We see divine vocation in Luke’s Gospel with the wonderful story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. 2 Both women have parallel stories: neither expects to be pregnant and each stands in the presence of a miracle. Elizabeth says that her own unborn baby responded immediately with joy to the presence of the other; it is an unborn child who is the first to recognise and respond to Jesus and who causes Elizabeth to give joyful thanks and praise. This also means that when we look at our children and marvel at how they grow, change and develop, we are not just seeing physical change, but something deeply spiritual, a response to a divine vocation, God at work and in relationship. So children can never be less important than anyoneelse and they can never be less important within the Church. Similarly, we cannot treat the unborn child as disposable or less than human, without cutting across the divine love and vocation that is uniquely and eternally focussed upon him or her. Yes, we own every single one of these children’s Bibles I’ve mentioned below… and these are just the ones that I like and recommend! You might wonder: Why do I need to have more than one children’s Bible? Well, I’m not sure that you “need” multiple Bibles, but I have found that not a single children’s bible includes all of the stories in the Bible (or all the stories I want to teach my children). Before I get to the list, let’s first talk a little bit about what you should look for in Bibles for toddlers. There are a lot of options out there, but when you’re shopping for children who are specifically 1-3 years old, here’s some things to look for in a toddler Bible: Each of these do not follow the Bible chronologically but rather use a theme to tie all of the stories together. For example the ABCs one will go A-Z with each story focusing on something that starts with each letter, and so on.

I also love that the stories are only a few sentences each. Even though you can’t get really in depth with only a few sentences, it’s a good way to introduce your toddler to so many stories from the Bible without risking losing their attention. So this is a great toddler Bible option![sc name=”clearfix”] The Baby Bible Series byRobin Currie We continue to revisit our favorite Bible storybooks even as the kids grow (and especially because we have multiple ages in our family), but we transition the kids into a full-text Bible of their own around 6 years old. Sometime between six and eight years old also tends to be the time we begin helping the kids develop their own quiet time, so having their own Bible isn’t only important but exciting too. The Jesus Storybook Bible— For ages 5+ This is an actual Bible with all 66 books and comes in the NIrV translation to ease young readers into being able to read the Bible on their very own. The NIrV is not my favorite translation, and certainly not the most reliable, but it is a great way to bridge the gap between children’s Bible story books and the NIV, ESV, or even King James translations. Christian Children’s Books We believe that God is the loving Father of all kids. It is HIS divine will that young people come to faith in Jesus Christ and find salvation through the Gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit to bring them to faith.This board-book baby Bible, much like The Pajama Bible, is written in beautiful poetry. There are only 10 stories included and they are relatively short (around 2 paragraphs each–perfect for a baby’s short attention span). The Bible itself is large enough to hug and the entire book is covered with a snuggly, sheep-like fabric (which you can’t see from the picture)! The emphasis of every story is on God’s love for us. This is now my go-to baby Bible for baby showers and baby gifts! I will not lie. It was not love at first sight with this Bible. Quite frankly, I thought it was…boring. So, I didn’t use it much with my firstborn. When I’m looking for a winner of a toddler Bible, I’m looking for a lot of the same things I would normally want in a children’s Bible. I covered that topic in this post, but I’ll review: #1 Biblical Accuracy My youngest, Kayla, was born 13 months after Alyssa. We started using Bible Time with her right away. Now, Alyssa is 3 and Kayla is 2 and we continue to teach them every day.

Toddlers aren’t exactly well known for their ability to handle delicate objects, amiright? #4 Engaging and Toddler Approved! One of my boys absolutely loved The Adventure Bible. He had previously resisted getting into a regular Bible-reading habit, but when we gave him his Adventure Bible, I often found him curled up in bed reading more. What a joy it was to see him wanting to read his Bible and sneaking more and more time reading!We live in a technological age when we can see unborn babies on an ultrasound scan and penetrate into the hitherto unknown world of the foetus. We know that babies and small children are intensely physical beings, exploring their own bodies and using those bodies to explore the world through the senses. Yet we don’t usuallyconnect this physicality with responding directly to a call from God, but perhaps we should.

All of my kids have loved reading these volumes over and over again. The pictures are a little different and keep the kids’ attention, and all of the stories emphasize God as the hero. The Big Picture Story Bible – For ages: 2-7

How does God call children?

The other primary reason you want to have a variety of Bibles for toddlers is to help keep them interested in reading their Bible. Young children have extremely short attention spans and get bored easily. And you certainly don’t want your child to get bored of God’s Word! So having a variety of options for their age level will help maintain a feeling of excitement and interest for reading God’s word within your child’s young heart. Ministry-To-Children.com helps you tell kids about Jesus by providing age-appropriate Bible study material and Sunday School curriculum – all 100% free online. Like the Adventure Bible above, the reading level of this Bible would have been too much (at 6 years old) for two of my kids. For those two, we choose one of the ICB Bibles listed above. This is another word for word Scripture Bible (not a story book) in the Holman Christian Standard translation, and it’s another favorite in our home. This parable for children, written by the author of Crazy Love, is a wonderful portrayal of how we function best when following the Bible, which God has given us as our “instruction manual for life.” The story tells about a village who plows a field by having all of the villagers push and pull the tractor, not knowing that it could actually run by itself until someone finds the instruction manual in the attic. Just the like the tractor, we can achieve our true potential with God’s help when we look to our instruction manual (the Bible)!