Remember to bond your young child with his real, true God and Maker and Savior, by reading to him from the Bible every night. The children's Egermeier version is all in one book, has glorious pictures, is simple to understand, and is easily conquered because it tells the Bible story in just one volume. :) I used just one simple volume last year with the children that I taught for seven months—so that they were familiar with every single story by the time that they moved out of state. We had to get through it fast, and DID! They loved it when I read to them from it. It was our closest bonding time. It is an investment in their joy, because God anoints the reading of it and you can feel it in the air whenever the Bible is read—a small supernatural experience every day! There is no book like it.
Many a great man has said, "What I learned of God, I learned at my mother's knee." There are only a few years of influence that you will have over your young child, and then the door begins to close. The years FLY BY. It is far more important to read to him from the Bible than any library book, when your time is limited to reading from only one book on many a night. By doing it nightly, you establish a habit in your child’s little spirit so that he wants to reach out for God every day, to check in with the lover of his soul, every day. When the mama does this, it establishes a life time habit for the child—something many parents never give their children. It is so much easier to establish this love of the Bible, right from the get-go, in childhood. Many an adult wants to read the Bible but is clobbered, due to the lack of the habit.
Just look at how beautiful Jesus is to us: from Charles Spurgeon's devotions way back in the 1800's, we read:
"Never did anyone have a brother like him. Never did a spouse have such a husband as Christ has been to my soul. Never did a sinner have a better savior. Never did a mourner have a better comforter than Christ has been to my spirit. I want no one else. In life he is my life. In death he is the death of death. In poverty Christ is my riches. In sickness he makes my bed. In darkness he is my star. In brightness he is my sun!”
Such a lover has never been—apart from the Savior. Acquaint your child well with Him :) and he will thank you all his life. There is no better gift that you could give him.
With ya,
Renee
