BELIEVE Storybook: Think, Act, Be Like Jesus

If you are a Christian and are not having a regular period of time to teach your children your beliefs, then you must start doing so right now.  This book by Randy Frazee is a good first step.  It does have its issues, which I will outline below, but something is better than nothing.  I will be using it with mine when we finish what we currently have.

The book is highly colorful and well laid-out for children.  The authors and illustrators select specific content from the Old and New Testament to teach how to "think, act, and be like Jesus."  They present a condensed version of the Biblical content, offer the passage (which I would encourage you to read to your kiddos), present key questions on the attributes of God, state Jesus as the answer, and conclude with a "Believe" section.  Time and effort have been put into this work to break down some of the complexities of these passages for smaller children.

Here are a couple of issues that I have:

1. "Storybook" -- we, as Christians, need to be careful with the language that we use.  Often, we talk about Bible stories with our children; however, we need to be more intentional with our language.  Our modern culture views the Bible as a collection of moral stories -- nothing more and nothing less.  If we believe the Bible is true, then we should not reference its contents as stories.  You may be thinking that this is overboard, but I do not.  If we teach creation as a story and a child hears at school that creation is a story but evolution is science, then have we prepared them to deal with those questions of faith?  I use that as an example and could provide others as well, but for the sake of time will not.
2. The key ideas are written as "I can" statements.  Once again, we need to be careful here.  All that we have from God is through His Son Jesus Christ.  We did nothing to earn His love.  We did nothing to earn His grace or mercy.  God provided it freely.  To reinforce those facts, those statements could be reversed to put the emphasis where it rightly belongs.  Here are 2 examples:  "I have the power through Jesus to control myself" should become "Jesus gives me the power to control myself" OR "I can deal with the hardships of life because of the hope I have in Jesus" should become "Jesus is my hope and strength to deal with the hardships of life."

All in all, this is a good resource.  

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLookBloggers.com review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”