(Opening disclaimer: I was not paid for or asked to review any of these books. I just wanted to share them with others who maybe looking into purchasing them. All views and opinions are strictly my own. )
When I started to homeschool, my main reasoning, shockingly, had nothing to do with my religion. I knew that no matter if the kids went to public or private, the biblical view would come from their mom and dad and not by anyone else. I owned this teaching from the moment they both arrived. But I have struggled with finding a balance in our devotional time. I wanted to be able to teach the kids along with myself. While I found wonderful devotionals for me, and very well thought out ones for them, trying to combine them left me baffled. Some of the more in depth teachings in my devotionals were over the kids' heads and theirs was a little too simple for me. For the past few years, I've left it alone. I did my own time with the Lord before they woke or after they went to sleep and we did ours in school together. It worked well, but my children never actual saw me with my devotional, never followed along with me, never saw me praying with my bible out and highlighters in my hands. It worked. But then again, it didn't.
This summer my daughter and I moved through a great book series by Lori Wagnor. The first book in the series is called "The Girl in the Dress". It is brilliantly written, smart, and informative without being stuffy and over my daughter's head. It uses simple, clearly thought out, and engaging language to capture the reader while still staying true to scripture. The book talks about modesty in regard to scripture and what that really means in our real world life. It also talks about how, being modesty does not equate to frumpy or "old fashion" but more it allows the actual beauty of a girl to shine without all the extra glitz and glamour. We then followed that book with "Covered by Love". I now see Amazon features another book by her called "Unmasked". I can not wait for it to get here so we can read through it. I will also be teaching this books series to my son, as soon as he is able to understand, since modesty means so much more than just "what a girl is wearing" and learning how to treat women biblically is important for young men to grasp.
I'm going to post a link here to the books on Amazon's site, if y'all are interested.
After the experience for moving through a book together, looking up scripture, doing copy work and memorization, I realized what was missing in my own devotional time. US. I know that, as a Sunday School teacher, I have enough in my arsenal to construct my own. I know that you do not have to have a devotional to go through, to fully understand the bible and it's teachings. I get that. At the same time, I am one of those that if I have to put it all together myself, and look up memorization and stories and meanings, it doesn't get done. It just doesn't. So for me, having a workbook, or hard back book to highlight, dog ear and refer back to, helps me.
I went searching for a family devotional right around December. I had an Amazon gift card and wanted to get started in the new year. There are so many to choose from, that it became overwhelming. Then, late one night, after searching and reading reviews, I came across "Jesus Calling: enjoying Peace in his Presence" by Sarah Young. The reviews are all glowing and after reading an excerpt, I was hooked. The lessons are short but strong, they chronicled a whole year starting with January 1st. There is scripture to look up at the end, which I personally love. It seemed like a perfect match. For me. After checking with the "what others who bought this" said, I checked out the kids version and toddler picture bible. Then I found just what I was looking for in the "Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions for Kids". The scriptures mirrored the adult book. They were the exact same, but they were similar. The lessons were short as well, but in a great language to where my kiddos at 2 and 7 would understand. There was a short memory verse at the end as well. It seemed like a perfect match for our family.
If you are a Kindle junky (guilty **raises hand**) they have both the kids and adult 365 devotions available. But they didn't group them together for an extra savings, nor did that include the toddle picture bible. That was at the time, I purchased them, so it may have changed. When I switched to hard cover, Amazon in their craftiness, gave me to option to purchase all three for $31 and since they were Prime items, the shipping was free.
Side note: I love, love, love Prime shipping. Free shipping and you come to my door in 2 days? Click. Yes please!
I ordered them and have enjoyed using the books. The toddler bible is so much better than I expected. We have a few "story bibles" but this one is true to scripture without being to much information for little ones. The illustrations are beautiful. I love that they give the scripture at the top of each story so that, if you want with older kids, you can look it up and go more in depth.
These devotionals are seamless across the board and work so awesome together. Sarah Young has several other books and I would love to purchase a few when I get a chance. It gives our little family a chance to read, understand and pray together while using language that is easy to understand. Also, If Daddy happens to miss a day for whatever reason, he can pick right up and not be lost. That I love as well.
Amazon is still running the "purchase together" special on all three, so if you're interested, this would be the way to purchase them.
Mama Jelly
No comments:
Post a Comment