Jesus told us that “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” That being said, I’m anxious to really learn what that might look like. Here’s my plan: I want to tell my children the teachings and parables of Jesus, unfettered by my explanations, and see how little children seek to live out those teachings. The problem is, I’ve looked around, and I can’t find any children’s books that teach the challenging parables of Jesus.
I’ve looked and haven’t seen any “Love Your Enemies” passages in a single children’s book around. So, there are a couple of things I’m interested in doing:
- I’m interested if anyone with children (3-6 or so) have ever read some of the parables of Jesus to their kids. And if so, what was their children’s reactions?
- I’m wondering if anyone knows of children’s books with those types of stories that exist anywhere?
- And this is the big one: I’d like to find a publisher, or self publish, a series of children’s books or just one book with those teachings in it.
Here’s some of the parables that I think we should be teaching our children and allowing them to respond:
- The Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus
- The Rich Fool
- Parable of the Pearl
- Parable of the Friend at Night
What other Parables can you think of that we tend not to read to our children, but should?
Great question! I hope someone jumps in with some good resources.
The closest we’ve come is the Godly Play curriculum that our small church uses; it presents stories to kids without the canned “right” answers, but lets them think about it and react.
I have not read these books myself, but I know my sister got some for my niece. The author’s name is Ella Lindvall and she has tons of books as a series of “Read Aloud Bible Stories.” Here is a link to one specifically with parables, but I don’t know which parables:
http://www.amazon.com/Parables-Jesus-Told-Tell-Me-Stories/dp/0802471161/ref=pd_sim_b_img_1
I also remember a book series that I had as a kid. It told you a Bible story basically as it was written in the Bible (but in kid-friendly language), and then had a story with the fictional characters, Maxi and Mini Muffin, which gave a real-life application of the truth Jesus was teaching in the story. These books are by V. Gilbert Beers, and although when I looked just now, they seem to be out of print, I think you could find them on Amazon and such. Here is a link to one, and then from that one you can find more of the same under “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought….”
http://www.amazon.com/Tagalong-Gilbert-Muffin-Family-Picture/dp/0802490212/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202127624&sr=8-1
I have been thinking about this concept of figuring out how to teach Biblical truths before there is reading, because at church I saw this thing about how a mission team ministers in Kathmandu where it is largely an oral tradition society with very little literacy. They actually write songs, narratives, dramas and choreograph dances in the style and culture of the people, so that it can become part of their current culture instead of waiting until they teach them to read and then handing them a pamphlet. I was thinking how in America, we have almost completely de-valued that type of learning because we take literacy as the answer to all education, but I think it leaves out a valuable un-tapped resource in teaching people to actually think about things instead of just see some words on a page. Plus it is a type of ministry that forces interaction rather than, as I said above, just handing someone a pamphlet. I wish that we could re-integrate it into our society. Literacy is wonderful and I love words, but I think we have let it limit our creativity. I wish we would extend this kind of learning beyond kids and other people who do not read.
Oh, I forgot something. These are not “Christian” books, but I think they teach valuable Christian principles for kids. One is a little known Dr. Seuss book called “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?” Find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Ever-Tell-Lucky-Classic-Seuss/dp/0394827198/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202128309&sr=1-1
It reminds kids of how lucky they are compared to others (even though it is silly things like losing your pants, of course…I mean, it’s still Dr. Seuss).
And here is one that I actually went and bought after reading it to one of my nanny-kids:
http://www.amazon.com/Could-Have-Been-Worse/dp/1584310065/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202128483&sr=1-1
It’s called “It Could Have Been Worse” and is by A.H. Benjamin. It tells a series of mis-adventures of a little mouse who gets very out of sorts because of all of the bad things that happen to him this one day. But he does not know that every time the bad thing happened, it kept him from something worse, i.e., he fell in a hole, which kept him from being eaten by a fox, etc.
OK. I think I’m done now. 🙂
Nest Entertainment has a lot of parables on dvd and activity books that go alongside. i just purchased a set so i’m not sure if they are great but they posted quite a few great reviews on the site. the set i purchased had a few of the parables you mentioned in the above post so i thought you might be interested.