The Jesus Storybook Bible

If you are a parent of relatively small children and you long to read to them from the Bible, you’ve probably noticed how difficult that can be.

For starters, there are very few 6 year olds who get the King James. And so, you need something a little more read-able and age-appropriate.

So, you start looking at children’s Bibles. You quickly realize those are just as tedious. It’s not the language that bothers you. It’s all those syrup-y sweet, cartoon character illustrations.

Enter The Jesus Storybook Bible. We bought this about a year ago for our (at the time) 5 and 3 year old daughters. Very rarely has a night gone by that we don’t read from this Bible. Here are some highlights:

The illustrations. A guy named Jago did the illustrations and they are out of this world. I mean, they are just fun. They’re colorful and organic and my children love them. You can see some of the illustrations here.

The text. A lady named Sally Lloyd-Jones wrote the actual text of this Bible. She did a great job capturing the thrust of the Bible stories, but writes in such a way that both children and adults are engaged.

For example, one of my favorite stories in this Bible is when Jesus is getting ready to feed the hillside full of people with one young man’s sack lunch. The disciples are freaking out because they don’t have enough food. Here is how Sally Lloyd-Jones writes the scene:

“Now, there was a little boy in the crowd. He had brought a lunch that his mother had made for him that morning. He looked at his five loaves and two fish. It wasn’t much — not neary enough for 5,000 — but it was all he had.

‘I have some,’ he said.

Jesus’ friends laughed when they saw his little lunch. ‘That’s not nearly enough!’ they said.

But they were wrong. Jesus knew it didn’t matter how much the little boy had. God would make it enough, more than enough.

Jesus said, ‘Bring me what you have.’ And so the little boy gave Jesus his lunch. Jesus winked at the littel boy and whispered in his ear, “‘Watch!’” (pg. 246)

Her writing is so good that I will, at times, come to her stories as I prepare to preach and teach. They are so fresh and insightful that I come to them for simple perspectives.

Jesus. I have often taught the students involved in our college ministry that the whole of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, points to Jesus. And this Bible shows that to be true. Every story told in The Jesus Storybook Bible turns my kids towards Jesus. In fact, the tagline for the Bible is “Where Every Story Whispers His Name.” I love this.

You need to check this Bible out. Visit the website here. You can hear audio samples as well as download PDF version of a few of the stories.

National Pancake Day

Welcome to National Pancake Day. What will you do to celebrate?

I thought this would be a great opportunity to share with you one of our family’s favorite traditions. Since being a family-man is one of my Big Rocks, we have several of these little traditions.

Every Saturday, as much as we are able, we make a massive batch of pancakes to enjoy as a family. If I am home, I will usually mix up the batter and make the cakes myself. I have a secret recipe that I use and my pancakes are so good that you could, if you wanted to, eat them without any butter or syrup. But, to make them really good, put some peanut butter on them and then syrup. Tastes like candy.

The funniest thing to come out of this little tradition was the creation of “man-cakes.” When I am not home, Keri will make the cakes. She is very frugal and always made tiny little pancakes…only 3″ in diameter maybe. When I take over, I make nice big ones…at least 5″ in diameter. Hence, I call them man-cakes. Our kids love it.

It doesn’t matter how you make them. You can make French Toast or Scrambled Eggs. You can even pour a bowl of Cheerioes. It’s about the time you spend with the kids and the memories you make.

Ordering Life: Big Rock #2 is My Family

I often ask myself the question, “Who has God made me to be and what am I supposed to be doing?”

The second answer that I come up with is: God has made me a family man and one of my greatest resp0nsibilities is to my family. They are the second Big Rock in my jar.

With that in mind, my family time is the first thing that goes into my weekly schedule. If my meetings with students or other ministers are important enough to be entered into my smartphone, then surely my family is that important.

I work a lot of evenings and weekends. Therefore, some of my weekly schedule has to stay fluid. Here is a basic look at how I schedule family time during the week.

Mondays: no evening meetings usually, so I’m home at dinner time to stay.
Wednesdays: because Tuesdays are my busiest day of the week, I take Wednesday mornings very slow and hang with the family. I usually get into the office about 10am and come back home by 3pm. From 3-5pm, Keri and I and our two youngest run errands around town while my older girls are at a church after-school program. We then eat dinner together. (If I have to work or travel over the weekend, then I take Wednesdays as my full day off).
Thursdays: Thursday nights are date night in my house. I am home by dinner and I turn my phone and computer off. Keri and I feed the kids and save ourselves for a late dinner. After everyone is in bed, we eat and watch a movie or play games.
Fridays: Friday evenings are fun family nights in our house. Keri makes homemade pizza each week and we all sit down with our food in front of the TV to watch a family movie. In the last month we’ve watched Horton Hears a Who, Cars, Wall-E, and Madagascar: Return 2 Africa. These are fun nights for all of us. 
Saturdays: If I don’t have to work on Saturdays, then they are my full day off. If I do, then I take Wednesdays off instead.

My wife and four children are THE most important people in my life. If I fill my jar with other people, things or activities, they quickly get squeezed out. I will NOT sacrifice my family in the name of ministry or anything else.

The First Day

When this posts, I will be dropping my oldest daughter off at her school for her first day of Kindergarten. Exactly at 7:45am CST.

This video touches me in this stage of life. It’s one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite songwriters. Enjoy.

[vimeo 1428169]

This is hard for me.

Honesty Sucks

I am going to be brutally honest and transparent in these next few minutes. It’s an effort to be real.

Being a parent is hard. I have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, 1 year old…and one on the way.

Since returning from a mission trip to Mexico on Sunday, I feel like 90% of what I have done as a parent is yell, sulk, spank, and sit on that fence between sheer anger and utter hopelessness. The other 10% I have doted on my kids; making up for missed time on my trip and also atoning for what I feel like could be bad parenting.

And it’s a terrible cycle.

Example: Today at lunch, daughter #1, Eden, didn’t want daughter #2, Jerah, to pray for her food. She broke down in tears over it. I (calmly) removed Eden from the table and set her down on the steps leading up to our bedrooms. This is the place we go when we can’t be around everyone else. She wailed. My wife, Keri, asked me if we are teaching our kids the wrong things about prayer when we do that. In essence, are we teaching them to be legalistic when we say they can’t eat if they don’t pray? I felt like the issue was not prayer itself…but more that Eden sometimes believes she is the center of the known universe and can get what she wants at any given time.

Keri and I then had one of those disagreeing moments. We didn’t fight; we just weren’t on the same page. And that simply compounds the problems.

Meanwhile, all these thought go through my head. Here is a sampling:

• I haven’t had one good conversation with an older parent who gives me honest, helpful advice. There just isn’t any “parenting discipleship” happening anywhere. This is almost like sex; everyone is thinking about it and trying to do it better–but nobody is really talking about it.
• I think this is just a phase, but do I just say that to make myself feel better as an inadequate parent?
• How is Eden going to do in kindergarten next year? How much time will I have to spend with the principal?
• We must be outside of our minds to be having another baby.
• Why in the world will my daughters not pick up their toys at the end of the day? Everything I have tried to do has failed to motivate them.
• I fear I am falling WAY short in teaching my children about God, Jesus, and living as a Follower.
• I read books and blogs by other fathers who seem to have it all figured out. They “date” their kids at least once a month. And they date their wives. They have found the balance. I have not. Nobody writes about spankings or frustrations or kicking the crap out of the toy bucket that their kids are throwing at each other. These guys have figured it out…and they are not as utterly desperate as I feel.

I’m not sure what I am looking for here. I don’t think that it’s your advice or even your sympathy. Maybe it is. Maybe the process of writing this out helps me realize that I have a long ways to go before I am the kind of father to my kids that God is to me.

PostScript: My kids are great kids. I don’t think they are the issue. I think the issue is me.

I Got Crabs

That’s right. Yesterday the family and I went down to St. Joseph to run some errands. I had the day off and a little bit of extra birthday/Christmas money in my pocket.

And I came home with three hermit crabs. We got them all set up last night and it looks like so far, they are doing fine. They are sitting on a bookshelf next to my desk in my office. It should be a fun distraction and the kids already love helping me with them.

I asked my girls if they had any names for the crabs.

Eden suggested “Hey Crab.” If you haven’t seen Finding Nemo yet, you should. Here is the scene that inspired the name of the first crab.

Jerah suggested “Crabbitz.” That, of course, led us to naming the crab Lenny. You know, Lenny Crabbitz.

Crab no. 3 didn’t have a name yet until this morning. But, I finally decided on one. You ready?

STD.

(Pronounced “Stud.” Geez. Get your mind out of the gutter.)

Have a good weekend.

Jesus Knows His Right from His Left

The other day, at a McDonald’s some where between Indianapolis and Maryville:

Eden: Daddy, which bathroom is on the left and which is on the right?
Me: Well, which one do you think is on the left?
Eden (looking, thinking): The boy’s.
Me (noticing the boy’s was actually on the right): Why do you think the boy’s is on the left?
Eden (thinking again): Umm…Jesus told me.

Walking Man

So, my son Simeon took his first steps at the end of last week. He looks much like a drunken sailor when attempting to walk, but he can take a few steps at a time before falling over. It’s cute.

I’m still alive and surviving. Last night we had around 200 at our Welcome Week BBQ. I was very pleased.

Tonight, we give away free ice cream.

Thoughts on Eden

In my previous post, I had alluded to the fact that our house looked great last Thursday night. Keri had worked really hard to get the place cleaned (I helped a little), and we sat down and admired our handiwork.

And then, the markers.

My friend Robert made an interesting observation that I’d like to share with you. He felt my pain, understanding how frustrating that must have been to have created something so perfect and then to have had it all messed up by my child.

And it’s even more fitting that my child, Eden, was the main culprit. I wonder if God felt the same way I did in the Garden of Eden. Here, He had created something perfect. He could step back and admire His handiwork. And then, the children that He had created chose to mess all that perfection up. How disappointed He must have felt.

I felt disappointed too. But, my love never once waned for my children. If anything, I loved them more.

Furthermore, I painted today, thus restoring the damage done to my kitchen. God has done the same thing. He has brought restoration (and will bring it completely) to what has been broken. Through Jesus, what was imperfect has been made perfect again.

As We Go; as of March 25

Well, here is a funny story.

Keri and I worked very hard this last week to get our house cleaned, de-cluttered, and semi-packed in an effort to have it ready to be listed on the market by Friday. We did a great job (Keri worked harder than me). On Thursday night, we plopped down on our couch and looked and around and said, “This is the cleanest this house has been since we moved in!”

We were scheduled to meet with our real estate agent Friday afternoon to sign the papers and get the sign in the yard and get the thing on the market. However, Friday morning, as I am working at my second job, I get an email from Keri with the subject line: “We have a small crisis.”

This can’t be good. I open it up and Keri proceeds to tell me in the body of the email that, sometime that morning, while she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth and combing her hair and doing her morning routine, our daughters got a hold of one of our black Sharpie permanent markers. And they had proceeded to “color” our kitchen.

Small crisis my rear.

They had marked up our walls, our fridge, our dishwasher, our cabinets, our oven, our stovetop, our table, our chairs, our curtains, and each other. It was everywhere. Keri cried. I fumed.

But…we dealt with it. I called our agent and he came over anyway. We signed the papers and put the sign in the yard, but it won’t officially go on the market until Wednesday, after I get a chance to paint the wall in the kitchen. Keri got the marker off all the appliances and cabinets and table. We had an extra curtain. The chair is just ruined.

We ended up having a nice day. Keri and the kids were leaving the next morning for St. Louis, so I didn’t want our last night together for awhile to be tarnished…so, we did what we had to do. You take a deep breath and you move on and you fix the problem.

The best part? Eden drew a smiley face on one of the cabinets.