Intentional Simplicity: Review and Giveaway

When you pick a story Bible for your kids, you want something with nice pictures, easy language, and most importantly – God’s word in a way they can understand. Later I’ll do more on what kinds of Bibles I’ve had success with for my kids (and which one I love so much myself it makes me cry) – from Toddler Bibles, to paraphrases, to translations that are cut down into kid-sized portions, there are a lot of choices.

One that I’ve recently had a chance to use in my house is The Big Picture Story Bible. For me, it came in a pack with the Story Bible, a book of memory verses, and a family devotion book.

The Story Bible has thick pages (the more difficult to tear, my dear) and a laminated cover. It’s like, spill and tear proof. [This isn’t official of course, but as the mom of a preschooler and a toddler, this is pretty important in our book-reading world]. The pictures are awesome and interesting to my kids. And the stories are great for my daughter (3) . You can even get a free audio copy which, I know i can’t be the only one who loves audio books and that my children learn to read by themselves.

As a “big picture” Bible, the stories are not necessarily divided in the traditional ways like Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, or Elijah and the Baals. Yes, those stories are all included but instead of two or three pages with beginnings and endings that sometimes make stories seem unconnected, the “big picture” stories connect the stories in bigger ways and sometimes in bigger time spans so that the chronology is evident for the kids.

The Memory Verse book is a great addition to the pack. It is almost like a little catechism, asking questions that people have and then giving one-verse answers that is easy to memorize. You could use it as a reference as questions come up, or memorize it from beginning to end over the course of time. (There are 45 verses, easily doing one a week for about a year.)

The Family Devotion book is a great buddy for the Memory Verse Book. For each question and subsequent scripture answer, there is a devotion and scripture reading that comes with song suggestions, follow-up questions, and memory verse reminders. It is meant to be used over and over for a few years to really solidify the topics as your child grows and matures.

I really love the additions to the Story Bible and see them as a great resource for families with kids a little older than mine (mine are 3 and 1). Yes, my daughter is already memorizing scripture (more on that later) and the questions are great. Right now we are doing some memory pages I created. The devotions are above their understanding at this time and I look forward to using them in the future.

And if you’re looking forward to using these materials, have I got some good news for you! Family Christian Bookstores is sponsoring a giveaway of a $25 gift certificate! You can use that to purchase your own set of The Big Picture Story Bible!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


I will soon be giving you a few more of the Bibles for kids I love and some more resources to use with your kids.  Let’s be intentional together.