Terence Chatmon

The title first grabbed me. Too often I see kids who'd grown up attending church quickly part from it once they reach college. I don't know if it's psychology or philosophy, but whatever rattles their faith, I think it's easily done because the foundation isn't strong enough. I recall my experience in college. I wanted to learn about ancient Egypt, pharaohs, etc. The first day of class, the teacher asked how many of us were "Christian". My friend and I raised our hands. She proceeded to explain how that was WRONG. lol It really was ridiculous. I'm sorry, but wasn't this class kind of like archeology and less about religion? I realize the Egyptians had their gods, and that's interesting. So let's learn about that. But discussing how other religions compare? Eh, nope. Not the class for me. So why didn't I just say "Wow, she's right!" Because I had a strong foundation (that and I'm very stubborn).

Do Your Children Believe? This book came at the right time for me. I've been working with another family to set up Bible studies for our kids. We honestly feel like they aren't getting enough, or just not "getting it". We want them to understand the love of Christ and how to apply it to their lives. We want them to learn despite the number of flaw characters in the Bible, God used each of them for the good of His purpose. While I enjoyed the information brought to the reader in this book, I felt a lot of it could have been condensed. It was wordy and seemed to repeat itself. There is meat in the book. You just have to sift through the stories and the fluff to get to it.

The definite benefit of this book, besides the instruction throughout, is the appendix. It includes sample plans as well as a template to use. The idea is for each reader to develop their own family spiritual plan. The author recommends, multiple times, to involve the kids in this plan. In his case, his kids were eager to get things started. But some readers might have difficulty having the family buy into the idea. I think by including them in the planning, they may end up becoming for invested in it. I'll be trying this out with our kids' Bible study and then extending it into our family's weekly and daily routine. We already pray at night before the kids go to bed and we often read a devotion before that. But this idea that Terance brings to us is so much more than that. It's teachable moments during the day. It's individual goals. It's diving into God's Word and making it real in our lives. It's trusting that prayer isn't a giant claw machine where we may or may not receive a prize, but rather a means to draw us closer in our relationship with God. I recommend this book...whether with your kids, your grandkids, your neighborhood kids. BookLook Bloggers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.… (mehr)