Teaching Children to Love God's Word

A friend of mine e-mailed a question to a bunch of friends and me. Because I am passionate about the subject I wanted to answer it on the blog incase it helps anyone else. She has a baby and asked what we did to teach our children God's word and if we have any favorite books, dvds, or c.d.s. Well, favorite Bibles I definitely have! I am very particular about children's Bibles. Some of them are made too goofy, are inaccurate, or both. I have three favorites currently:
101 Favorite Stories from the Bible
Illustrated by Ura Miller

This one is great because a reading is not too long and not too short. It has 3 questions to ask the children at the end and that is good to make sure they understood.

Children's Bible
ESV
Crossway books

This is probably my all-time favorite because it is the entire Bible with a bunch of illustrations. I ordered it off of answersingenesis.org but know you can get it many other places, such as Amazon.

Discoverer's Bible for Early Readers
NIrV
I like this one because Bailey is beginning to be able to read it. It also has illustrations. The only thing I don't like is that the illustration is not on the same page as the reading. The kids love to look at the illustrations as I read on the other one. I actually saw this one on sale for $7.95 today! That is a really good deal as I believe we paid $25 for ours only last May.

We start reading the baby bibles to them when they are babies. Or, with Bella, if I have any Bible next to me I can read a verse or two to her before bed. She has the added bonus of getting to listen (if she's paying attention) to what her brother and sister are being read.

A friend of ours gave us a NKJV paperback bible that she painted with a glitter pen as a party favor at a birthday. I thought that was a great idea! We call it their treasure and everytime we read it I let them highlight what we read in a different color. If I say, "Go get your treasure!" they know which Bible to grab. She put a note in it with their name (Bailey's treasure) and a note that said, "Thank you for coming to ____ party! May you treasure God's Word, Jesus' love, and other people all your life!

I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread. Job 23:12.

If you look for [wisdom]as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:4-5

For where your treasure is, there your heart is also. Matthew 6:21

I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure. Psalm 119:162

Some favorite DVDs and C.D.s are PraiseBaby. I even love the beautiful songs playing in our house. They have many songs that we sing either at church or listen to in the car.

Bailey has some c.d.s of the Bible that help him to memorize scripture while he lays in bed so that has been great too.

Hope this helps! What a privilege and blessing it is to write God's word on our children's hearts.

This soup is really good!

Butternut Ravioli Stew

Derrick is running the Chicago Marathon...

Sunday morning. You might be in prayer for him and his buddies! Also,let's hope he finds a way to bring me back some of that awesome Chicago pizza on the plane. ;)
26.2 miles!!!! Go, Derrick!

Warm and Hearty Dinner Recipes

Cabbage Roll Soup

1 lb lean ground beef
29 oz. canned tomatoes
15 oz. canned tomato sauce
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I add atleast 2 tsp)
8 cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth (you can do beef too)
4 cups water
1 cup uncooked brown rice (I add atleast 1/2 cup more)
6 cups packaged coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
A little salt (optional)

Brown ground beef-drain, add cinnamon. Put in soup pot and add tomatoes, sauce, chicken broth, and water. Bring to a boil, add brown rice and cabbage. Boil 25 minutes.

Chicken and Dumplings
2-3 chicken breasts
2 stalks celery
onion quartered
1 carrot scraped and halfed
2 cloves of garlic
tsp salt
tsp pepper
tarragon (to taste)
4 cups water
3 cups chicken broth
Boil, then lower.
Cook for 45 min. over medium
Remove chicken from broth and set broth aside. (To be honest, sometimes I skip the part of straining the broth and just pull the chicken out, cut it up, and throw out the vegetables that have been cooking. Then I put the chicken back in with new veggies.)
Discard cooked veggies.
Broth back in (Unless you never drained it.)
Add egg noodles to broth or the dumpling recipe below. If you use the egg noodles, cook them in water first.
Onion back in and sliced celery and carrots.
Bring to a boil in broth & then simmer. Cook until tender.

Dumplings
2 cups flour
1TBS baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup plus 2 TBS milk

For dumplings, combine flour, baking powder, 1 1/4 tsp salt, & milk in a medium bowl. Stir well until smooth, then let dough rest for 5-10 min. Roll dough out onto flour surface about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut the dough into 1/2 inch squares & drop each into simmering stock They will swell, then shrink. Simmer 20-30 min. Stir often. While the stock is thickening, the chicken will be cool. Tear into big chunks of chicken.

The Joy of a Word-filled Family

The following is an excerpt from Dr. John S. Barnett's (our former pastor) book, The Joy of a Word-filled Family

"Communism triumphed largely because of the complete devotion of its followers. This dedication was typified in an actual letter written by a young communist to his fiancee, breaking off their engagement. The girl's pastor sent the letter to Billy Graham, who referred to it in a crusade message a number of years ago. Listen to what this young communist wrote:

'There is one thing, which I am in dead earnest about, and that is the communist cause. It is my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweetheart, my wife, my mistress, and my bread and meat. I work at in the daytime and dream of it at night. Its hold on me grows, not lessens, as time goes on; therefore, I cannot carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation without relating it to this force which both drives and guides my life. I evaluate people, looks, ideas, and actions according to how they affect the communist cause, and by their attitude toward it. I've already been in jail because of my ideals, and if necessary, I'm ready to go before a firing squad.'

That is total dedication. Even without divine help, God's grace, the Spirit's power, or Christ's love, look at the intense devotion humans can produce. Can you imagine what God does when He finds this level of dedication in our hearts, minds, and wills as His children?"
He also quoted the hymn, Living For Jesus. Here is the beginning of it, "Living for Jesus a life that is true, striving to please Him in all that I do, yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free-this is the pathway of blessing for me."

Wow! That man was bent on evil but imagine a Christian with that kind of passion for Christ.