As a mum to three children, I long for all my children to learn to talk with God easily and freely. In my own personal life, I’ve seen firsthand how prayer is a spiritual discipline that grows when cultivated. While only God can work in a child’s heart to produce true regeneration and authentic love, there are many things we as adults can do to help children grow and develop the habit of taking everything to God in prayer. Here are five ways to help young children learn to pray. ... continue reading
Writing about the Bible effectively for children is hard work. Depending on the age, you have to scale the vocabulary, the conceptual ideas being used or articulated and the number of ideas that kids can hold in their heads at any one time. Plus there’s the whole issue of how you handle gore and sex and death—subjects that frequently come up in the Old Testament in particular.
I encountered many cultural and story-telling problems while writing about the strange book of Esther for Esther and the Very Brave Plan.... continue reading
It struck me what enormous fun it must have been as God the Father and Jesus the Son spoke the universe and our world into existence. The deeper we go, and the more we are able to examine the structure, mechanisms and physiology of our planet and its creatures, the more we see a God who delights in the world he made.... continue reading
Powerful stories speak to a universal need and point to eternal truths. That’s why the stories in the Bible, above all stories, have perennial appeal. Even epic stories outside the Bible that garner massive attention often do so through redemptive themes that only make sense from a Christian perspective.... continue reading
Maybe you’re going through something awful and heartbreaking yourself—or maybe someone you love is. Or maybe it’s just that the constant stream of horrible stuff on the news is making you feel anxious and scared about the world, and you don’t know how to make sense of it all. Maybe you wonder where God is in the middle of all this.... continue reading
As a Christian Studies teacher, one of the first things I tell my classes as the new school year begins is how welcome they are to disrupt my lesson plans with their questions. I invite them to imagine our class as a road trip where we each have one hand on the steering wheel. I have a map and a plan (and I reserve the right to point us back on-track when we’re headed into a ditch) but I’ll happily let them steer us down a side road if they see something interesting—because I’m convinced that the detour is often the best part of the trip.... continue reading
The following text is the full biography featured in the back of the new children’s book about Betsey Stockton’s inspiring life by Laura Wickham. This back section offers a detailed outline for older kids and parents who enjoyed reading the illustrated storybook version.... continue reading
For far too long, the word ‘Biography’ was associated with the image of dusty tomes, stacked on the bookshelves of stuffy professors’ studies. But all this changed the moment these were made accessible and available to young children. Stories of great men and women of the past have been re-told through bold images and simple language.... continue reading
Whether you are a parent, godparent or Sunday School teacher, you will want the children in your care to come to know the Lord for themselves—through His Word. So any children’s Bible you choose for them needs to support that aim, not hinder it. So here are some principles to guide you, so that you can browse the bookshelves with confidence.... continue reading
Teach children the big story of the Bible.... continue reading
