When I first started sharing daily prayers for our kids on Facebook, it was just because it was an easy thing to share. I figured you’d like to have a daily verse as much as I do. I have been so excited when so many of you respond, like and share those small statuses.

I feel like we’re having a mini-prayer meeting and all of us are quickly laying hands on our kids at the same time, praying the same thing. What life change God can do with those quick prayers!

Many people have been asking about the books I get the prayers from and I’m going to show them all to you now!

The first (and my personal favorite) is Stormie Omartian’s Power of a Praying Parent.  The reason I love it is that it is powerful. They chose the right name for the book! These aren’t meek, “keep-my-kid-safe” prayers. These are Scripture-filled, expectant prayers. I feel powerful when I read them!

I did a vlog about the book, if you’d like to hear (and see) more!

 

The book I’m reading now (it’s taken me waaay too long to read…my morning quiet times haven’t been too quiet, apparently!) is called Praying the Scriptures for Your Children by Jodie Berndt. This one has longer chapters than Omaritan’s book, so it will take some time to read if you’re doing it as a devotional. She gives lots of stories and powerful little nuggets of truth in the chapter about prayer and real life prayer miracles. The chapter ends with Scriptures slightly altered to be a prayer for your children.

I love putting my kids’ name in Scripture. It reminds me how living and active God’s Word really is!

 

The other book I l-o-v-e is Mark Batterson’s Praying Circles Around Your Children. This one is a mini 100 page booklet. And really, I think it’s mostly excerpts from his book, The Circle Maker. But it is so inspiring and so empowering. (And it is free on Kindle TODAY!)

If you want to be reminded that your prayers do matter and that God has given you the ability, the calling and the right to change your kids’ lives in prayer–you need this book! I feel like I underlined the whole book because it was that good.

 

Another one on my virtual bookshelf is Warrior Prayers by Brooke McGlothlin. It’s designed for moms of boys, but you will love it if you have girls, too!

I got to hang out with Brooke at dotMom last weekend and let me tell you, she is passionate about praying for boys. She believes (and I do, too) that we can begin a revival in the hearts of boys…future men, dads and husbands by praying for them as boys. Oh, this is so big! This ebook is similar to Berndt’s book in that she’s listed a lot of Scripture with blanks for your kids’ names. I love it!

I’ve got two other books on my bookshelf about praying for your kids–I will be going through them soon and sharing them with you. And (*whisper*) my new ebook may just have something to do with praying God’s Word for your kids and doing battle on your knees for their hearts! Eeek!

So, do you have a favorite book about prayer? Leave a link in the comments! I’d love to hear about it!

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***

Every day Lydia is at school she gets to pick out a new book from her class library. This book must be read out loud and then a mini book report filled out and turned in the next day. She loves showing off her new book and I love hearing her read to me. (And the little book reports? Cutest thing ever! 99% of the time she writes, “the book was funny.”)

We’re still working on using pauses between sentences and using a little bit of inflection, but it’s still fun to watch her proudly finish an entire book herself. And as much as I love her reading Five Little Monkeys and Biscuit’s Picnic to me, I’ve been on the lookout for some Bible-based, Christian-themed Easy Readers or Level 1-type books for her.

And whadya’ know, we’ve found two in the past week!

The first one I posted about on Facebook on Tuesday because I could barely contain myself! (And off topic, it got here in one day! Hello Amazon Prime!) Robin Jones Gunn has a new kids’ book called God’s Mountains, Meadows and More! It’s actually her first kids’ book but has recently been newly illustrated and re-released. It’s a super simple book about a little boy who flies in a hot air balloon all over the world discovering that God made the sea, the ocean, the mountains and more.

The illustrations are pretty cute and the words are definitely on a new reader level. Lydia and I read this last night and we really enjoyed it!

Of course, Robin Jones Gunn also wrote my favorite easy reading books, The Mrs. Rosey Posey series. They are Level 2, but I might see if Lydia can tackle them!

The next set of books was actually sent to me by Zonderkidz. It’s a series about Princess sisters. Hello. Princess sister books! How could Lydia not like those?!

The books are based on some previously released picture books by Jeanna Young. The stories are actually Jesus’ parables retold in this Princess-castle-fairy-tale setting. For example, Princess Charity’s Courageous Heart is based on the Good Samaritan, Princess Grace and the Lost Kitten is about the parable of the lost sheep, etc. Isn’t that fun?

I haven’t read all of them (and honestly, when I first picked them up at the bookstore was turned off because HOW MANY PRINCESS STORIES DO WE NEED?!) but I love the idea of the retold parables! Perfect for conversation starters and supplements to a Bible study.

Lydia read Princess Joy’s Party to her Daddy before bed the other night–he read one page, she read the next. She and I are reading Princess Grace and Poppy tonight!

A few other I-Can-Read, early reader type books we have are Happy Birthday, Barnabas (we save this one for birthdays!), Snug as a Bug (a perfect bed time story), Zachary’s Zoo (this one is on permanent rotation) and Super Ace and the Space Traffic Jam (sadly, not our fave).

Does your family have any Bible-based easy reading books to recommend?

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***

Have you heard about The Dig yet? My friend, Ruth from The Better Mom just released this fantastic resource. It’s a verse by verse study of the book of Luke for kids!

Here’s a few reasons I think you’ll like The Dig and want to snag it (for a mere $4.99):

1. Ruth’s husband actually wrote it. He is a pastor by day and says this ebook  has been his “personal desire and attempt to teach [his] children the Bible from an early age.”

2. As you read the book, you are led by a grizzled old explorer named Doc. (Well, I added the grizzly description because it’s such a great word!) Isn’t he grizzled cute?

3. When your kids read each section, it will seem as if Doc is talking to them and leading them through 4 sections: the Map (a summary), the Dig (the main scripture), the Treasure (the big idea) and the Display (the application). I’m a sucker for fun titles, so I love those!

4. This book is dummy-proof. All you have to do is sit down and read it with your kids. Read the passage, read the questions and talk with your kids. That’s it!

5. I think the book is geared more for elementary aged kids, but it’s simple and straight-forward enough for younger kids, too.

6. Each section covers just a few verses of Scripture at a time so I think you could do this as a family devotion over dinner! How fun would it be if you and your family read the entire book of Luke and talked about it together in just under two months?

7. There are even printable coloring sheets included!

8. It lends itself to so much extra fun: explorer hats, maps, treks through the jungle! Ooh, I’m getting excited just thinking about the possibilities! You know we love some explorers around here!

9. The Dig In Community begins September 3rd! That means people from all over the world will be doing The Dig with their kids and then connecting online to encourage each other! (Kinda like our Truth in the Tinsel facebook page in December!)

10.  I’m giving away THREE copies of The Dig today! Just leave me a comment and tell me if you’ve ever done an official family devotion before (and I’d love to know how it went, too!).

Linked to the best carnival on the web: Top Ten {Tuesday} at Many Little Blessings

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***