read on their own.
5) Big
Truths for Little Kids, by Susan and Richie Hunt (Crossway Publishers,
$10.99)- My wife recently purchased this
book, and it may be the best Christian children’s book we have. 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. 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. 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. The children also befriend another young boy
who subsequently comes to Christ. The
stories and their application of Biblical truth are excellent.
The book uses the Children’s
6) My First Study Bible, by Paul Loth (Thomas Nelson, $10.99)- This is
actually a collection of bible stories going through the entire bible. It has little asides for children a bit older
to fill in some more details. The
stories are faithfully told using sizeable quotations directly from Scripture. This is a refreshing contrast to other books
which add so much extra (non-biblical) detail that distracts from the actual
story. Also this book does not shy away
from the issues of God's wrath against sin and even includes some lesser-known
stories. 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. While one might
wish they had given more on these books, at least with this format they have
covered every book of Scripture. One of
the great things about this book is it allows one to read straight through the
bible with your children. Of course not
everything has been covered but something from each book has been covered-
which is more than many adults have ever done.
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. Even
today they speak with excitement about having read through 'the whole bible
story.' 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!
Of
course there is much more and we have not touched on other sorts of Christian
books, videos, activities, etc. 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.