Our favorite Bibles and devotionals for kids

A couple months ago some of you asked what Bible we were using when we made our resurrection rolls so I thought I'd share some of our favorite kids Bibles and devotionals. 

These 4 of our favorites. 

Long Story Short by Marty Machowski

The Gospel Story Bible by Marty Machowski

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd-Jones

The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones

*We also like The Beginners Bible by Kelly Pulley for younger kids (under 6)

The Jesus Storybook Bible and their devotional "Thoughts to Make your Heart Sing" are my personal favorites.

At least for our kids ages right now (6, 4, 3, 15 months)

Let's take a look at The Jesus Storybook Bible first.  

The pictures (by artist Jago) and the creativity in the layout of the pages is fabulous. 

I love how some of them are vertical and the perspective is unique. 

And it is really engaging and easy to read (or listen to). 

It is simple yet profound, funny and most importantly it always brings everything back to Jesus.

The publisher says that it is for kids 4 and up but our 2 year old loves reading it too. 

 We keep ours in the kids bedroom and read it to them before bed at night.

Here's a little shpeel I grabbed from their website. 

The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the Story beneath all the stories in the Bible. At the center of the Story is a baby, the child upon whom everything will depend. Every story whispers his name. A Bible like no other, The Jesus Storybook Bible invites children to join in the greatest of all adventures, to discover for themselves that Jesus is at the center of God’s great story of salvation—and at the center of their Story too.

Next up is the devotional "Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing".

I love that each devotion is relatively short (most are one page) but that they are still really good.

And thought provolking. 

We read it during breakfast and then spend some time discussing it. 

It has great info and prompts good discussion. 

The Gospel Story Bible and The Long Story Short are also a great Bible and devotional pair.    

The pages of The Gospel Story Bible are bright and the content is more in depth, detailed and lengthy. 

I love the Let's Talk about it section at the end of each story.

It helps gets you and your kids thinking about what they read and it allows you as the parent to help make sure they really "got it". 

Here's a peek at what the publisher says about the book,

"It is easy to forget Jesus in the midst of frantic schedules, family squabbles, and conflicting priorities. But the truth is that he is the hero of every story, including these ordinary ones. This is why Marty Machowski puts God's plan of salvation in Christ on continuous display in The Gospel Story Bible. The easy-to-read storybook introduces your family to many captivating people, places, and events from the Bible's Old and New Testaments, showing how each one ultimately points to Jesus. As you share these Bible Stories together, you and your family will meet Jesus and learn a new, life-changing way of recognizing Christ as the hero of every story."

Long Story Short is a great devotional. 

It shows how every story in the Old Testament points forward to God's story of salvation through Jesus Christ. 

And it has a little something to talk about with the kids five days of the week.

The publisher recommends it for ages preschool through high school.  

Oh and I should mention that it goes best with the Gospel Story Bible. 

*They also have a devotional called Old Story New that is about the New Testament 

Hopefully you guys found that helpful.

I know there are some great kids Bibles out there.

What are some of your favorites? 

Resurrection rolls

 Happy Good Friday Friends! 

As I've been pondering the cross today I am constantly in awe of God's goodness and grace to save such sinners like me. 

He is so so good. 

By his wounds we are healed. 

Crazy and awesome.

Thank you Jesus! 

One of our families favorite Easter traditions is making resurrection rolls. 

It's such a fun and hands on way to teach our kids the true meaning of Easter. 

Plus they are yummy. 

Win win. 

We always start by reading about the crucifixion and death/burial of Jesus before we make the rolls.

Then comes the fun part of actually assembling them. 

The kids get to roll the marshmallow (which symbolizes Jesus) in oil (melted butter) and them prepare his body for burial with spices (by rolling marshmallow in cinnamon/sugar). Than they get to wrap Jesus (the marshmallow) in burial linens (the crescent roll). And place them in the oven to bake.

Here’s a breakdown of the symbolism:

• Large Marshmallows – body of Jesus
• Melted Butter – oils of embalming
• Cinnamon  and Sugar Mix- spices used to anoint the body.
• Crescent Roll – the wrapping of Jesus’ body or the tomb.
• Oven – the tomb
• Cavity in bun – the empty tomb or the empty cloths

*For more details details on resurrection rolls look here or here).

As the rolls are baking we read the story of of Jesus' resurrection

and then we get to eat them!! 

The kids always love seeing how the "tomb" is empty after the rolls bake. 

Jesus has risen! 

 so cool! 

And just for fun we dyed eggs too.

pretty and tasty. 

Egg salad sandwich anyone?

What are some of your favorite Easter traditions?

Below are some of the other Easter activities we have done in the past t help teach our kids that Easter is about SO much more than just plastic eggs and yummy candy.

this felt cross

 and this activity to demonstrate the cross and resurrection 

Little Girls Night Out

The other night we had a little girls night out. 

A few of Mackenzie's closest friends and their Mommy's got together for a fun and fruitful evening.

We had some yummy cookies and dessert at a local restaurant and spent some time talking about what it looks like to be a good friend. 

We used verses from the Bible and a lot of examples of what "loving your neighbor as yourself" actually looks like in every day life (as a 5 year old).

The Mommy's even put on a couple skits for the kids to act out different scenarios that they might encounter at church, school, etc.  First we acted out the wrong way to handle the situation, we talked about why it was wrong and then we acted out a better way to handle it. 

The kids LOVED this!! 

They thought it was soooo funny to see us Mom's putting on a show and I think it really helped drill home all of the things we had learned.

After our heart training session was over we headed out for some fun! 

The girls rode the carousel and had so much fun just hanging out together as big girls (without any of their other siblings around).

What a great night of fun and fellowship!

I'm so thankful to have good friends in my life who I can journey through parenthood with! 

Because this raising kids stuff can be tough

and with such an important job of training and molding little hearts towards Jesus I'm so glad that I'm not in it all alone. 

Seeds Family Worship

Aaron and I want our kids to know and love Jesus more than anything else.

So we talk about Him a lot.

{Well not only because we want them to know and and love Him, because we love Him a lot and we kind of just can't help talking about Him.}

We are always on the look out for cool resources to help us teach our kids about the Lord and over the years we have complied a list of our favorites.

So I thought I'd share them with you over the next couple of weeks :)

Because when I find something awesome it's hard for me to keep it to myself. 

Today I want to introduce you to Seeds Family Worship.

We were first introduced to Seeds CD's from a friend at a Mom's group I used to go to.

She kept telling me how much she and her family loved their CDs so I finally bought one and gave it a shot. 

Next thing I knew we owned all 6.

So, what is Seeds Family Worship music?

I'm glad you asked! 

"Seeds Family Worship was planted when worship leader, Jason Houser, was asked to write some songs to help kids remember the verses from his church’s summer Bible school.

Jason began writing songs and singing them for the kids and families at church. The songs were well-crafted, catchy, and taken straight from scripture. Families liked them. . . a lot."

Each Seeds CD has Bible passages (straight from the Bible...no paraphrasing) put to music.  

They are super catchy and fun (and don't sound like typical make you want to pull your hair out kids music) which I love.

In fact I'm always finding myself getting their songs stuck in my head and singing them to myself through out the day.

What better thing to be stuck in my head than God's Word, right?

Anyways, we really love their music and I'm sure you would too so head on over here and check it out for yourself. 

Or better yet preview some of their songs below :)

*Edited to add...

I can't believe I forgot to mention one of the coolest parts of Seeds music!

Each Seeds CD comes with TWO identical CDs. 

One to keep and one to give away!  

"We've taken inspiration from God's perfect plan for seeds dispersal and designed packaging intended to facilitate the spreading of Seeds. Each package of Seeds of Faith album includes two identical full-length CDs.

So simply tear the CD cover in half and share a complete packaged album with a friend nearby or far away. You get to take part in spreading Seeds--helping take God's Word to as many homes as possible."

How awesome is that?! 

Nativity sets for kids

I'm always on the lookout for creative ways to share the Gospel with my kids.

For tangible ways to explain the truth about who Jesus is and what he has done for them.

More than anything I want them to get it.

Especially at Christmas.

I want them to enjoy the presents and the decorations and even Santa Claus (or Saint Nicholas as we like to call him) but I want them to know, really know and understand, that it's all about Jesus.

That we give presents because Jesus is the greatest gift of all.

That we decorate with lights because He is the light of the world.

And that we think Saint Nicholas is cool because he shared the love of Jesus with others.

And I know that doesn't just happen.

It takes being intentional and talking about it with them. a lot.

Heck..I need to be reminded about it a lot too.

We have the Little People Nativity set which the kids love to play with

and last week my mom found this nativity that she made my brother and I when we were kids.

Then I was looking on Pinterest (oh how I love Pinterest) and found a bunch of other awesome nativity sets/ideas the kids would love. I thought I'd share them.

Enjoy!

recycled Nativity found here

yummy Nativity found here

watercolor and clothespin nativity found here

wooden doll nativity found here

wooden block nativity found here

thread spool nativity found here

What are some ways you teach your kids about Christ at Christmas?

Teaching our kids about Easter

As much as we love going to Easter egg hunts and eating chocolate bunnies

I want my kids to know that Easter has nothing to do with plastic eggs, candy or giant people dressed in bunny suits.

And I desperately want them to know that it has everything to do with one god man named

Jesus.

That Easter is about the death, burial, and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

For a couple weeks now I have been brainstorming something special to do with the kids to teach them about Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.

Something that would help bring the Easter Story to life.

And for a couple weeks now I have come up with absolutely nothing.

Or at least nothing cool enough to do.

Then I saw this post.

I loved the idea behind it but since me and gardening don't really get along I decided to switch things up a little bit.

I started by making the cast of characters.

This year I decided to just make Jesus and a Roman solider but I may continue to add some more people as the kids get older.

To keep things simple, I made my little guys out of clothespins, pip cleaners, felt, and ribbon.

Here's a quick run down on how to make a clothespin man:

Use some markers to color a face and some hair on the clothespin and then wrap the pipe cleaner around the torso to make some arms.

Then cut a long rectangle out of felt, fold it in half and cut a half circle from the center to make the top of the tunic.

picture of the tunic opened up

Slip the tunic over your man's head and tie a piece of ribbon around his waist for a belt.

Easy peasy.

Next I gathered a few accessories for Jesus.

I made a little crown of thorns out of felt and grabbed a couple thumb tacks to use as nails.

Jesus testing out the crown of thorns

I happened to have a foam cross laying around (you can find these at Michaels or Walmart) so I grabbed that and added some brown marker to make it look more like wood.

I cut some strips of felt out and colored on them with red marker to make the strips of linen Jesus would have been covered with before he was put in the tomb.

*The strips of linen in the Easter story are really clean when put on Jesus but I wanted something to show the blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross so I added some "blood" to the strips of felt. I'm pretty sure when the strips of linen were wrapped around Jesus they got bloody too.

I also whipped up a little Roman guard complete with a sword and a shield.

So here's the plan of what we are going to do:

Friday morning (Good Friday) Aaron and I are going to read the story about Jesus' crucifixion to the kids from their Children's Bible.

Then we are going to take Jesus' clothes off, put on his crown of thorns and nail him to the cross all while talking to the kids about the sacrifice Jesus made for us by dying on the cross.

I want to talk to them about the unkind things the people did to Jesus (they hit him, mocked him, etc.), how the cross would have been very painful and how Jesus didn't do anything to deserve death. I want to tell them how he died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins because he loves us so much.

I'm thinking I should have rethought the smile I put on Jesus' face.

Whoops.

Then later that night we will take Jesus off the cross and wrap him in the strips of linen (i.e. felt).

Then we will read the part of the story about Jesus' burial.

We will take Jesus outside and place him in a tomb made of rocks from our garden

and place the Roman guard in front of the tomb.

Then on Sunday morning (Easter) we will go out to the tomb to see that Jesus is gone and has risen from the dead!

*The night before Aaron and I will have taken Jesus out of the tomb and hidden him somewhere else in the house so the kids can search for him and find that Jesus is alive!

My hope and prayer is that this little hands on visual will help to drive home what Easter is really all about. I'm so excited to see how it goes! I love teaching our kids the truth of God's Word!

P.S. This is the Children's Bible we have and love and will be using as we read the Story of Easter to them.

What do you guys do with your family for Good Friday and Easter?