The Biography Series That Brings Bible Characters to Life
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Kingdom Files are biographies for kids from Barbour Publishing that put life into the Biblical narratives. If your child is only getting the Sunday School version of the Bible they are missing out on so much. If you are a parent you know how much explaining it takes to answer the simplest questions from your kids. So why is it that the younger a demographic a Bible is aimed for the shorter the stories are.
Barbour Publishing gives flesh and bones by breaking it into three parts.
The Fact File: this contains key information about the Bible Character God has called to do big things for His kingdom. This gave us map and timeline data for our story.
Action File: this is where the story takes place.
The story of Jonah was nine short chapters and just under 70 pages. I read “Who Was Jonah?” to our just turned seven year old son. We read a few chapters each night at bed time while on a family trip. It was a great way to settle back down after a busy day and connect to a busy little one. Bed time reading has fallen away from our regular habits but it is always a special time. I could see reading the rest of the Kingdom Files books after dinner or as a wind down activity to get out of the TV habit too.
Our son loved the story. He was completely engaged. The text was well written so he followed along with little questions. The story captured him. Each night the refrain was repeated, “One more chapter, please?”
Adding to the story doesn’t mean changing or creating new material
The Biblical narrative is rich in context and I like how Barbour Publishing handles expanding the story through the biography approach.
The third part is the Power File: this is where you child gets to make connections to see how God is working in their life. The story of Jonah is one of deep conflict, turmoil and distress. Themes of fear, anger and rebellion are all present and not made to feel too light. Yet, God’s loving kindness shines through even more as the story unfolds. As adults we understand the nuance of Jonahs rebellion, but for a child these books do a great job of helping a child identify how Jonah was feeling and why he was running away.
Each Power-Up is an example from the story
God Cares, God Loves, God is Faithful, Live By Faith…connecting to the story and our lives. Each is accompanied with a memory verse. These could be a morning reading for your child or and evening devotional. There is even a section for notes in each book and with the price of $4.99 you can not go wrong by letting a younger child begin to journal here.
Life is hard and we all face difficult tasks that God and others ask of us. We talked about how we don’t always want to do what we are told, much like Jonah. The author emphasizes how silly it was for Jonah to think he could hide from God. We talked about the ways we try to hide our sin. We talked about how God already knows us so we never need to be afraid.
The story highlighted how even though Jonah had run away, hid and disobeyed God, he admitted to every part of his story and told the sailors that the storm was his fault. We talked about how it is important to admit when we do wrong. Did you know that the sailors on the boat that day gave glory to God. Jonah’s detour might have changed their worlds forever, it sure did change Jonah’s.
Biographies Give the Reader More
Reading this extended biography format was a rich way to talk our way through the story of Jonah and learn about the rich love God has for the people he created. You could not have gotten this level of depth with a seven year old out of a three page children’s Bible story book. It is time we stop underestimating our young children. They are capable of understanding the depth of human emotion. Connecting to Biblical characters is a great way for them to self identify in the narratives and develop the kind of character that will help them in their every day life.
My nine year old daughter read, “Who Was Mary, Mother of Jesus?” with much the same results. Great questions and a curiosity about the other stories in the Bible. If a Sunday School synapses is not enough for your child…Barbour Publishing has done a really great job of bringing the Bible to life in a way that only adds.
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Check Barbour Publishing out on their social channels and as always see how other families are using theKingdom files in their homes by clicking the link below.
