This Sunday at our church, SONrise, I shared some resources for discipling young children. One of the things we are really passionate about at SONrise is parents discipling their own children. The first Sunday of every month we have a potluck after church and then spend some time training parents to disciple their children and the kiddos get some teaching and time to play with their peers. I am continually trying to keep in front of me that this task that consumes almost every hour of my time is not about the tasks but shepherding the hearts of my children into the presence of their Great Shepherd. I want them to see Jesus and know what it is to experience his presence. I am by no means an expert in this but these are some of the resources that have been great companions on this journey.
Here is a list of the resources I shared on Sunday with a few additional resources:
The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. This is by far my favorite children's Bible. I think its critical that kids know the story of God and are able to see their role in the story. One if the things that happens is kids learn a lot of great stories from the Bible but they don't know how they fit together. This children's Bible is very explicit about how those pieces fit together. There is a deluxe edition of this book that includes an audio version of the book. It is totally worth it, the narrator is phenomenal. We have read through this with our kids quite a few times, as well as I have read it personally a couple of times.
The Story is another great children's Bible to help children see the whole story. It comes in quite a few different reading levels, for Children, Little Ones, Kids, Teens and Adults. The Story for Children and Little Ones are both big and colorful. We are going to go through this series next year for school.
The Action Bible is another great Bible for encouraging spiritual conversation with your kids. It goes through the whole story, it doesn't explicitly connect the dots between the stories or draw conclusions but it is a graphic version of the Bible. My kids love snuggling up with this Bible and reading it to themselves.
Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp is a great "how-to-manual" in discipling your children. It is one of the best and most comprehensive books I've read on spiritually teaching our children. His book
Shepherding A Child's Heart is also a great one to read on discipline. The two books really go hand in hand.
This is one of my all time favorite books on walking with children. It contains a lot on development and how kids see God.
Joining Children on the Spiritual Journey by Catherine Stonehouse provided me with great encouragement and knowledge as I began the journey of walking with my kids.
I haven't read this book, but I've read another book by Tim Kimmel,
Grace-Based Parenting, which is a great book. I wanted to add
Extreme Grandparenting because there were a lot of grandparents sitting there on Sunday. My parents have read this and found it to be a great book. Grandparents that love Jesus and want to be a part of the discipling process are such a gift to both parents and children.
This journey is one that is full of so much joy, but its not easy and we all need people to walk with us. Some of those people are in our community and some of those walk with us and mentor us through books. I hope that you can find something in this list that will encourage your heart and provide you with encouragement on the journey. I would love to hear the books that have encouraged you.
