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Thursday, April 21, 2011

That's When I Talk To God

One of the sweetest parts of my day is when I hear my two youngest children pray.  Bentley is five and JennaBeth is two.  Many times they argue over who is going to say the prayer before our meals!  When Bentley was JennaBeth's age, I remember him "praying" while my husband would lead our family in prayer.  He would have his little hands folded and peek at my husband all the while "mumbling" along with him.  As he has gotten older it has been a delight to see him mature in this area of talking to God.  I guess the greatest joy is observing him begin to understand that prayer is not just words you say, but a conversation with God.  Bentley amazes me with his understanding of God sometimes when he prays.

One morning as he was praying before breakfast, Bentley prayed thanking God for his Holy Spirit and allowing men to know how to build houses so we would have places to live.  JennaBeth, who once only repeated what we would say before her, now begins her prayers on her own, always with "Thank you God".  Although she still requires guidance, I am excited to watch as she grows in her understanding of God and prayer as well.

With these developments in my little one's understanding of the spiritual discipline of prayer, I was super excited to come across Dan & Ali Morrow's childrens' book That's When I Talk To God.  Audra Jennings with the B&B Media Group sent me a copy of the book for the purpose of review.

That's When I Talk To God is the second book in a series of childrens' books the Morrows are writing.  The first was That's Where God Is.  I reviewed that book as well; you can find the review HERE

That's When I Talk To God is targeted to children four to eight.  The story follows the day of a typical child and helps children become aware of all the opportunities throughout their day to talk with God.  Here's an excerpt:
"After lunch I went to my first soccer game.  KICK!  I scored the first goal!  I was so excited!  'I did it!  I'm the best soccer player in the world!' I yelled.  My coach came over to me.  'That's not a very good attitude,' he said.  'You scored because the rest of your team helped you out.  You should apologize to them.'  'I'm sorry, everybody,' I said.  That's when I can talk to God, I realized, when I need to tell Him I'm sorry.  So I whispered, 'God, I'm sorry I was bragging.  Please forgive me and help me to have a better attitude."
The illustrations are beautiful and the story is very engaging.  When I read the book to Bentley the first time, we sat on the couch and talked about how he could apply each situation to his own life.  It was a joy to see him understand that he can really talk to God any time about any thing going on in his life.

There are scripture verses included at the end to assist you in showing your child from God's word about prayer.  Included in these passages is Matthew 6:9-13, the model for praying - The Lord's Prayer. 

If you have children ages four to eight in your home or you are a grandparent, I highly recommend this book.  It provides a biblical foundation to assist you in helping the little people in your life learn about talking to God.

You can purchase That's When I Talk To God by following the Amazon.com link below:














Blessings,
Jennifer

1 comments:

Alison Strobel Morrow said...

Thanks so much for your kind review of That's When I Talk to God! I'm so glad your family enjoys it. Your approach to it--to read it and discuss it, helping your child to apply the lessons to his/her own life--is exactly what we hope parents will do. :)