This is a new Bible storybook to me but so far we’re lovin’ it! The God’s Love for Your Bible Storybook is full of Bible stories adapted by Carolyn Larsen (who wrote the Princess Stories book!) with extra modern-real life stories from Rich and Renee Stearns.
Who is Rich Stearns? He’s the President of World Vision! I love love loved Rich Stearn’s book The Hole in the Gospel so I was stoked when I found out he did this book. So, these stories that he and his wife share about kids around the world who have faced problems and seen the love and provision of God in their lives. Â PLUS, all the author royalties are going to help kids in need. LOVE.
A few weeks ago, Asa was studying Joseph for homeschool so we read the story of Joseph in this book. It was a simple re-telling with the basic point that, “whether things are good or bad, God is still with us.” The companion story was about a family in Holt, Alabama who had their home blown away by a tornado and how God used World Vision (not mentioned by name) to restore their home and show them God’s love.Â
The kids already like looking through the book because they love seeing real kids faces in faraway places. I think I’m going to like it because it helps combine long-ago Bible stories to not-long-ago situations about kids around the world. I think it will help them see how God works in our every day lives, just like he did in Bible times.
I’m hoping it will also be a reminder of our big world and our big God who knows and loves every person on the planet. We sponsor a little girl with World Vision and it has so impacted our lives. I hope this book continues to remind us of other kids around the world and how much God loves them, too.
Here’s a little preview of the book so you can see the cool illustrations and photos.
affiliate links included
My son is only two but I try and teach him to have a friendly and glad heart. He is my little greeter. He knows no stranger. I want to get him involved in small service projects around our neighborhood as well.
Yay! Showing love to others is EXACTLY what my kids and I are doing for my blog “31 Days” project this year. They would love this book!
We recently moved back to the US from living overseas and our new community has many internationals living here. My kids and I are holding regular playdates for international moms (& kids) to help them have community and friendships while they are far from home. I love how God has given me something to do with my little ones to shoe His love to our foreign neighbors!
I try to help them by letting them do whatever kind thing comes to their heart. We’ve given out lunches to the local homeless a few times and it really brightened their day to share God’s love in that way. We also sponsor a few little girls through Compassion International and they get to share their love with them, as well.
I bring my kids to deliver food to the needy in our area every month. It’s a chore to unload and load over and over again, but the people we’re serving don’t get to see kids very much. The kids bring an extra measure of joy to their days. Though I think I’m exposing my kids to those who are needy, I find that my kids don’t notice the filth, smell and that things are different than our house. They freely give hugs and make themselves right at home with these people. Warms my heart.
Aw I love the global view this book has! We are big on home and world missions. Some ways our kids show God’s love to others is that we try to encourage a servant heart. Putting others first – even if we think they don’t deserve it. We have a “giving” jar where some of their saved money goes toward church offerings and they pick out a gift for a child in need around Christmas. We are in the process of choosing two children to sponsor as well. We’re having a tough time! How can you choose only a few?!
My son is 3 and we have been teaching him to show God’s love by sharing with others what God has blessed us with. And when we aren’t able to do something, we can always pray for them! We have a ‘prayer wall’ in our playroom with a map of the world and also pictures of missionaries and other people that we pray for daily.
I help my kids show Gods love by serving others. That can range from helping grandma do yard work to coloring a picture for a relative who lives far away and mailing it to them. One thing we love to do every year is fill a few shoe boxes for operation christmas child, this is just around the corner and we are getting excited!!
At 2 years of age, this is a difficult one for Cai. However, sharing is at the top of our list.
Oh my, I’m ordering this one today… it’s still a pre-release. I use Bible storybooks in our children’s programming and I teach College students and others in seminars how to use great reading skills to get kids into the living, active Word of God at their level. So I have a huge collection of children’s Bibles. I also have some missions oriented books to help our kids see that their are kids like them in all cultures who need Jesus salvation. I love that this will pull in both!! I would love several copies! 🙂
My daughter is 4. She is always making cards for people because she is learning to write her letters. She usually makes them for family for no apparent occasion, but to let them know she is thinking of them. She met a little girl at church a couple months ago. Today she made her a card, “I love you Grace”. To have God’s love in your heart like a 4 year old child. Love those whom you don’t even know well. She also likes to sing praises to God for everyone to hear at any given time.
We try to encourage kindness and to think of others first. As a family we enjoy collecting and packing Christmas shoeboxes.
My toddler is nearly 3 , and she shares her mom and space with a grabby 9 month old sister. I try to model God”s love for her by practicing sharing and redirecting her little sister. I know it’s sinking in when I hear her saying “it’s ok. Mom will be right back.” Or “why don’t you play with this toy instead?”
My daughter turns six this year. We gather items for two Operations Christmas Child Shoeboxes, create Blessing Bags for the homeless, leave penny jar surprises, angel tree gifts for children, and whatever service learning projects happen to come up in the year. This year she volunteered to clean litter up at a park during her vacation. I hope to participate in Soles4Souls, but we need to find our shoes which are currently in storage since we just moved. I also have plans for her to sponsor a child through World Vision and to purchase gifts or items to earn Sunday school supplies for children. We would LOVE to win this giveaway! Thank you for the chance!
What a neat sounding Bible! I’m loving all these ideas for Bibles for kids! How do I help my kids show God’s love? We have several service projects we do as a family every year! Our favorite is when we deliver goodies to the neighbors at Christmas time along with a note explaining the true Meaning of Christmas. My kids’ are so blessed by giving those treats and the neighbors are too! Last year we expanded to our local bank. Maybe this year town hall! Lol 🙂 I sure would like to win one if these cute Bibles to explore with my kids!
This sounds like an amazing book! Right now my daughter (5) is learning to make plastic canvas crosses to include in the shoeboxes we are packing for Operation Christmas Child. When we complete them we will pray for the children that will be receiving them.
I help my preschooler show God’s love to others by letting him get involved in what I am doing. Helping prepare a meal for a family in need, baking cookies for new neighbors, or just pointing out faces of people in the crowd….Being aware of others and talking about what their needs might be. Also this year we got the world vision gift catalogue & I let him pick out a cause for us to raise money as a family for. Throughout the week we make an effort to skip a trip to sonic, going out to dinner, or an impulse purchase & put the money in our jar. A visual reminder that life is not about us. Love your posts Amanda!
We encourage our children to be friendly to everyone. My oldest has really taken to our Sunday school mission to help our Parish mission project to help the Messiah Foundation in Nigeria to help build a school. He loves telling people what he is doing and finding money everywhere to add to the bucket.
I’ve been trying to teach my toddler to be kind to his baby sister and to think of others. We think of ways to cheer her up if she’s grumpy… I’ll have my toddler pick out a toy for her, etc. I want him to be in the habit of thinking of others. 🙂
We are actively involved in American Heritage Girls whose mottos is “faith, service, fun!” Through the troop, we have done more service for others in the past 2 years, in Jesus’ name, than we had the opportunity for in the past 5! As a family, we just sponsored a child through Compassion International. Everyday, we strive to find ways to help other people see God’s love and light through our own lives.
When my eldest daughter turned 4, we decided to sponsor her a pen-pal through compassion. Our prayer is she would learn about another culture, learn how to show God’s love through friendship and that her pen friend and family would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.
We encourage our children to be friendly with everyone and always be inclusive We also teach them to always think of others.
Our kids (7, 4, and 2) LOVE doing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes every year! And we are all about to get a serious crash course in showing love to others, because we are a foster family waiting for our first placement! This book sounds great, thanks for the giveaway! 😀
My oldest is only three, so right now we are working on sharing and using kind words.
We like to encourage our kids to make things to give away to others. We’ve made cookies and other goodies for our librarians, doctor, doctor’s office receptionists as well as various friends.
My oldest is two so we focus on being kind and sharing.
We try to include our kids in everything we do, so when we are doing outreach, volunteering, etc they are there seeing first hand.
Today we practiced sharing our snack with kids at the park to show Gods love. 🙂
We’ve been trying to show our kids sharing, caring, and appreciating others. We also put together OCC boxes, donate to food pantry, and make cookies for the soup kitchen.
My daughter has always been kind and giving. Since she is an only child, she loves to share with others because she then gets to share in their experience. I am not sure how I fostered this:-) Maybe she caught a little of that bug from her generous grandparents (and possibly from me).
We have gone through “A Window on the World” and did the Pray Around the World from Focus on the Family that you highlighted earlier this summer. We loved it and it helped her to see that there are other people with VERY different circumstances. She still has so much to learn, but much of that will come with her own experiences. We are planning to volunteer monthly at our communities free pancake breakfast where we can see that there are boys and girls who come that wouldn’t have a hot breakfast that morning.
God’s Love For You Bible Storybook looks so beautiful. What child (and adult) wouldn’t love it!!
We have been showing both Of our girls since they were little how to be a blessing to others. Now that they are 3 and 6 we have started letting them choose items they no longer use to donate and filled over 7 bags with clothes, toys and books. My girls also helped our church missionaries by purchasing my needed bug spay with their own money!
My one year old (also “Lydia”!) has a couple Compassion child survival programs sponsored in her honor. We keep pictures from their updates on a map on the wall in her room and I like to hold her and tell her about the kids there, and read her the letters they send with updates. 🙂
We sponsored a child from World Vision and have been writing letters and praying for our sponsor child. And once a year, we participate on a walk where we raise funds for a school my children’s school sponsor in Africa. This a very big project our children look forward to every year. And this year, we will be attending family Disciple Training School @ YWAM and will be going on an outreach as a family to share God’s love in China!
We sponsor a boy from WV as well… Our entire family (My husband, myself and our 5 children) look forward to his letters and we have found so many cute items/toys from Hobby Lobby, that will fit the WV standards, to send to him (and an extra for his younger brother, no one seems to be able to tell me if his brother has a sponsor, and I would never even consider sending one child a gift and not another in the household!)
When we decided to sponsor, at a Winter Jam Concert in Louisville Ky… I never would have imagined the impact it would have on our family… Our children show him how much our family loves him (and his brother) by sitting around and writing him letters, drawing him pictures and finding small treasures to enjoy… My heart goes out to this child and his family, we pray for them and my children have asked multiple times how long it would take to travel to Bangladash to visit them 🙂
Our son just turned 3 and we’re “writing” thank you notes to those who gave him gifts. We’re talking about why they gave him presents and that it’s loving them to say thank you.
We try to praise them in those moments with words that affirm the character trait they are displaying. We recognize with them that what they just did was showing God’s love . We want to encourage those fruits of the spirit in them!
We have used your Monthly Missions as a launching off point in teaching our 4 year old how to show Jesus’ love to others and it’s been a wonderful tool!
I try to get my daughter to be aware of what’s around her and how she can help – open doors, pick up trash on the floor, OCC shoebox etc. It’s fun to let her be a part of serving.
We keep “blessing bags” in the car to pass on to people who are homeless, etc. while we are driving around town. 🙂
We are doing up some boxes for Operation Christmas Child this year with my 4yr old and 2yr old. Starting to teach them about places around the world that are worse off than us and how we can help them.
My girls ages 3 and 4 show kindess to others by ” by being nice to everybody” as per my 4 year old! We really emphasize whether the choices they make are loving because that is what Christs message boils down to!
We talk all the time about our family motto : Love God & Love People