First Bible Study

One thing that is important to us around here is our relationship with God.  Not only is it important... it's the most important aspect of our lives.  As Christian parents, one of our prime responsibilities to Asher is to nurture his own spiritual life.  I realize that it's not quite PC in the age of moral relativism and universal spirituality to take that approach, but it's our view nonetheless.  Asher will, of course, ultimately have to come into that relationship on his own, but we can help to lay the foundation.

I found this devotional Bible the other day and ordered it off of Amazon using some of our Coinstar gift card (did you know that a jar of spare change can add up to $130?  I didn't either!).

I really liked it because there are questions in the margin of each page to encourage active reading, which is so fundamental.  We live in the South - we know all about going to church and believing in God because... well... that's what you do.  We don't want that for Asher.  We want him to develop a genuine desire to learn about God and to grow in a relationship with Christ.  At the end of each story there's a section called Think Pray Live - the applicational part that asks kids to think about what they've read, pray about the topic/issue at hand, and practical ways to live out that principle in their lives.

Needless to say, I really fell in love with it, and I think it's a great choice for Asher's first "big boy" Bible.

Today when we were at Books-a-Million, I came across a companion book called The My First Message Bible Search: Discovering Answers in God's Word.


I almost didn't pick it up because I saw "Bible Search" and pictured a word search book with a Bible theme.  I'm glad I took a glance!  It's actually a Bible study that goes along with Asher's new Bible.  It addresses real life issues for young kids ("When I Don't Want to Go to Bed," "When I Always Want to Get My Way," etc) in a biblical context and breaks it down into little pieces.  It's a perfect resource for early Bible lessons.  Asher is still too young for it right now, but that's okay.  I'm happy to have it waiting in the wings.  To be honest, there are probably plenty of nuggets of truth that I could use for my own life!
Here's a sample of one of the studies if you're interested: