A few weeks ago in Sunday School we were learning about how to live our lives and lead our children on a path that honors God and hopefully guide our children to the decision of salvation. Until this lesson I had always thought Emma was too young to really teach her any Biblical truths but my perspective has totally changed! The pastor of family life encouraged that we start sharing Scripture with our kids even at Emma's age. He recommended nightly Bible time, praying together, and just making Emma a part of our conversations about God. Well, Trey and I have since tried to be more intentional with this and it is AMAZING what Emma can understand and absorb despite being 21 months.
Emma now says prayers with us at night and before meals. In fact, she holds us accountable. While fixing our plates for dinner one night she was already in her high chair with her food. But, she just kept fussing and finally we turned around to see that she had her "pray hands" ready and was wanting us to pray with her since she had her food. Even after making Bible story time part of our nightly routine for about 2 weeks she now asks for "Bible" every night. She participates in the stories by doing the crazy, off the wall movements I make up and finishing each night by saying (with mommy and daddy assistance) "God loves Emmy. God loves Mommy. God loves Daddy. God loves Abby. God loves Titus."
It is so sweet to see that she even has her favorite stories already. Daniel and the lions' den scares her but Jonah is her favorite. She wants to hear about it every night and points to Jonah and says "obey".
We also realize that there is so much more to teaching Emmy about God's love than reading the Bible, taking her to church, and praying with her. We know that Emma watches everything that Mommy and Daddy do so therefore the most powerful witness of God's love that we can show our children is how we respect each other and honor each other in marriage.
Below I listed some books and bibles that are great for babies, toddlers, pre-school, and school-age kids. I thought having one for Emma was enough but at church we talked about how they may get tired of reading the same 20 stories with the same pictures over and over again. Also, each children's Bible chooses different stories to focus on and the ones that re-appear help your kids realize that these stories have more significance than Peter Rabbit or Cat in the Hat. When I am studying the Word I use more than one translation to help me and this is similar to kids getting to read multiple versions of childrens' Bibles.
The Toddler Bible
The Baby Bible
The Beginner Bible
God's Story for Me
The Family Reading Bible
Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers
Precious!
ReplyDeletePraise the Lord for His word and it is amazing how much they understand about Jesus! My pastor told us that we start teaching them in the womb! Im the choir so the Lord uses my voice to sing to the one in my womb! They already know mommys voice anyway. Praise God for seeing and learning how others are teaching their kids biblical truths and thanks for sharing!
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