Pinterest is my enemy. I don't look at it very often, to be honest, but when I do, all sorts of self-recriminating feelings wash over me. I know I'll never decorate a beautiful cake or do amazing projects for every holiday of the year. I've accepted that about myself and can look at cakes and projects with equanimity. No, the posts that get me are the Bible pins, specifically the "teach your kids the Bible" pins. When I see a picture of an angelic looking child wearing a Bible costume and working on an involved craft, I start to shrivel a little inside. You see, I'm not crafty. Some women I know can take random bits of felt and make a great Bible lesson from it where the kids learn and have fun at the same time. Sadly, that talent missed me. I do good to print a coloring page and read from the Bible. I can teach concepts, but I can't do it like a kindergarten teacher.
However, I have learned recently that it doesn't take fancy activities to interest my children in the Bible. Recently, I received two CDs called Heroes of the Bible from Pryor Convictions, a small media company owned an operated by a Christian couple out of Florida (You can find the CDs here, along with audio samples http://pryorconvictions.com/product-catalog/#audio-books). In this age of VeggieTales and learn your Bible through iPad apps, these audio lessons are pretty simple technologically. Paul Pryor and his wife Heather alternate telling stories of heroes of the Bible.
Simple or not, these lessons are fantastic. They tell the stories with a mixture of word for word Bible quotes and paraphrase for young ears. Each lesson is centered around the theme that these heroes were really every day people who had tremendous faith in God. I know when I was a kid, I lost track of the fact that people like Moses were simply flawed people that allowed God to use them. I appreciated that these lessons pointed out to kids that God was the real power. Some of the heroes were familiar to my kids, like David and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Others are less well known like Jael or Micaiah.
The lessons definitely passed the Mom test, but what about the kids? I popped one of the CDs in the car on the way to school in lieu of the songs we usually sing. My car has never been so quiet. The kids all listened with rapt attention (even the 2 year old) to each story, even the ones they had heard before. That afternoon, the older kids asked to listen to more. When we listened to all of both CDs (each between 40 and 45 minutes), they asked if we could listen to them again. Yes, indeed we can!
My kids learned Bible stories that they had never heard before, and I learned an important lesson too. I don't have to be supermom to teach my kids the Bible. I don't have to shrivel when I see Pinterest anymore. If Bible costumes and felt people are beyond my abilities, that's okay. My kids learn just as well from simple Bible lessons. I can't stop with audio CDs, but I don't have to fear that my simple lessons are not enough.
Heroes of the Bible was sent to us by the publisher for the purpose of reviewing. No compensation was provided, and the opinions are entirely my own. They are great lessons, even if I did get them for free.
Melissa
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