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Easy-to-lead devotions for kids 5-11, based on the passages referred to in the award-winning storybook, The Friend Who Forgives. Ideal for Lent and Easter.
Part of the Tales that Tell the Truth series.
Based on the passages referred to in the award-winning storybook, The Friend Who Forgives by Dan DeWitt, these 15 flexible, engaging family devotions explore what the cross means to us today through the story of Peter. Children will learn that Jesus is the friend who always forgives.
Ideal for Lent and Easter, these devotions can also be used whenever you want to explore during family discipleship Jesus' sacrificial love and what it means to follow him.
Each session can be done in under ten minutes and is easy to lead. The sessions include a Bible study, reflection questions and prayer prompts. There are also optional extras designed to engage older children, plus bonus puzzles and colouring activities for younger children. This resource is suitable for children from age five upward.
Introduction
1. By the Lake
2. A Huge Catch
3. From Now On
4. At Peter's House
5. A Furious Storm
6. Who Is Jesus?
7. A Dark Night
8. Soldiers!
9. Peter's Sword
10. The Rooster Crows
11. Gone
12. Fish for Breakfast
13. Feeding Sheep
14. A Strange Sound
15. Peter's Message
| Age range: | 5+ |
|---|---|
| Contributors | Katy Morgan, Catalina Echeverri |
| ISBN | 9781784988364 |
| Format | Paperback |
| First published | February 2023 |
| Dimensions | 148mm x 210mm x 6mm |
| Weight | 0.14 kg |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 80 |
| Publisher | The Good Book Company |
I’m super excited about this book because our family is a huge fan of the Tales That Tell the Truth series. The family Bible devotional is a great companion to the storybook. You can read the storybook first and then spend time digging into the story of Peter for 15 days, or you could do the devotional first and then the storybook. Or both at the same time. There’s really no wrong way to use them together.
I really appreciate that this devotional can be used with younger kids because I feel like solid Biblical devotionals for this age is really lacking.
Each day contains:
Opening prayer
Starter questions
Scripture
Questions to explore what the verses were about
Extra questions for personal reflection and application
Closing prayer prompts
There are also a few additional activity pages throughout the book.
Each day can be done in 15 minutes or less. It would be a great bedtime or mealtime devotional. If you’re child is also able to independently read and write, it would be a great quiet time devotional for them to work through on their own. I’d say about age 8 and older. There is space on each page for writing the answers, or you can also use the book and discuss with your child if you don’t want to write in it.
I appreciate that the full Scripture is included each day. You can also have your child(ren) look up the passage in their own Bibles if you want. The questions also give hints to which verse to find the answer for younger kids who may need a little extra help. I also like the prayer prompts at the end of each day. It’s not just a simple read the following prayer, but gives prompts to come up with your own prayer. What a wonderful way to help cultivate a good prayer life for youngsters!
I’m hoping they come out with a devotional for more of the Tales That Tell the Truth storybooks because this is a gem! And it fills the void of quality devotionals for this age range.
This is a children's devotional that is meant to be utilized alongside Dan DeWitt's storybook called The Friend Who Forgives. But Morgan has created the devotional unique enough that it can be completed on its own without the storybook.
The structure of the book includes fifteen devotionals that can essentially be done in whatever timeframe is best for your family. Each devotional also follows the same format:
- Prayer
- Starter Question
- Scripture Reference
- Q&A
- Brief insights into the scripture
- Reflection Questions
- Final Prayer
Morgan does a great job of creating questions and presenting insights that are simple yet profound for children to be able to grasp and understand. This isn't to say that there will be no need for parental insight but rather that she lays it out concisely, ready for parents to expound on what she has already presented.
In addition, the book includes many coloring pages and activities which are a great supplement to the devotionals.
The devotionals are engaging and interactive, capable of keeping a child's attention span.
I believe this particular book is geared more towards younger or elementary kids and would be too simple for older children.
I received a copy of this book from The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review.
The story of Peter is one of the core relationships Jesus has in the gospels and is a big picture of the forgiveness that he offers to his followers. We have a copy of the storybook and loved it, so were really interested in the devotional that can go with it. The discussion questions are really helpful, a good level for our mid-primary school children, and the illustrations are brilliant too (Catalina Echeverri illustrates this whole series and they're superb).
It's the sort of book I could recommend to any of our families who come along to church, because it's a good level of detail for those children who have an understanding of the Bible story as a whole, but could also work as a standalone resource for those who are newer to faith.
This family devotional book is designed to go with The Friend Who Forgives by Dan DeWitt. However, this works perfectly well as a standalone, as Katy Morgan takes readers through the biblical story of Jesus's friendship with Peter. This is a nice supplement to the storybook, but it is a completely independent resource that features fifteen devotional readings. Each one involves a scripted opening prayer, an icebreaker discussion prompt, a Bible passage and discussion questions about it, and a prompt for a closing prayer. The readings all include some optional, more complex questions for older children. There are also occasional activities like coloring pages and a wordsearch.
This is an exceptionally well-designed devotional. The discussion questions that Katy Morgan wrote are concise and practical, with some of them asking comprehension questions about the text and others prompting children to consider possible applications in their lives. The vibrant illustrations from Catalina Echeverri are expressive and appealing, and the coloring pages share black-and-white outlines of her drawings that kids can color in.
This is a great choice for family devotions, and the additional material for older children makes this a practical option for families with multiple kids spanning different ages. This is also an appealing, fun, and age-appropriate choice for an elementary-aged child to use for their personal devotions, and Sunday school teachers can adapt this to a classroom setting if desired. I am very impressed with this book's quality, and hope to see other devotionals in the future from the Tales That Tell the Truth series.
Note: I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
