We’ve had five years of working through children’s Bible storybooks as parents, and have found several along the way that we’ve benefited from. Most were either given to us as gifts, to review, or passed down from childhood. (And, I even found one at a yard sale. But of course! :)) So in some sense, our selection was not a set of pre-determined, pre-selected storybooks. These have served us well through our current ages, but likely we’ll diversify and add additional selections soon. Why We Rotate Our Bible Storybooks Once we finish reading through a Bible storybook, we move on to a new one, and continue rotating and cycling through multiple Bible storybooks. We like to keep things simple, and are working toward being more minimalist. So, it would seem to make sense to just find one Bible storybook we like and stick with it. However, there are several reasons why we choose to use multiple and rotate through them: 1. They are, as notated in the title, Bible storybooks. As such, they are merely compilations of Bible stories, and not the entirety of Scripture. (Some of the included use only Scripture selections as their text, but still do not contain the whole Bible.) We emphasize to our children that they don’t contain all of God’s Word. Different Bible storybooks select different portions to highlight or even quote from, and by exposing them to multiple Bible storybooks, they are exposed to some portions and stories that are “left behind” in other storybooks. 2. Rotating provides variety in illustrations. Illustrations play a huge role in children’s books and Bibles. My husband Daniel wrote a more detailed post on that here. (He recently finished writing the draft for a children’s Bible curriculum and is currently working with his company and an illustrator, so the topic is very much on his mind, both as a writer and a parent.) 3. Rotating gives a variety of emphases. We use a mixture of older storybooks and more recently published Bible storybooks. We use storybooks that focus on an overarching thread that runs through Scripture, and we use others that focus in on the individual Bible “stories.” Others emphasize certain theological truths that seem to be more obscure in others. None of these includes all of these emphases, yet they all serve to further round out our understanding of God’s Word. Our Most Frequently Used Children’s Bible Storybooks 1. The Big…
Read MoreLife in Instagram: 3.30.12
1. Hana Kate’s artwork with Daniel’s childhood pastels. On her own, she cut out all the pieces and glued them together. 2. mini clothes on a mini clothesline. 3. Found this at Eden’s seat. 4. Hana Kate made this scarecrow (once again, on her own, unsupervised) and took it out to the peas. Must be working. 🙂 5. Breaking eggs. Thankful to be back to baking with my girls. 🙂 6. Finally getting around to making are to decorate some of the walls. 7. working on her scarecrow. 8. crafters paradise.
Read MoreChrist is No Sheriff
Christ is no sheriff. He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” -Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, writing in regards to Galatians 2:16: yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. .
Read MoreAn Interesting Verse in Today’s Bible Reading…
Our family is currently reading along with our church through the Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible reading schedule. One of today’s family passages was found in Genesis 25. I find it especially interesting that today–my due date–the 24th verse read: When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Apparently, though, my days to be delivered have not fully been fulfilled (and no, I’m not having twins…that I know of). But reading the 24th verse on the 24th of January was rather ironic!.
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