With all the blizzards and ice storms popping up all over the US over the past few weeks, spring may seem like a remote possibility, but down deep in our souls, we know it will come again. Maybe sooner than you think.

Do you love birds as much as I do? The many varieties, colors, and behavior patterns are so intriguing. Watching them can relax me on any kind of day and any time of year and they offer so many opportunities to teach your children/grandchildren about God’s wonderful world.

Bird feeders can be set up any time of the year and are a sure fire way to attract a variety of birds. Bird houses require a little more thought and planning if you wish to use them to attract birds to your yard.

It is important to have a realistic idea of what kind of birds are likely to come to your yard. What part of the country do you live in? Do you have a large manicured lawn or lots of trees and shrubbery? Do you live near water? Bluebirds like wide open spaces with trees close by but not too close. Nuthatches need pine trees. American Goldfinches need thistles nearby for nesting – they winter in South Carolina, but rarely stick around for nesting once spring returns. Don’t set out a wood duck nest box if you don’t live near water. …and so on…

Once you decide on the kind of birds you can realistically attract to your yard, learn their nesting requirements. Do they need a nest box or do they prefer only a shelf? How big should it be? What size entrance should the nest box have? Should the box be mounted on a tree, the side of a building, or on a post out in the lawn? What other nesting materials might be helpful – yarn, threads, hair, dryer lint, wood chips…? Each bird has its preferences, and the more you know about them, the more likely you are to be successful in getting them to nest where you can observe them.

Spring is very close. I noticed a pair of bluebirds going in and out of a nest box this morning on my way to church. So if you want birds to nest in it this year, time is short. If you don’t get it out in time all is not lost. The time it stands outdoors may make it more attractive to the birds next summer as it will seem more natural to their environment as it weathers.

Here are a few websites with excellent information to help you plan for your desired feathered friends.

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology – http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search
• Audubon Society – http://www.audubon.org/
• Birdhouse and birdfeeder plans – http://allcrafts.net/woodworking/birdhouses.htm

One more way you can plan for a successful summer of birdwatching is to consider plants you may want to grow to attract them. I have planted sunflowers in the south to attract the migrating American Goldfinches. If you hope to see hummingbirds, there are many flowers that are ideal for attracting them. This link on the Cornell website will be helpful as you start planting for birds: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=1146

by Janice D. Green, author of The Creation

A VBS Theme

What a dynamic theme to develop in a VBS program. We can feature the days of creation and share with the children out of an unlimited supply of examples of his amazing creation. I have been collecting ideas for a VBS and posting them to my Honeycomb Adventures Press, LLC blog over the past couple of years. While there is still room for improvement, there is a wealth of ideas on the blog to jump-start a VBS planning committee to create their own VBS program around the theme of Genesis 1&2.

Click here to go directly to the VBS ideas I have posted on this blog.

Tips for working out a VBS…

1. Decide how many days you plan to hold VBS and assign the specific creation days to be taught on each day. Plan to teach from the scriptures. Consult Bible storybooks such as my book The Creation for ways to explain the Biblical account so children will better understand some of the language in the Scriptures. On the blog link I included at the end of the above paragraph you will find a post for each of the days of creation with ideas that can be used for teaching or discussion.
2. Select music that fits the creation theme. Consider what is available on praise and worship DVDs for use in congregational singing. Also look on YouTube. Here is a wonderful video from YouTube that would be appropriate: Indescribable (You Are Amazing God). I have identified a few others on my blog link above.
3. Crafts and/or science activities can be developed around the days of creation as well. For example, use balloons to demonstrate that air takes up space, and play a game with balloons. Again, check out the link for several ideas to use each day that can reinforce the concepts you are teaching.
4. Find or make up games to help the children remember the days of creation. An indoor game could be played using the light switch to emphasize day and night. Children lie on the floor and try to be the first one up when the lights come on. Use your imagination and see how many games you can think of that would reinforce the days of creation. Several are suggested on the web page as well.
5. I have a friend who is deeply involved in conservation work who challenged me to include activities that teach the importance of taking care of our planet as part of a VBS program on creation. He feels Christians often fall short in the area of taking responsibility for our earth, and I tend to agree. Ideas could be discussed on how to care for the things that were created each day. There might also be one activity that the VBS will follow through on each day in which the children can make a difference. Much might depend on your surroundings. Perhaps it would be appropriate to take a walk and pick up trash on a different street each day or encourage the children to go with their parents for a few minutes each day to pick up trash along the road. Or perhaps the children could make bird feeders or a few community bat houses as a craft activity.

Note: My book, The Creation, could supplement a VBS program on this theme very nicely. Even though I have received multiple glowing reviews on The Creation, the fact that I self-published the book on a shoestring budget has made it difficult to market it to people outside my personal circle of friends. I still have copies that I would like to see in the hands of children, and am willing to part with them at prices barely above cost when they are purchased in large quantities for mission trips or VBS programs. Please contact me at queenbjan (at) msn (dot) com for more information about discounted prices for special events.

This post is the third in a series of four articles on the theme of the creation. I wrote them hoping to inspire churches who do their own VBS curriculum to consider using some of these ideas in their VBS this summer.

Article 1 – Basic Science in Genesis

Article 2 – Created in God’s image

Article 3 – Making a Creation Quilt from Coloring Pages – youth activity

Article 4 – Our Awesome God – a VBS plan (this article)

A Youth Activity

Make your own Creation Quilt using these coloring pages

Most children enjoy coloring. They can color the days of creation on fabric and make quilts that can be used on their beds, as lap quilts, or as wall hangings. A youth group could work together to color a wall hanging for the church nursery or a Sunday school classroom.

To make the quilt blocks for a creation quilt you will need…

• coloring pages which can be ordered by clicking here
• white 100% cotton fabric
• freezer paper (to hold the fabric still for coloring)
• fine point permanent markers
• a tracing box (or glass table or window)
• a box of at least 64 Crayola_TM crayons
• paper towels
• an iron and an ironing board

Cut the blocks and freezer paper into squares to fit the pictures and press them together with a hot iron to make the fabric stiff for tracing and coloring. Then tape the stiffened block over the coloring page on a light box for tracing. If a light box isn’t available, a lamp under a glass table or even a sunlit window will suffice. Tracing can be tricky, but most boys love to trace and will be up to the challenge. If the children are really young, an adult may want to do the tracing in advance.

The pictures are then ready for coloring. Do not substitute another brand of crayons as not all crayons will work. If the fabric and freezer paper begin to separate as your more enthusiastic artists color them, simply place the fabric and freezer paper between paper towels and press the pieces together again.

When the pictures are completed, place them between paper towels and press with a hot iron until the color no longer appears on the paper towels. If you wish to brighten up the colors a little more simply repeat with more coloring and press them again. Note that the ironing process also sets the color so that the fabric can be laundered. It won’t be as permanent as the colors in purchased fabrics, but it should last through many washings.

Once you are satisfied with the colors and have pressed them enough to remove all of the excess wax and color, you can separate the freezer paper from the fabric and sew the pieces together to make your quilt top. If you used the link above for the coloring pages, you will find more suggestions including ideas for arranging the blocks. A seamstress or quilter should be able to help you finish the project.

This post is the third in a series of four articles on the theme of the creation. I would like to see churches who do their own VBS curriculum consider using some of these ideas in their VBS this summer.

Article 1 – Basic Science in Genesis

Article 2 – Created in God’s image

Article 3 – Making a Creation Quilt from Coloring Pages – youth activity (this article)

Article 4 – Our Awesome God – a VBS plan

 The Creation by Janice D. Green can be purchased at theHoneycomb Adventures Shop on Etsy.com.

Why should I bother teaching my children about creation? If I do, won’t I risk subjecting them to ridicule by their teachers and peers? Sadly, too many Christian parents use this rational to bypass teaching this very important lesson to their children. But what else is as stake when we pass over the first passage in the Bible?

First, we reduce the credibility of the Scriptures in your children’s eyes. When the very first passages are discarded, we set the stage to discard anything and everything else that follows. We set ourselves up as our own authority on the very nature of God and of his Word. We have allowed our own will to reign supreme over what is holy.

Second, we miss the opportunity to teach our children that they are created in God’s image – that their lives matter and they have purpose. One would have to be an ostrich to not see what is happening in our society today as children and youth are taught that they are simply animals that came about by chance, one step higher than monkeys in the scheme of things. The only things we can hope for, according to the current world view, is what we can maneuver out of our own resources; so think for yourself and climb up on the backs of those around you with little concern for others’ welfare. Everyone is out for him/herself. If you need guidance, look within yourself, or pick and choose over all the free “spirits” out there. The Holy Spirit might be out there, but it is one of many in equal value. The God of the Bible is one of many gods that are all placed on a shelf and considered to be equal (or perhaps our God is the only truly inferior one since we believe he is superior to the others – terribly intolerant of us.)

Christians of all ages need solid grounding in God’s Word. We need the confidence that comes from knowing we are created in the image of God. A Christian’s faith at any age depends on knowing that God knows them inside out and loves them because he made them. We develop trust in God when we recognize that because God knows us so well, he also knows how to make us truly happy, even when the little things that come our way aren’t what we in our human minds thought we wanted. We can trust our future to his plan that will always be more glorious than what we might dream up on our own.

This post is the second in a series of four articles on the theme of the creation. I would like to see churches who do their own VBS curriculum consider using some of these ideas in their VBS this summer.

Article 1 – Basic Science in Genesis

Article 2 – Created in God’s image (this article)

Article 3 – Making a Creation Quilt from Coloring Pages – youth activity

Article 4 – Our Awesome God – a VBS plan

 The Creation by Janice D. Green can be purchased at theHoneycomb Adventures Shop on Etsy.com.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

Moms, Dads, teachers… think quick… What was the first thing God created?

If you said light or the sun, you might want to return to Genesis 1 and start reading again. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The text goes on to describe it as formless and void, but he had already created waters to hover over before he created light.

So maybe I got you on that one, but what difference does it make? Politically correct scientists are going to laugh at Christians who defend the Genesis account of creation anyway. Who cares what came first or second?

If Christians hope to defend their faith against the scoffers in today’s world – and that includes the children in elementary school as well as teens and adults – then we will do well to look at the Biblical account in the light of some simple basic science. Then we might not feel so intimidated when we are questioned by the mockers.

For the Christian thinker, there is a scientific thread that runs right through the Genesis account of creation. Close scrutiny flies in the face of anyone who wants to claim the account was dreamed up by cave men telling tales around the campfire. Consider the sequence… Before making light, God was engaged with water and formless void.

Day 1: Light, separate it from darkness

Day 2: Separate waters, sky

Day 3: Land and plants

Day 4: Sun, moon, stars, seasons

Day 5: Aquatic life and birds

Day 6: Land animals and people

Day 7: God rested

Now let’s analyze the sequence a bit. The first thing God created was the raw materials, the mass, the water that would become the earth and the universe. Second God created light waves and separated the light from the darkness. This was needed before he could declare day and night. Then he separated the waters and created the sky – the air that both plants and animals would need to survive.

Following that God created the land on which the plants could grow. Plants had to come before the animals, as they are the source of energy for all of the food chain. Plants can turn sunlight, water, and minerals from the soil into energy. Animals cannot do this.

Then God created aquatic life – the simpler forms of life – and birds before creating the more sophisticated land animal and people. Ancient people did not have the benefit of modern science to create this sequence which was recorded in the earliest writings known to man.

The Bible does not specifically define a day as twenty-four hours, nor does it deny it. We need to recall that it wasn’t until the 4^th day that the sun, moon, and stars were created by which we could measure a day. So up until that point, at least, a day was however long God chose to make it. Consider the verse in 2 Peter 3:8, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (NIV) The same concept is also found in Psalm 90:4. It seems that Christians take on unnecessary battles by insisting on 24-hour days. At the same time, we must let God be God, and recall that nothing is too hard for God.

This post is the first in a series of four articles on the theme of the creation. I would like to see churches who do their own VBS curriculum consider using some of these ideas in their VBS this summer.

Article 1 – Basic Science in Genesis 1 (this article)

Article 2 – Created in God’s image

Article 3 – Making a Creation Quilt from Coloring Pages – youth activity

Article 4 – Our Awesome God – a VBS plan

 The Creation by Janice D. Green can be purchased at the Honeycomb Adventures Shop on Etsy.com.

Let There Be Light 
Author: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Board Book: 280pages
Language: English
ISBN 13: 978-0-310-73396-6
List price: $7.99

Reviewed By: Janice D. Green

Rating:     

This book is just precious! It tells the days of creation in ultra simple language that even the youngest children will be able to follow and identify with. The author ties God’s creation in beautifully with his love. The first page starts out with “In the very beginning, God’s love bubbled over when there was nothing else – no trees, no birds, no animals, no sky, no sea – only darkness. Out of this love, God spoke. ‘Let there be light.'”

Nancy Tillman’s lively illustrations in Let there be Light appear to be collages of photographs and paintings. Each page will grab the child’s attention with familiar animals and examples from nature and are creatively arranged. Some are quite subtle, as I noticed that the grass in one illustration seemed to morph into a page of music when I looked very closely.

The copy I am reviewing is a board book, 6.5 X 6.5 inches, just the right size for small children to hold, enjoy, and turn the pages over and over. Let There Be Light is also available as a hardcover book.

What do I like best about this book? It bubbles over with joy. Children will love it.

What do I like least? Nothing. The Bible purist in me wants to comment that some of the examples go beyond what the Bible says, but the child-loving realist in me steps up to say – this is for young children. They need to hear it in words and examples that they can relate to.

I give this book five stars out of five.

It can be purchased at any of these links:

Let There Be Light on Amazon.com

at Barnes and Nobles

at Zondervan.com

at ChristianBook.com

Book trailer for Let There Be Light

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLookBloggers.com book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Every year we get bombarded with Seasons Greeting messages starting on November 1 if not earlier. The rush to shop for Christmas presents is upon us, with its expectations to shop for more people than our budget can handle, and to attend many Christmas parties that we struggle to fit into our tight schedules. Do you establish priorities before the season is in full swing, or simply struggle to stay on top as people make demands on your energy, finances, and time?

I don’t claim to be qualified to spell out answers to all of these issues. Rather I urge parents and grandparents to prayerfully establish priorities and set boundaries that will protect what is most precious to you and your family. This will in turn strengthen your family relationships as well as preserve Christ Jesus’ place of importance, not only at Christmastime but in all of life. But this won’t just happen unless you are intentional about making it so.

My book, The First Christmas is a picture book written with family sharing in mind. It re-tells the account of the birth of Christ Jesus including the events leading up to and following it so that the reader/listeners will have a solid grasp of our Christian heritage in Jesus’ birth. The First Christmas is more complete than most Bible storybooks, yet it is written in easy to understand language for young children.

How can I use The First Christmas with my family?

The First Christmas includes thirteen illustrations with mini-stories and discussion questions. A family could use these for thirteen days of family devotions. Plan ahead to decide which day to start the Christmas devotions. It seems most appropriate to me to plan for day 9 to fall on Christmas Eve to maximize the birth of Jesus and introducing the shepherds on Christmas Day.

The First Christmas is more suited for children above age 4 or 5. If your children are younger I encourage you to modify or skip the first two sections in the book and begin with Gabriel visiting Mary. Try showing the pictures and only lightly cover those pages in your own words keeping them very simple and then go on to Day 3. The content on Day 4 might also be over the heads of the youngest children – touch on it lightly then save it for another year. Days 5 & 6 might also be combined for younger children. The First Christmas includes a lot of information and will hold the attention of older children very well.

There are coloring pages available (click here) so children can color the pictures in the book on paper or on fabric to make a quilt. Other activities that can help your family focus on Jesus might include setting up a nativity set piece by piece to correspond with the pages you read for that day. Or you might purchase or make your own felt nativity set for a flannel board. Click here to find a free pattern for a felt nativity set.

Below is a breakdown of the mini-stories in The First Christmas. I spent a little time collecting Bible passages, hymns, and YouTube videos for this blog post to supplement the 13 days of devotions. You will want to pick and choose from them based on your children’s ages and interests.

Day 1 Background information – waiting for the promised Messiah. A brief description of the Jewish nation under Roman rule, and longing for the Messiah to come and rescue them.

• Hymn: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
• Music Video: How Should a King Come? with lyrics or How Should a King Come? Bible scenes from movie You could sing this song every day, but stop before the verse with Mary and Joseph until you reach the day for that part of the story. In the same way, stop before the shepherds, and before the wise men. Let it build day by day.

Day 2 Gabriel visits Zachariah in the temple.

• Bible reading: Luke 1:5-23
• Canticle of Zechariah – This is a chant from Luke 1:68-79 that Zechariah sang following the birth of John.
• More about Zachariah: Luke 1:57-80
• There’s a Voice in the Wilderness Crying

Day 3 Gabriel visits Mary to tell her she would become the mother of Jesus

• Bible reading: Luke 1:26-38
• Mary’s Song – sung by Lynn Cooper

Day 4 Mary visits Elizabeth

• Bible reading: Luke 1:39-56
• Mary and Elizabeth Rejoice Together – video drama

Day 5 Joseph learn’s Mary is pregnant (Days 5 & 6 might be combined for younger children)

• Bible reading: Matthew 1:18-19

Day 6 An angel appears to Joseph

• Bible reading: Matthew 1:20-25
• Joseph’s Dream – video reenactment

Day 7 Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem

• Bible reading: Luke 2:1-5
• Mary and Joseph Travel to Bethlehem – Video reenactment
• Breath of Heaven – sung by Amy Grant This video could be played only until you reach the part that you are focusing on for each day. Note that the visual part includes Mary giving birth to Jesus – something to consider before deciding whether to show it to very young children.

Day 8 No room in the Inn

• Bible reading: Luke 2:7 (I have realized after writing The First Christmas that the role of the Innkeeper has been exaggerated in many Bible storybooks including my own. The innkeeper isn’t actually mentioned in the Bible, only assumed from the verse that there was no room at the inn. The innkeeper may or may not have offered the stable - Joseph may have simply found it and the family took shelter there.)
• Hymn: O Little Town of Bethlehem with lyrics – sung by Megan Smith
• Sweet Little Jesus Boy – sung by Marquis Jarrell Ruff

Day 9 The birth of Jesus

• Bible reading: Luke 2:6-7
• O Holy Night – sung by Martina McBride with lyrics
• Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Joy to the World

Day 10 Angels appear to the shepherds

• Bible reading: Luke 2:8-14
• It Was on a Starry Night with lyrics
• Angels We Have Heard on High, Hark the Herald Angels Sing,

Day 11 Shepherds go to see baby Jesus

• Bible reading: Luke 2:15-20
• When Love was Born – sung by Mark Schultz
• Go Tell it on the Mountain

Day 12 Wise men see star and follow it hoping to find Jesus

• Bible reading: Matthew 2:1-8
• The Wise Men Seek Jesus – video reenactment – includes finding Jesus and worshiping him, also Mary, Joseph, & Jesus fleeing to Egypt
• We Three Kings (Note: The Bible doesn’t say how many wise men – or kings – came. There were three gifts – perhaps the reason tradition says there were three wise men.)

Day 13 Wise men find Jesus and worship him

• Bible reading: Matthew 2:9-12
  
• What Child is This? – sung by Martina McBride with lyrics
• Go Tell it on the Mountain

Older children might want to learn about the following events which were not included in the book, The First Christmas.

• Circumcision & purification of baby Jesus. Luke 2:21-24
• Simeon prophesies over baby Jesus. Luke 2:25-35
• Anna prophesies over Jesus. Luke 36-40
• Herod’s scheme to kill Jesus, kills all baby boys under age 2 in Bethlehem. Matthew 2:7-8 and 12-18. I omitted these verses because young children might become overly upset by them. Consider the ages of your children before sharing these verses.

The First Christmas has been receiving great reviews on several blogs the past few weeks. Here are links to a few of them:

The Proverbs 31 Mama blog

Tot Play blog

Classic Children’s Books blog

A review by a teen

Another review by a teen homeschooler

Goodreads reviews of The First Christmas

Amazon reviews

Smashwords ebook review

God’s Greatest Gift
Author: Deborah Burch
Picture Book: unpaged
Language: English
ISBN 13: 978-0-9796477-7-2
Publisher: God’s Greatest Gift, LLC
List price: $17.95

Reviewed By: Janice D. Green

Rating:  

I am struggling to write a review for this book. It is lively, engaging, well written and tough enough to endure rough treatment at the hands of young children. Little ones will love this book as at the end they become the star. It will surely become a favorite to many. And it has received a bronze medal through the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

But I have a problem with the underlying theology of the book. According to this author, God’s greatest gift is the child reading the book. I cannot accept this and don’t feel it is good for children to be led to believe they are the center of the universe. God’s greatest gift is his Son, Jesus the Christ.

I value the need for good self-esteem, but this book carries it over the top. Children need honest feedback if they are to have healthy self-concepts, yet our children today are being fed such an inflated diet of high self-esteem that they have lost touch with reality and along with it their sense of responsibility.

Furthermore, from a spiritual perspective, if you tell children they are the center of the universe, how can you expect them to embrace the One who truly is the center of the universe.

Children are among God’s greatest gifts, but not THE greatest gift. There are those who will insist that using the superlative form of great needn’t be taken all this seriously. But somehow that doesn’t seem very professional for a writer either, nor does it value the need for helping a child to understand our language.

I normally opt out of reviewing books that I can’t give a positive review. However, in this situation I agreed to review it and am required to follow through with a review. I accepted the book with the understanding that it was a Christian book, published by a member of the Christian Small Publishers Association, so I must review it accordingly.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookCrash.com book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Great Gandma’s Gifts
Author: Marianne Jones
Picture Book: unpaged
Language: English
ISBN 13: 978-0-9812516-9-1
List price: $10 paperback

Reviewed By: Janice D. Green

Rating:    

Great-Grandma’s Gifts is a children’s book after my heart. My earliest memories of my mother are of her sewing clothes, and like Arlene’s mother, she gave me scraps to play with. So I quickly related to Arlene who learned to love to sew at a very early age. This gentle book begins with Arlene’s childhood and shows how she grew up using her love for sewing to give joy to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with gifts of stuffed toys, dolls, and quilts.

Author Marianne Jones describes the fabrics with word choices and repetition that children will love. The pictures have a soft nostalgic feel that will appeal to the very young, and especially to girls. The opening two-page spread seems a bit wordy for young children, and boys may not take to the story line as quickly as girls. But many will come to treasure Arlene’s spirit of giving home-sewn gifts to her family.

I give Great Gandma’s Gifts four  s out of a possible five.

Purchase on Amazon.com.

Marianne Jones on Facebook

I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Psalms and Prayers for Little Ones
Author: Allia Zobel Nolan
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Picture Book: 32 pages
Language: English
ISBN 13: 978-0-7369-5725-0
List price: $12.99 hardcover

Reviewed By: Janice D. Green

Rating:     

I am thrilled to discover this book of Psalms paraphrased to help young children grasp the meanings of these well-chosen Psalms. Allia demonstrates both her love and understanding of children and what touches their hearts, and her love of the Psalms in God’s Word, as she gets to the heart of each and re-writes them for children’s ears, eyes, and hearts.

Read her paraphrase of Psalm 133:

Togetherness
Isn’t it nice
when brothers and sisters and friends
(even boys and girls who’ve just met)
play peacefully, giggle, and get along?
When children of God
(that’s you and me) share and help each other,
when we are like one, big family,
it’s as sweet as the perfume used to anoint a holy man
or as satisfying as the dew that waters the plants on a holy mountain.
Togetherness is a blessing.

Compare her paraphrase to the text of this passage in the Bible by clicking here. Allia Zobel Nolan’s book would be valuable to parents for family devotions, as well as to Sunday school teachers and church leaders. The passages include Psalm 8; Psalm 23:1-4; Psalm 139:1-16; Psalm 150; and many more. Each passage is followed by a brief prayer that also connects to the passage.

Following the pages that contain the Psalms is a section called “Digging Deeper” with questions about the content in the Psalms, and the answers to the questions. There is also a brief dictionary of key words used in the Psalm paraphrases to increase the child’s understanding.

As a child becomes a better reader and is ready to read directly from the Bible, it would be good to compare these paraphrases with the same passages in her grown-up Bible so she can see the connections as she transitions to reading from the full Bible.

I give this book five  s out of a possible five.

Purchase on Amazon.com.
Allia Zobel Nolan’s website

I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation
Author: Jay Schabacker
Picture Book: 94 pages
Language: English
ISBN 13: 978-0-9896190-0-4
List price: $24.95

Reviewed By: Janice D. Green

Rating:     

Jay Schabacker has collected and shared a wealth of fascinating facts and beautiful photographs that support the concept of purposeful and intelligent design – which also complement the Genesis account of creation. The material is arranged according to the days of creation.

Purposeful Design would be highly appropriate as a coffee table book. It would be a great discussion starter with friends and neighbors. Although the language might be over the heads of younger children, the pictures will capture their attention and parents who have already read the material can discuss the pictures with their children bringing it down to their level and helping them to see God’s hand at work in the world around them. I could also see this book as a useful supplement to a Sunday school teacher or Bible study leader who is teaching about creation.

What do I like most about this book? The great wealth of information and the beautiful pictures.

What do I like least about this book? There is only one place where I feel the book may depart from the Scriptures. Many Bible scholars insist that it did not rain before the flood of Noah’s time. This author treats the concept of separating the waters as if it were a matter of creating clouds to rain on the earth. I have no hard and fast opinion on this either way, I simply state the way it has been presented in the book. There are so many other wonderful pages that offset this minor issue.

I give this book a rating of 5 out of 5. Purposeful Design can be ordered on Amazon.com or on the author’s website.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookCrash.com book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Are you looking at the sky this morning during the wee hours? It is 2:20 a.m. in SC and my husband and I are hoping to see the moon turn to blood.

I don’t have much to say yet, but I’m going to go ahead and put this post up hoping I might catch someone in time to remind them to look. I hope my camera will let me catch a half way decent picture of it as well.

The earth will pass a shadow on the moon, but it won’t make it turn black. Instead, it should turn it to a reddish color as the sunlight bends through the earth’s atmosphere before lighting the moon.

Happy watching if you are still up. I will update this post (I hope) if I can get some good pictures.

In the hope of becoming more focused on my writing, I am putting a hold on my self-publishing. This will allow me to let go of some of the many hats I’ve had to wear, and let me concentrate on writing more and better manuscripts which I intend to submit to traditional publishers. I anticipate having to wade through rejection slips and letters, but hope in the long run it will pay off with more and better books.

I went to a writing workshop at the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, Pennsylvania two weeks ago, and it increased my determination to go this route. In addition, it has given me many “tools” to help me along so that I might become a more professional writer.

I will probably blog less on Honeycomb Adventures, though something may inspire me to write more from time to time. The original purpose of this blog was to build platform and to market my books. It may again serve that purpose, but I’m hopeful it will be for traditionally published books.

March 2-8 is “Read an e-Book Week,” and the month of March is “National Reading Month” as well as “Small Press Month.” So I thought I would spread the joy by offering my ebooks for free this week.

I’m a little late getting the announcement made because I had problem upon problem getting my book, The Creation, to upload correctly. The online site I used continually rejected the pictures I was uploading. I tried one thing after another to resolve the problems while the days passed. Sixteen uploads later, I finally got the book file in place with pictures. I had to forget about using the picture files in my computer, and scan them from a copy of my book to get files they could use.

So please CELEBRATE with me… I now have eBooks!

Before I knew this was “Read an e-Book Week” I had announced that the books would be free for a week, but the week ended last Wednesday. At that time I decided to keep them free until Sunday. But because the book, The Creation wasn’t truly ready until today, it will continue to be free for another week.

Feel free to let your friends know about this freebie – especially young moms and grandparents of young children. I really want children to get excited about learning about the Bible. Click on the books or click here to go to the page where they can be downloaded.

You might notice the split on my reviews for The Creation. The 5-star review came from someone who believes in the Genesis account of creation while the 1-star review came from an evolutionist eager to throw insults. I feel both reviews are blessings from God.

The Little Dirt People: What it Means to be Born Again 
Author: Tempe Brown
Paperback: 47 pages
Publisher: Bush Publishing (2012)
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4507-3904-7
Price: $14.95
Ages: 4-99 (this reviewer’s opinion)
Reviewed By: Janice D. Green

Rating:     

The Little Dirt People: What it Means to be Born Again by Tempe Brown amazes me with its child-like simplicity while it presents such sound Biblical concepts.

I was charmed from the first page with Tempe Brown’s way of explaining fellowship as dogs hanging out with dogs, cats hanging out with cats, and people hanging out with people. Key words like fellowship and Spirit are woven throughout the story. God reached down to his dirt people Adam and Eve by breathing his Spirit into them so he, a Spirit, could fellowship with them. But when Adam and Eve sinned, that Spirit died in them and God could no longer fellowship with them.

Because God missed fellowship with sinful people he sent his very own Son to rescue us, to be the Savior of the world, and to make it possible for us to have his Spirit and his fellowship once again.

The pictures and the story capture the message as well as the imagination of a child of any age from 4 to 99. There is a prayer near the back of the book to help a child pray for salvation.

The Biblical concepts are numbered throughout the book keying them to the Endnotes page with the Scripture passages that support them.

What do I like best about this book? It is so thorough yet so child-like simple. It brings to my mind the verse in which Jesus tells the people that unless they change and become like little children they will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 18:3) I believe this book would be helpful to teens and adults as well as children for explaining the message of salvation.

What do I dislike about this book? There is nothing to dislike.

The Little Dirt People: What it Means to be Born Again can be purchased atAmazon.com or through Tempe Brown’s web page www.tempebrown.com.

I purchased a copy of this book from the author following her presentation at a luncheon I attended. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Reviewed by Janice D. Green, author of The Creation and The First Christmas

In one of my recent posts I wrote about sharing with our children that Jesus wants us to be salt and light to the world around us.

Let us linger a little longer on this passage as we ask ourselves, Do people (especially our children) see Christ in me, or do they simply see a woman striving and stressing out “to do things for Jesus.” Do they see Jesus’ love flowing out of me?

I can be a bit klutzy in what I do, but if I had it all together like many people I know who always appear calm and collected as they busied themselves at one church function and another – if I could be one of them, would it be Christ they would see or would it be a “fine example of a Christian.”

Read the passage from the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5:14-16. We are charged to be as a light to the world by doing good deeds. And the bottom line, the reason we are to shine, is so people will praise God – not so they will praise us. 

What is the Spirit that motivates us? Is our passion to give glory to God and lead others to him? Or, is it to be successful doing things at church so we will receive praise? Matthew 6:1 tells us that if we do our good deeds to receive praise from people we have already received our reward.

Father God, help me to shine for you, not for myself. Help me to know the difference, to recognize those false motives when they raise their ugly heads, and to re-think what I am doing. Lead me, and help me to follow in the way that pleases you.

How many ways can you make a valentine? We probably all know how to fold a piece of red or pink paper in half and cut out half a heart, then unfold it to get your valentine. But can you think of other ways to give valentines to your children? Here is a passel of ideas for making valentine fun. Don’t overlook the links for more information and ideas.

• Origami heart – click this link for the directions to fold a heart from one square sheet of paper.
• Valentine pancakes – the link will take to to a variety of ideas for making them thanks to Pinterest.
• Valentine sandwiches – Use your imagination to make whatever sandwich you like, then cut it out with cookie cutter. Or cut the bread first, use sandwich spread on the hearts, and save the crusts for bread crumbs.
• Valentine cake – easy with 8″ square pan and 8″ round pan. Cut the round cake in half and place on two adjacent sides of the square cake. Level, frost, and decorate your cake.
• Valentine cupcakes – place one marble outside the paper liner for each cupcake. The marble indents one side so the baked cupcake looks like a heart.
• Bible valentines – The Bible is full of verses about love. How many can you share without looking them up? Valentine’s Day is a perfect time to choose a few to share with your children. Click on the link for a special way to make learning them fun.
• Valentine cookies or candy, and other Valentine’s Day ideas from the Web:
  • http://www.kiddiefoodies.com/collections/valentines-day-ideas-15-i-heart-recipes-for-kids#_a5y_p=1259074
  • http://www.sassydealz.com/2014/01/valentines-day-heart-shaped-animal.html

Salty potato chips, salty popcorn, and salty pretzels… Apart from the salt, what do they all have in common?

Did you think of getting thirsty when you eat them? Enjoy eating a large bag of one of these salty foods, then ask your children if they are thirsty. Read Matthew 5:13-16 with them.

God wants us, as Christians, to be salty so that others will thirst for God as they see our behavior. Sometimes salt is used for healing. Have you or your children ever soaked an injured foot in epsom salt water?

Share with your children, too, about how salt is often used for preservation of foods to keep them from spoiling. If you live in an area that knows what fat-back is, or beef jerky, or country ham, you might use one or all of them as examples of how salt is used to preserve foods. Pickles are another example of a food that uses salt to preserve them.

To demonstrate the second part of the Bible passage, shine a very bright flashlight into a dark room or closet. Does the light help them to see what is in the room? Now cover the light bulb end of the flashlight with a bowl shaped container or a pillow. Ask the children if the light helps them to see in the dark room now?

Much like with the salt, the light that shines out of our lives when we please God causes other people to want to praise God too. When we do good deeds we encourage people to praise God.

Read the Bible verses Matthew 5:13-16 with your children. Then pray with them asking God to help each of you to be as salt and light to the people around you.

Are our children (grandchildren) getting it when it comes to salvation, love for Christ Jesus, and love for his Word? Who is teaching them?

Are we team-teachers? Do we spend time with our children/grandchildren talking about their faith, or do we leave all of that up to their Sunday school teacher or youth leader?

Timothy’s mother’s name was Lois and his grandmother was Eunice. Their names are found in 2 Timothy 1:5, and they serve as eternal examples for us to follow.

Do our children have a solid foundation for their faith? If we don’t become involved in their instruction if we won’t know what they are learning. Sometimes Sunday school classes turn into entertainment sessions and babysitting services. It can be risky to count on that alone to teach our children.

A child’s Christian faith is caught as much as taught. If our children/grandchildren see us actively reading the Bible and searching the Scriptures for guidance, they are likely to do the same when they face challenges. If they hear us share our faith with a neighbor or friend, they will become empowered to share their own faith as well.

Establishing a regular time for family devotions is a great way to be truly intentional about getting involved in our children’s spiritual growth. There are several family devotions books available on the market today for children of varying ages. I have reviewed a few on this blog – they can be found by clicking on the subject heading Library – Books and Videos. This list is by no means exhaustive as there are many I haven’t reviewed. I encourage families with children at home to make family devotions a regular practice.

Photo credit: © Diomedes66 | Stock Free Images &Dreamstime Stock Photos

At the time I set up the Honeycomb Adventures Press blog, I combined several blogs into one and created subject headings for them. His Whisperings is one of the blogs that I combined into this blog.

I love to write about the Bible, but when I moved it into Honeycomb Adventures, I felt my posts had to always tie in with writing for children. That seems confining to me, so new posts of this type had almost disappeared.

So I have re-established His Whisperings as a blog in its own right and will blog on whatever topics as the Spirit leads me. In a way it will still be a part of this blog, as I have also created a “page” with a link at the top of this blog that you can click on to view the blog without leaving Honeycomb Adventures Press.

I expect future posts on Honeycomb Adventures to be more about family activities and sharing the Bible with children.

I recently started a new blog called Bible Bites 4 Teens. My heart has been burdened for the teens in my small town for some time. Our churches are small and their teen youth programs, with only a couple of great exceptions, are generally small and limited to non-existent. I would love to start up a multi-denominational youth group to benefit all of the churches, but the odds seem against me considering my age. I’m still praying about that.

But meanwhile, I’ve discovered that there is something I can do. I can blog for teens about the Bible. I am aware that teens aren’t out there looking for lots of reading material, so I’m keeping my posts short, focusing on only one or two verses from the Bible in each post, and tying it into the situations they face every day.

I may run Bible stories as well – if I do, they will probably run a little longer or be broken into smaller bites and made into a series for each story. Again, I will tie them into their life situations. I believe in telling the stories in a matter-of-fact kind of way trusting that teens really would like to know what the Bible says, though they might appreciate a few explanations here and there for understanding. I’m not into sugar-coating it as if it were intolerable without jazzing it up. Appropriately selected and placed questions should help youth to apply the stories to their lives – which is the reason for teaching them in the first place.

Some of the posts were written before this blog started. They are teen-oriented and came from my other blogs. For this reason they may not fit exactly into this plan, but they give the blog a little more content to start up with.

I covet your comments and suggestions on how to improve my blog. Please check it out at www.biblebites4teens. And if you like the blog, I would appreciate it if you would let the teens in your world know about it.

Wise Men Find Jesus  

The wise men rejoiced to see the star
And followed it again
Right to the place where Jesus stayed,
A house in Bethlehem.
They bowed down and worshiped him
And opened treasure chests
Of gold and frankincense and myrrh -
The first Christmas gifts.

Read this account for yourself in Matthew 2:9-12

When the wise men left Jerusalem to go to Bethlehem they were overjoyed to see the star reappear. This time the star led them to the very house where they found Mary and Jesus who was now a toddler. We are able to estimate Jesus’ age based on King Herod’s actions in Matthew 2:16-18.

The wise men bowed down and worshiped Christ Jesus and gave him expensive gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

In my Bible storybook, The First Christmas, I omitted the following parts of the story. I left them out because young children have such tender hearts. I don’t want to burden them with King Herod’s deeds until they are old enough to grasp the intensity of evil in our world as well as Jesus’ sacrifice of his own life to pay for our sins. Parents should share this information with them when they are able to handle it.

God warned the wise men in a dream not to return to King Herod, so they returned home by a different route. Meanwhile an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to take Mary and Jesus immediately out of Bethlehem and to escape to Egypt until King Herod was dead.

When King Herod realized that the wise men weren’t coming back to him, he ordered the death of all boys in the Bethlehem area who were under two years of age. King Herod acted out of fear that the new king would be a threat to his throne, but behind the scenes is Satan’s attempt to put an end to God’s eternal plan to conquer sin and death through Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. May we be reminded that when things seem all out of control, that God is always in control and able to see the bigger picture.

This devotional message corresponds to the thirteenth mini-story in The First Christmas by Janice D. Green. The First Christmas is available here.

Do you have children at home, or teach a children’s Sunday school class, or lead a Christian youth group? If so, how do you balance the Bible teaching and the entertainment factor in your lesson or family devotions?

What is the most important part of a Bible lesson? What gets the greatest proportion of time – the lesson or play-time? Do the games and activities re-enforce the lesson or merely keep the children happy until the bell rings? Do the children go home feeling like the lesson was valuable, or do they think of it as medicine they had to wash down with a spoon full of sugar (fun and games)?

Or, perhaps more telling… do you see the Bible lesson as medicine that must be washed down with fun and games? Do you feel a passion for teaching the Bible?

My heart breaks over churches that place entertainment and keeping everybody happy over their responsibility to teach children to embrace God’s Word. Do we dress up Bible stories so much to make them entertaining – even funny – for the sake of winning the favor of our children, while unwittingly giving them the impression that the Bible isn’t really true – just another collection of fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White, or tall tales like Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed.

You may not find my opinions expressed in children’s curriculum that is produced by any of the major publishing companies, as they are forced to produce what sells. Thanks to TV based babysitting, and more and more media available for educational purposes, children have been trained to have short attention spans and to have higher expectations of being entertained – as if they are entitled to learn through entertainment without having to make any effort of their own to attain it.

Yet it has been my experience that children are willing to listen to basic Bible stories when they are presented as real-life situations that really happened. It helps to try to think through a Bible story and tell it in a way the child might re-tell it once they knew the story. There is value in using their language and expressions, but it isn’t necessary to fabricate silly details just to make them laugh. Stick to the original story and teach it as real life history. This may be a hard sell for publishers, but it isn’t for children who want to know the truth.

The fun and games are an important part of the lesson, but they need to re-enforce the lesson. Children love to act out stories. There are ways to make learning Bible verses fun. Crafts can fit the stories. You can always find coloring pages available for Bible stories.

When you teach the Bible this down-to-earth way you tell children that you find the Bible to be interesting, and they are more likely to catch your love for it as well. But when we overly embellish the stories, we may unwittingly be telling our children that the Bible is really boring – that it is up to you and me to dress it up and make it palatable.

Find Janice D. Green’s Bible storybooks at Honeycomb Adventures Press, LLC

Everyone loves a bargain, especially today. Who hasn’t felt the pinch of the economy in the past ten years? We study newspaper ads for the best prices, and shop online on eBay and Craigs List.

As I draw nearer to the end of this decade in my life I’ve noticed more and more creases and sags in my face. Though I’ve never been inclined to take seriously any drastic measures as a surgical face lift, I have discovered a simple way to get a face lift for free. It doesn’t hurt, requires no trips to a clinic or cosmetic store, and requires no great investment in time.

The secret? To learn this best kept fantastic secret, click here.

Ha ha! I bet you thought there was some gimmick or trick. If you are at that point in your life where you are noticing a few of those wrinkles, get in front of a mirror and check it out with a big smile. I’ve learned that if I smile with my eyes – the best kind of smile at all – even the bags under them tend to disappear. Who would have guessed it?

OK. So what if you aren’t getting saggy yet? Maybe you are a young mother with sweet tender cheeks and no lines? That smile is still the best bargain available. After all, a simple smile can…

• tell your son you are proud of him.
• cheer a stranger who’s having a bad day.
• lift the spirits of a friend across the room.
• assure your daughter that she is loved even if she did mess up on …
• encourage a nervous speaker at a meeting.
• remind your spouse of your love.
• share an unspoken joke with a knowing look.
• lift your own spirits from the inside out.

I am reminded of a song from out of the past. Click here and enjoy Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella.

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. (Proverbs 17:22 KJV)
How many hearts can you make merry with a smile today?

Watermelon – sketched in colored pencil by Janice Green in art class last week. This sketch provided the inspiration for this article.

Summertime is the right time for sweet, juicy, yummy watermelon. It tastes so good, and it brings back memories of summers past to young and old alike.

Watermelon is one of the healthiest snacks you can give your child in the summertime. Low in calories and high in moisture content, it’s a rare child who would turn down an offer for a slice of melon.

Watermelons offer an opportunity to discuss pollination with your child. Encourage your child to watch you cut the melon open. Before tasting the melon, discus whether this particular melon will be juicy and sweet, or whether it will be one of the less tasty melons we sometimes bring home from the grocery store.

Are you aware that there are clues to tell you if a watermelon will be sweet, once you have cut it open? The secret is in the seeds. If the seeds are mostly black, the melon will be sweet while if there are more white seeds than black seeds, the melon will not taste sweet at all. The black seeds are the pollinated seeds, while the white seeds are not pollinated. Of course, some varieties of watermelon are seedless so you have to taste the melon to know how ripe it will be.

Discuss the importance of pollination with your child. Help him/her to understand that without the pollinators visiting the blossoms, the fruit would never develop or ripen. One third of the foods we eat require bee pollination to produce fruit.

For the scientific minded nature lovers who enjoy documentation and record keeping, you could keep records on the quality of the watermelons you eat. Collect the seeds and separate them into two groups, brown seeds and white seeds. Then chart the ratio of pollinated seeds along with with a sweetness score you assign to each melon. By the end of the summer you can observe for yourselves the importance of pollination for getting great tasting melons.

In addition to the fact that watermelons taste good and they can teach us about pollination, they also provide other simple recreational benefits as well. How many of you can remember seed spitting contests while eating watermelons? The challenge is to see who can spit the seeds the farthest. This is obviously a sport for outdoors, another benefit of eating watermelon – the motivation to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. And with all that watermelon seed spitting, who knows, you might get a pleasant surprise next summer with a volunteer watermelon plant growing in your yard.