We’ve been praying with Juliet ever since she was a tiny baby. Every night before she goes to bed, all three of us get together and have a family prayer time. And although, we have made a habit out of this, the actual process we go through has evolved over the years.

When she was an infant, Ben would hold her in his arms and we would stand together and pray with her before placing her in her crib at night. Our prayers would always be about her and about how grateful we were to God for sending her into our lives.

As she began to understand and speak herself, we added praying for others to our prayer time–for our family members, friends, and Compassion children.

To help her get involved in the praying, I decided to borrow an idea from Ben’s family and also from some missionary friends of ours.

Ben grew up with the tradition of placing all the Christmas cards his family received into a basket and then choosing one card at every mealtime. The family would then pray specifically for the family on the Christmas card. Our missionary friends do something similar. They have family photos of all of their supporters and then choose one a day to pray for. My friend Kristi tells me that her kids really connect to the photos and are able to pray more specifically when they can see who they are praying for.

I wanted to make our prayer time more concrete for Juliet and also give her a way to feel like she was part of the process, so I searched for a box that would be our “prayer box.”

It’s an old cigar box that I had picked up awhile back and didn’t know what to do with it. It said “Julieta”, so I couldn’t resist! I thought it was beautiful and it is the perfect size for holding pictures.

Inside, you can see we keep photos of our family members, friends, and Compassion children. Every night, Juliet reaches in selects who we are praying for and then holds it in her hands as we pray. She LOVES it!

We have a lot of Christmas cards in the box and also a few birth announcements. For our family members, I tried to print out pictures of them with Juliet in the picture as well. This always makes her smile when she sees herself with Mimi or Poppy or one of her cousins.

Lately, our process has changed again. Instead of drawing a picture from the prayer box, we simply ask Juliet who we should pray for tonight. Each night, she comes up with someone new! She has grown out of the prayer box–as she no longer needs a visual cue to help her decide who to pray for. And she has even begun to chime in and add her own thoughts to our prayers!

And even though I am kind of sad to see it fall into disuse, I am happy to see my daughter growing and able to take an active role in our nightly prayer time. And I’m sure I’ll be able to find another use for that beautiful box.

What about you? How do you get your children to pray with you? Do you have any family routines or traditions?

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With Valentine’s Day approaching, I have been trying to choose books about love for my daughter, Juliet, and I to read together each night. I want her to know how deeply and unconditionally I love her and also how God’s love for her far surpasses my own great love.

As I looked at our shelves the other night, The Runaway Bunnyby Margaret Wise Brown jumped out at me. “That’s perfect!” I thought to myself. We’ve read this book a million times before, but we’ve never had a conversation about how God loves us as unwaveringly and as fiercely as the mother bunny loves her little bunny.

If you’ve never read the book, it begins like this:

“Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, “I am running away.” “If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”

“If you run after me,” said the little bunny, “I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.” If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother, “I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”

The story continues in this way with the little bunny coming up with another and yet another thing to turn into and his mother responding with how she will chase after him and find him NO MATTER WHAT. It’s a beautiful story of unconditional love.

As I thought about the picture of love presented in this book, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the love stories of the Bible such as the book of Hosea, the story of the prodigal son, and the greatest love story of all: Jesus coming to earth and becoming human just because He loved us so much. No matter how far we ran from him, and no matter what we became, He was willing to leave heaven behind and give up His life because we are His children and He loves us.

I thought to myself, “This is going to be great! We’re going to read a great book together AND have a meaningful spiritual conversation!”

It didn’t exactly turn out that way. Here’s what happened:

As we began reading the story together, Juliet asked me, “Mommy, why is that bunny running away? and I said, “Why do you think he is running away?” and she said, “To join the circus!” (Towards the end of the book, the bunny tells his mother he will join the circus.)

I took this moment to tell her that I was like the mother bunny and that if she ever ran away, I would always go after her because she was my little bunny. She just sort of nodded and then we continued reading.

A few pages later, Juliet suddenly jumped up, and exclaimed, “I’m the little bunny!” and ran away. I put the book down and proceeded to chase her down the hall and tackle her in my room.

I again reminded her that I would always catch her because she was my little bunny. She smiled, giggled, and then announced, “I’m a butterfly, I’m going to fly away from you!” and ran down the hall. I responded with, “I’m a net and I will catch you!”

We played this spontaneous little game over and over again—she was a little bird; I was a nest. She was a lady bug; I was a little girl with a bug-catcher. She was a roley poley, and I was a pile of dirt. Again and again, she ran away from me, and again and again I caught her.

Then we sat down, finished reading the book, and got ready for bed. As I tucked her in, I said, “God is like the mother bunny, too. No matter what you do, no matter how far you run away from Him, He will always come after you because you are His little bunny and He loves you.”

And she said, “Hey. You have hair in your nose.”

So maybe we didn’t get the meaningful spiritual conversation in, (we did have a discussion about the benefits and purposes of nose hair) but we did make some memories and invented a fun, new game! Even though she wasn’t really ready to talk about God’s love for her, I think the seed was planted.

And like that mother bunny, I’ll keep chasing her down and telling her tirelessly about God’s love, over and over again. And the best part is, I don’t have to do it on my own. He won’t stop His pursuit of her either.

Vanessa is a regular contributor to Impress Your Kids. She is a stay-at-home mom to an energetic three-year-old, Juliet. They spend their days together reading books, attempting crafts, and occasionally beating tree trunks with large sticks. You can read more about their adventures at Silly Eagle Books.

My friend Christine from Dates to Diapers is challenging herself to make a craft every day this week with her kids. (And this is quite a feat considering she has six kids and she homeschools and runs a hugely popular blog!) To help her out, I’m guest posting about a fun winter craft Lydia and I did this week. Your kids will love it. We have the dyed fingers to prove it!

Check it out and if you don’t already read Chrsitine’s blog make sure you click and get to know her. She’s fantastic!

This is another guest post about Santa–this time from the perspective that by taking Santa out of Christmas we are keeping Christ at the center. It is from another one of my great bloggy friends, Heather from Not a DIY Life. She’s such a good mama, a strong woman of God and a servant in her church. Please read, comment and enjoy!

Sometimes as Christians, we have to make decisions about how we will live our life differently because of the difference that Christ has made in our lives. And sometimes these decisions are not popular with other people.

It’s difficult to go against the flow.

We made one of those decisions recently. We are not including Santa Claus in any of our Christmas celebrations. It’s been difficult. And our child is only two and a half years old. How much harder will it be when she’s in school?

First, there are the random strangers who ask our daughter if she’s ready for Santa Claus. Then there are our 8 and 10 year old nieces who claim they still believe in Santa Claus. (We may not follow the crowd on Santa Claus, but I am not about to rain on any kid’s parade.) Then there is the rest of the family. Some are Christians and some are not, but they don’t understand why we wouldn’t want to include Santa Claus. After all, EVERYONE is doing it.

How do you deal with the criticisms, the looks, and the sometimes-harsh words regarding this kind of decision? As you would with any matter of faith.

Know what you believe. Know why you believe it.

We have prayerfully considered how the decision to not include Santa Claus will impact our family and our daughter as she grows. We have listed our reasons WHY we do not want to celebrate Santa. And we are ready to share with those who want to listen.

This decision was not made lightly. And it wasn’t made with the intention of rocking the boat. We are respectful that other people hold very dearly to the Santa Claus story and all that he represents.

I’m not sharing all of this to try to convince anyone else of what they should or shouldn’t do. I’m sharing because it’s hard to be different, and it’s comforting when we find others with similar beliefs and values.

Paul tells us in Romans 12 that we are not to “copy the behavior and customs of this world.” (v.2, NLT) That tells me that “just because everybody else is doing it” isn’t a good excuse. (And I have a feeling that I will be reciting that verse a lot as our daughter gets into her tween- and teen-age years.) Paul says it’s okay to be counter-cultural.

However, Paul also reminds us in Colossians 2:16ff that we are not to condemn other Christians who observe customs of the culture. Just because we do something that is counter-cultural doesn’t make us or our children spiritually superior.

Back to the original advice: Know what you believe and why you believe it. Be able to explain why you celebrate Christmas (or any other holiday or cultural custom) differently. Plan ahead. Talk to parents that have made the same decision who have older children and ask them what obstacles they have encountered.

And be prepared. Your children will question why your family does things differently. They may feel left out. Let them know that it’s okay to be different. Use age-appropriate words to explain why this decision is best for your family.

It may not be the easy road. But teaching your children to honor Jesus will be worth it.

photo by Timothy K Hamilton

I’m so excited to share this guest post with you. I met LeighAnn when I was a part of a church-planting team in Florida. She is a mom to three and a strong woman of God. Plus she’s cute and funny! She blogs at Devoted Living.

In the fall of 1975, my parents agreed that it was time for our family to bow out of Halloween. I was so young when they changed policies that I do not remember trick or treating the previous year. I do remember a few awkward October 31^st s when the doorbell was ringing, and we were hiding inside our house. There was the disastrous year that we passed out candy and Christian pamphlets together. That effort only annoyed and offended our neighbors.

Mom and Dad knew that, for our family, we should skip Halloween altogether. The challenge was: what to say to people without sounding judgmental. Non-Christians thought we were weird about everything so this seemed no different. But for some reason, Christian families that did celebrate Halloween were mad at my parents. They seemed to have an unreasonable anger that we wanted to avoid the events of that holiday. Why couldn’t they let our family just do what we felt led to do?

There was this dread over us each year, wanting October to come and go without a confrontation with anyone. As a kid, I didn’t know what to say when other adults and teachers tried to convince me that my parents were depriving us of this innocent kids’ holiday.

For several years, we felt alone in the stand against Halloween. School was the hardest part of the season. My mom was a teacher and decided that it was best to let our teachers know that we didn’t celebrate at home, but that we could participate in school activities and needed no special treatment.

My older brother recalls how hard it was that our neighbors were all outside on Halloween night, and we had to stay inside. One year we were particularly discouraged about not going trick or treating and hauling in assorted candy. After school, we slumped onto the sofa. Dad came in with several big bags of candy and spread them out on the coffee table in front of us.

“What is this?” we asked. His answer has stuck with me ever since.

“This is not about candy. We will buy you plenty of candy. This is about our family obeying God. Your mom and I both agree that it is best for us to not celebrate Halloween.”

In that moment, I finally understood that we were not being punished; we were being protected. Our parents had always been strict about not enticing us with evil in movies and books, so Halloween was just not acceptable. Recently a friend shared with me that she can still see images of horror movies that she watched as a teen. These scenes pop into her mind at unwanted times. I was protected as a child, and I am so grateful for it. I have to fight sin in my own life. I don’t need any extra evil added to my load.

WHAT WE DO. My husband and I and our three kids do not “do” Halloween. In 11 years of parenting, we have approached this in several ways depending on the age of our kids. We have tried church fall festivals, but we felt like we were enjoying G rated Halloween. It took a few years to get a routine that works for our family. It’s really about consistency for me and that is not simple, because Halloween lasts for several months and is everywhere we go. When a funny character offers them candy at Sea World, we say ok. Do we dress up specifically to trick or treat at Sea World? Well, no.

My seasonal survival methods include the following: 1. watching DVDs and taping TV shows ahead so that they are not watching Halloween ads on Disney Channel for the entire month of October. 2. avoiding stores that are overly decked in mummies and skeletons. 3. finding an activity for October 31^st that gives the kids something to look forward to and gets us out of the house.

Recently, I decided to reclaim fall as a fun time of year for our family. We can focus on things that are good. The weather is nicer, and we want to be outside more.

We also plan our October 31 activity each year and include other families who are opting out as well.

Mini golf has been a hit the past few years. We try to pick a place that they haven’t visited in a while so that we all look forward to it. We snack on our favorite candy and enjoy spending time together as a family. We have redeemed the day, but it is still an effort to stay upbeat and not get discouraged by the volume of creepy creatures all in the name of innocent fun.

WHAT WE SAY. Is the fight worth it? Is this a worthy cause? It would be so easy to just go along with a safer version of this holiday, but I know I can’t. I know that we need to “avoid it all.” We are planting seeds now for a harvest in their lives as they grow in the Lord. We are keeping weeds out of the garden by not participating.

If you are looking for courage to opt out of Halloween, I hope to offer that here. Even with no memories of trick or treating, I am fine. I have no pictures of me in Halloween costumes- as cute as I would have been. I do not have regrets about missing Halloween as a kid.

The younger your kids are when you establish new traditions, the easier it is. Have your answers ready for your kids with details and verses. Tell them why you are uncomfortable with Halloween and be honest that you are praying for guidance about the best way for your family to spend that day each year.

And, most importantly, have your one liner ready for strangers. When the sweet dental hygienist asks every year, “What are the kids going to be for Halloween?” It’s now easy for me to gently say: “we don’t do Halloween.”

photo by matt mcgee

i encourage my kids’ imagination year round. Halloween is an especially fun time of year for dressing up because everyone is doing it. however, there is a lot of other junk that everyone else is doing this time of year that we don’t do. we keep the focus on dressing up, pretend play, painting pumpkins, and good, clean fun.

the only ghost we speak of is the Holy Ghost. there is no such thing as witches or goblins. pumpkins are friendly, skeletons are human bones, bats are nocturnal, and spiders eat mosquitos. Halloween, in our home, is a time for dressing up and eating candy with friends. no evil connotations. no spooky stories.

God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear but of power, love and a peaceful mind. (2 Tim 1:7)

this is Bubba’s 2nd Halloween and i’m taking full advantage of his inability to tell me what he wants to dress up as on the occasion. for as long as i can get away with it, i’m dressing my kids in {relatively} themed costumes. they make such a cute little duo!

last year, Bubba was a puppy and Big Girl was a giraffe. theme = sweet animals.

at a costume party last weekend, Big Girl was a princess and Bubba was a dragon. theme = storybook fairy tale.

on Halloween night, when we take them out to collect sweet treats, Big Girl is dressing up as Jasmine and Bubba is dressing up as Abu. theme = Disney’s Aladdin.

can’t you just see my little monkey wearing this? it was custom made by Kiki’s Things on Etsy.

and that’s how the Halls do Halloween.

how do YOU do Halloween?

:: :: ::

MamaHall is a wife and mama of two, sister and friend, daughter of the Most High, writer and reader, Jesus follower, dessert eater and coffee drinker, Gorbella’s founder, marketing gal, craft-aholic, homeschooling mama, picture-taker, coupon clipper, hugger, glass half full, easily distracted, Bible believer, and queen of her domestic domain. She is also a fabu blogger who is “making the most of motherhood” (Ephesians 5:16). She blogs at MamaHall.

Heather from Not a DIY Life is guest posting for us today! She is a long time reader, commenter and tweeter of Impress your Kids. But more importantly she is a wonderful mama raising her daughter for the Lord. Heather blogs at Not a DIY Life and believes that life is not meant to be a Do-It-Yourself project . Please follower her on twitter and read her daily updates about her life and daughter. You will be encouraged!

Father, we thank You for the night,
And for the pleasant morning light.
For rest and food and loving care
For friends who make the day so fair.

One of many familiar prayers that we can teach our children.  But how do we teach them that prayer is more than reciting a cute rhyme before meals and at bedtime?  (There is nothing wrong with memorizing and reciting rhyming prayers, and we will be teaching our daughter The Lord’s Prayer because we say that prayer at church.)  How do we teach our children to communicate authentically with our Heavenly Father?

Prayer at its core is conversation with God.  Conversation includes both talking and listening.  Since our daughter, Ladybug is 28 months, I really don’t expect her to understand the listening part of prayer yet.  But we are enjoying the talking part of prayer together.

Our first step in teaching Ladybug to pray was to include prayer as part of our bedtime routine.  Kids thrive on routine.  We keep the bedtime prayer simple, using words that she will understand without “talking down” to God.

Our bedtime prayer includes holding hands, bowing our heads, and closing our eyes.  She knows that is the posture for prayer.  So anytime we say, “It’s time to pray,” whether at mealtimes or in church, she knows to be quiet, hold hands, and bow her head.

We include people that Ladybug knows in our bedtime prayers as well.  She recognizes the names and will repeat them.  And if we leave someone off the list, she reminds us, “Pray Baby Erin, Mama.”

Because we acknowledge what she says during prayer time, she is learning that she can participate in prayer and that prayer is not only for someone special like our pastor, but for everyone.

We usually pray together at mealtimes as well.  For our family of three, that is the norm.  But in some in our extended family do not have this practice.  Because family members know that we pray, there is sometimes an awkward moment or two when gathered for a family meal.  Ladybug has broken that awkwardness many times, with her cute toddler voice saying, “Pray, Mama, pray, Daddy.”  What doting aunt or uncle can continue to feel uncomfortable when their adorable niece is asking us to pray?  Ladybug is learning, through the practice of prayer, that it is important to share our faith with others.  (And it makes this Mama want to cry tears of joy when she does that!)

Although we are firm that we pray together at mealtimes and bedtimes, Ladybug does catch us off guard and ask to pray at other times.  And of course, we stop what we are doing and pray!  Even if it’s the third time in a row, stopping to pray teaches her that God is available anytime.

When she sees either myself or Hubby in our prayer posture (head bowed, eyes closed), she knows that we are praying and asks to be included.  She is learning so much by observing our practice of prayer!  I feel that including Ladybug in our prayer times and allowing her to observe our prayer life is one of the most valuable ways that she can learn.

How are you teaching your child to pray?

photo by wesley fryer

Almost two years ago I picked up a book called The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd Jones. I loved it immediately and it has become a favorite (if not THE favorite) book on our shelf. In fact, I’m kind of an evangelist for it. I think I’ve bought at least four copies for family and friends. I quote it on my personal blog regularly and otherwise promote it as The Best Book in the Whole Wide World.

It’s like Sally Lloyd Jones crammed in four years of Bible college, 21 years of Sunday School and 13 devotional books all into one amazing book. Without being stuffy, pretentious or boring! I could go on and on about my hero-worship of her, but that might kinda defeat the purpose of this interview, huh? Let’s just get to the real stuff, ok? I’ll do it the way Lydia and I do when she’s playing her pretend guitar…”Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! I’d like to introduce to you: the amazing, the smart, the funny—SALLY LLOYD JONES!”

Me: Ever since I picked up the Jesus Storybook Bible, I have wanted to know more about you. My daughter (then 1.5) and I read three chapters of it the first time we opened it. She kept saying, “Je-dus! Je-dus!” and I was crying by the end of the 2nd chapter! I have decided it is required reading for every Christian–like the Chronicles of Narnia.

Sally Lloyd Jones: what an honor, thank you. And what a wonderful story for an author to hear.

Me: Why did you decide to write a children’s Bible? I mean, do we really need another kids’ Bible story book? What makes this one different? (I think I know the answer, but I want to hear it from you!)

Sally Lloyd Jones: The distinction between a childen’s Storybook Bible (which is a shorter retelling); and a children’s Bible (which is a translation) is probably obvious but nevertheless I think crucial to make here because it sometimes gets lost.

In a retelling, in a children’s Bible Storybook, you have some hard choices to make. You are translating in the sense that you’re finding a way to speak children’s language, you’re putting difficult concepts into words that a child can understand. But, unlike a translation, you’re leaving bits out, you’re selecting stories, keeping some, leaving others out, cutting, paraphrasing.

The Bible is, of course, an adult book so in order to make it accessible to children, by it’s very nature, as you retell it, you’re going to have to reduce it down. Unfortunately, the danger is that you reduce it down into moral lessons. Almost like a Bible Aesop’s Fables. Children are then left with the impression that they must be good for God to love them. Disastrous. It’s as if Jesus never came.

So I wanted to write a children’s Bible storybook that first and foremost told the Great Story of the Bible–the story running under all the stories of the Bible like a golden stream–the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. The Story that at the center has a baby, the child upon whom everything would depend–Jesus. The only, real true Hero of the Bible. I wanted a Bible Storybook that was, like the Bible is, not all about us and what we should be doing–but about God, and what he has done.

Me: Tell me more about “every story whispers His name.” I love the idea of kids learning the continuity of the Bible. Is that one reason for this book?
Sally Lloyd Jones: Absolutely. If you lose the greater Story of the Bible, the danger is you start thinking that it’s all about you and what you should or shouldn’t be doing. You can start to think it’s a book of rules to follow (of course there are rules in it and they show us how life works best but if we could save ourselves by following the rules, Jesus never would have had to come); or you can think it’s a book of heroes to copy (clearly that can’t be right though. So many of the people God uses are not heroes at all–they’re broken sinners!).

But if you see that everything in the Bible is pointing to the greater one, the greater Hero, the greater David, the greater Daniel, the Greater Shepherd, the True King–it transforms everything. Suddenly it’s an incredible adventure story. A wonderful love story.

The rescue of Noah and the ark was great–but it was not enough. Isaac was a brave son–but there would be another braver son. The promised land was good, but it wouldn’t last. The law was good, but it wasn’t enough. A greater rescue, a more wonderful home, a more obedient son was coming.

The Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. It’s most of all a Story. And there’s only one hero of that Story. And it isn’t us!

It’s all about Jesus, it’s always all been about Jesus, from the very beginning. Jesus himself said it, didn’t he.

“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27 (NIV)

Me: My very very very favorite part of the book is the repeated phrase describing God’s love, “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.”. I have seriously thought about getting that printed and hanging it on my kids’ bedroom walls. What inspired those exact words? How did that phrase come about?

Sally Lloyd Jones: Children’s lives are so filled, it seems to me, with rules and lessons and instructions and directions and do’s and don’t.(Of course these are all important in their place; all children need guidance and that’s appropriate!) But I don’t see much grace being extended to childen. We know, as adults, where to find grace in the Bible. We go the Bible for strength and comfort in times of need, don’t we. But I worry that children aren’t always being offered that refuge, for when they are in need of strength and comfort. I worry that they don’t always know that this incredible, outrageous Grace is for them too.

Children need to know that they are loved by the one who made them. No matter what. Always. Forever. Period. And it isn’t depending on how good or nice they are. It’s always and only depending on Jesus and what he has done for them.

How great if we can help our children understand something of that incredible Agape love God has for us that doesn’t depend on us. The unconditional love He has for us. The love that will not let us go. Ever.

Sometimes I go into sunday schools and ask two questions of the children. “How many people here think you have to be good for God to love you?” And “How many people here think God will stop loving you if you stop being good?”

I wrote this book for the children who put up their hands.

Unfortunately quite a few do. And these are not children who don’t know the Bible. These are children who know their Bible stories very well, who could answer all the questions, who go to sunday school, who are “good.” But somehow they’re missing the most important thing of all. What the Bible is all about.

Me: As a parent, and here at Impress Your Kids, I am trying with my whole life to make sure my kids know and experience God’s love for themselves—and as early as possible! What impacted you as a child for the Lord? When did you become a Christian? Is there anything you’d suggest to parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents to do to help kids love Jesus at an early age? (Besides buy your book, of course?)

Sally Lloyd Jones: I count it a great honor that I became a Christian as a small child. (I was four!) I don’t remember a time when Jesus wasn’t my best friend. This was radically real to me. I prayed. I had conversations with Jesus. I knew Jesus was with me when I went to boarding school at eight.

First off, I don’t begin to presume to tell parents or grandparents or teachers or anyone else what is best for their child or any child, but perhaps I can just share some of the things I have found to be important when speaking to children in my own work (for what they’re worth–perhaps blindingly obvious, but steaming on regardless!):

• extending grace to children and encouraging them (not only telling them and instructing them and trying to corral them and being their policeman!)
• speaking to children on their level (not patronizing them, they can sniff it a mile off and don’t like it anymore than we do!)
• giving children credit: they can understand more than we assume–they may not understand every word–but that’s OK–it’s better to let them stand on tip toes rather than dumb everything down out of fear they won’t understand. Children love to stand on tip toes, to reach up, to understand. It’s how they grow!
• Staying being humble before them : Jesus has a very high opinion of children. He even told us to learn from them. Children can teach us a lot.
• Letting them see your weakness (not pretending you’re perfect–which just gives them that impression again that it’s about being good and then God will love you); it’s not about not having weaknesses, it’s about how you deal with your weakness, how you bring them to God, how you trust the Lord when you’re scared, that’s what will bless them and help them and teach them and equip them in their own lives

But most of all, in all your dealings with children, trying to constantly keep the focus on the Story–and on the one true Hero. Let them meet Jesus. He’s the one who will capture their hearts. And change their lives.

Because rules can’t change you; but a story can.

Me: I have so many favorite stories in the Jesus Storybook Bible–Abraham & Isaac, Adam & Eve and Jesus’ death. What’s one of your favorite stories in The Jesus Storybook Bible? Or which one do you think best showcases the “every story whispers His name” byline?

Sally Lloyd Jones: Favorite story?
So hard. I love them all for different reasons. It’s what parents say about their children isn’t it. But if I had to choose, I suppose one of my favorites is the story of Leah and Rachel “The Girl No One Wanted”. I wrote it for one of my nieces who was having a terrible time in the school playground. She was only about 5 or 6 and already being called names. And she was suffering from a horrible idea about herself. Feeling ugly. Unloved. Not wanted. Left out. The whole deal. And I hated hearing that. So I thought maybe this story of the one God chose, might help her (and other little ones like her) see it differently: see the truth and know that her under cover identity, no matter what anyone in any playground said, was “Princess”–the daughter of a King–and He had chosen her and wanted her and said she was beautiful. (Which, of course, she is anyway–inside and out!)

But in terms of which story is really my favorite–maybe can I say what children always say when asked this question (hating to leave anyone out): “They’re all my favorites!”

No but it’s true. Every story was a great blessing, struggle and challenge to write. All at the same time. And sitting down at my desk every day was like an all out battle and mini desk revival every time! But what an honor and I’m so grateful.

Story that best show-cases the byline: “every story whispers his name”
That’s hard too! Because I didn’t really even begin to touch on all the various parallels and pointing to Jesus that happens in Scripture. But one of the ones I think that struck me the most was Abraham and Isaac. I was blown away when I saw the many parallels in that story to God and His Only Son. God, the Father whose only son climbed the same mountain with wood on his back, but who didn’t get to keep his son, whose only son wasn’t spared, whose son became the sacrifice provided just in time, the sacrifice that lets us all go free, that lets us be spared. His son wasn’t spared so we could be. It is heart-breaking. It really opens your eyes to the incredible love story we are a part of!

Me: And finally, because my daughter and I have almost memorized the whole book, is there any chance of a Part 2? I’d love to hear about Moses! and Esther! and well, just more!!
Sally Lloyd Jones: Yes! There are rumblings of a 5th anniversary edition where I’ll write some more stories–so stay tuned for 2012!

Me: I hope those aren’t too many questions.

Sally Lloyd Jones: Not at all . It’s my honor to be asked them. thank YOU.

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Wow! Did you love that? I wanted to go back and write MY comments in between her replies but I thought that might be a little much…

As the proverbial cherry on top, the Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Editionis available for pre-order now. It includes the book on audio…that’s right, every single story read by masterstoryteller, David Suchet! How awesome is that? You can hear clips of it on Sally’s website. It’s breathtaking!

You definitely want to stop by Sally’s blog and her website. (She’s quite web-savvy and even has a few facebook pages and twitters!) You’ll also want to check out her new kids’ books, Being a Pig Is Nice: A Child’s-Eye View of Manners and How to Get Married … by Me, the Bride. They make me giggle just looking at them!

Now that you are sufficiently impressed and blown away by Sally Lloyd Jones’ heart and humor, would you like to own The Jesus Storybook Bible for yourself? Why am I even asking that? Of course you do! Zondervan has generously given us some copies of the book to pass onto you!!

To win you MUST leave a comment on this post. It can be any comment BUT a comment that shows you read the post are highly appreciated!

For an bonus entry…

1. Visit Sally Lloyd Jones’ website or blog. Peek around tell me which other of her books you’d like to read.

2. Tweet about this contest. Feel free to use @sallylloydjones or @impressyourkids in your tweet.

3. Share this contest on your tumblr/facebook/blog/smoke signal.

4. Subscribe (or be a subscriber) to Impress Your Kids.

Leave an additional comment for each bonus entry.

There will be THREE winners announced Satruday! (Open to US & Canada only, folks.) We’ll also be giving away one copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible on our facebook page today. Make sure you’re a fan so you can be eligible to win!

So. Finding the best book ever, getting to interview the author and then give away copies of her book? Yeah, that works for me.

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You can still enter Day 1, Day 2 and Day 4’s giveaway and don’t forget to join us tomorrow for the last day of our Surprise Party… and the week’s final giveaway!