A different Bible for each guide?

[MelInKansas]

In some ways I get it. The Bibles are on different levels, have good pictures, and the guides are written to go along with them (or the readings are picked out to go along with the weekly themes). But it kind of bothers me that we have to (or it is suggested to) buy a different Bible for each guide (and even for different levels in the guides). I know you can "use your own." But I am just curious for those of you who have done several guides, do you find the Bible that is recommended really adds to it? And for Carrie, what is the thought behind these different Bibles?

I waver because I want my children to be used to hearing the Word of God in adult language, as they will at church, but of course I also want them to understand it and have the visuals that help them remember it. Also we already own at least 3 Children's Bibles, and I am feeling like by the time we go through 2-3 HOD guides then our whole house will be filled with them!

Thanks for your input.

[MamaPajama]

I think it's good for children to hear the Word as it is written, and to hear and see the stories in ways they can understand. I have no experience with the guides yet, but I will be following the suggestion and buying each child their own Bible. At first I sort of felt like you do because we too probably have 4-5 lying around here. But then I thought it will be neat for each child to receive his or her own special Bible. Plus, I myself have owned several Bibles over the years, so I know that each different version has something new to offer. That said, I hope you get the advice you are seeking from seasoned HOD-users and Carrie as well.

[Tukata]

I would also love to hear responses to this. We have several children's Bibles as well. We recently bought my daughter a children's Bible that has real Bible words in it (for select stories - it does not contain the entire Bible), with corresponding pictures, as I wanted her to hear the real Bible. I was thinking I would have her use that Bible with the LHFHG this fall, but maybe I should use one Carrie recommends instead? Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say about the recommended ones!

[GinainMD]

I plan to buy the suggested Bibles and when we are finished with them, bless a child who may otherwise never receive a Bible. I feel guilty having so many when others have none.

[jenntracy]

I feel the same way as you. Personally, we have only used The Beginners Bible ,because we already had it and loved it. We use the NKJV Bible, for the most part, when stories weren't in that.
Once our son was thru with the Beginners Bible in Emerging readers, he was excited to get his own big boy Bible. The whole Bible, not stories. He is 6.5 yr old. The print in his Bible is better than mine and i think has better maps. It isn't even a study Bible. Just an inexpensive one with some Bible helps in it.

One, we see no problem with kids hearing the Bible, instead of Bible stories. Yes, stories are great but at some point they need to hear the whole word. What did people do before all these picture and story Bibles came out?

Two, it is one way we can save a little money.

Hope i didn't step on any toes. Just my personal opinion.

JEnn D.

[kvmck]

I could be wrong, but I think only the first two guides use a children's Bible? I started LHTH thinking that I'd just use one of the 3 children's Bible's we already owned... however, a few weeks in I decided it would be easier to use the one that is written into the guide--which I thought didn't look very good-- but I was wrong! My 3 year old really likes it. I decided when we do Little Hearts we will get the Bible to go with the guide as well. My olders who have used Beyond and now Bigger use their study Bibles, we didn't find HOD in time for them to do the earlier guides. I have always tried to read from the Bible to my kids daily at every age so they are hearing the grown-up version as well. I think it helps my children to hear the Bible stories in a simple story format--even the olders like it. And my older ones will now come to me after reading in their Bibles and inform me of the details that the children's Bibles left out--which is exciting and oddly discouraging at the same time b/c I've been reading those stories to them from the Bible most of their lives!

[crlacey]

I understand what you're saying about "Do I really need another Bible?". But we have bought the one that matches the level and guide we are using. As much as I would love my son to be able to sit and listen from the KJV that we have, there is no way he would sit for the length of the story, nor would he understand most of it. We do expose him to it (and my daughter already has her own large print KJV for church) but when I am doing a study just for him, I give him a Bible that is at his level so that he can get the most out of it. I guess I look at it like this, I wouldn't give my 1st grader a history book meant for a jr high student and expect her to remember much if anything from it so I buy her a book that is meant to meet her at her level of understanding. And since I feel that the Bible study is so much more important than a history study I buy the Bible that is at her level. But that's just my opinion or way of not feeling guilty for buying more books.

[Tukata]

Angie,
Thank you so much for your well thought-out reply! That really helps. I was thinking as I was reading this post how very blessed we are to have so many options! My husband grew up overseas because his parents were missionaries. The people they minister to do not have any part of any Bible in their own language. What a blessing to provide our children with these helps as well as the real Bible!
Erin

[MelInKansas]

Yes, thanks for the replies. I may buy the Bible for LHFHG this fall. We had been using the Beginner's Bible and I would just look up whether or not that day's story was in it, and if not read it from the regular Bible. That works fine, typically the Bible readings are short and I discuss it with my kids to make sure they understand (plus all the other activities tend to reinforce the meaning).

Angie I do like your thoughts, we look up things explained simply for us when we don't understand, so why can't they? Great thoughts!

[moedertje]

In all the guides that I have used so far Carrie has done a great job at having an option to use your own "adult" Bible or using a Children's Bible.
When we did LHFHG we just used the passage in the bible, because ds was ready for it. Even in LHTH I used my own Bible and paraphrased difficult to understand stories. I now have found an older edition of "Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes" at a Goodwill bookstore. Even my younger kids are exposed to the adult Bible during Family Bible Readings so I do not mind using a Bible geared to their age with pictures during school time. They love it and I absolutely love the 3 questions at the end of each little lesson. In knowing the stories from previous readings, I usually add to the story as well.
So, I have found that you can very easily adapt for the need of your little one. Success with your decision on what to do....
Thanks again to Carrie for being very thoughtful and mindful of the differences in children and perhaps even budgets.

[water2wine]

I think Carrie does a great job in writing in a way that respects many different family preference with Bible. Some people like to read directly from the Word only and others want their children to understand it on their level. The guides increase in age level and difficulty as they go. For those that want to hear the Word in more of a story format for their little ones the story Bibles are the way to go. Truly if I were going that route I would not want to have to read the same stories word for word over and over again. It is not the same to me as it is reading the Bible over and over again. But also when they are younger I would want something more simplistic than when they are older I would want more in depth. I am reading mostly directly from the Word but I believe that is the point. I am really glad to have both options of stories that correlate to the Word and the actual Bible because often times we read both.

[my3sons]

Carrie does work very hard to provide options so families can consider what they like best for their dc, and I am very thankful for that. I don't think we can have too many Bibles in the house - story or regular Bibles - provided they are chosen very carefully. I'd never say we have too many mysteries, or too many adventure books in the house. I actually love the idea of my dc's shelves being lined with Bibles. In fact, I've gotten even more story Bibles/devotionals and Bibles for them to read over the summer, along with reading from their own Bibles. We read the Bible at night too, alternating between a Story Bible (i.e. right now we're reading Catherine Vos's story Bible) and just reading straight through a book of the Bible.

This may seem like overkill, I know. So, why? Why do this? Because I am plain scared about everything else that's out there, and whatever I can do to ensure that reading the Bible is a part of their everyday life, that is what I am going to do. When you were a child, did you regularly choose to read your Bible each day? I came from a very Christian home and did not do this, ever, other than in church. My mom did, however, read from 2 large volumes of Story Bibles each and every night, and that is how I grew to love the Bible stories and know them by heart. (Interestingly enough, both of my parents had daily quiet times, but I did not, and it did not occur to me to start one until I had been married for quite a few years - hence my desire for our dc to have Bible Quiet times and read their Bibles every day - thankfully HOD does this for me during the school year). Just last night, my ds took his volumes (there are 10 of them) of Arthur Maxwell's story Bibles up to his room to read for fun before bed. My oldest ds chose to do his "Building on the Rock" series for fun, along with his Bible where he looked up all of the Scriptures to match the stories - for fun. It sure did my heart good to see that. I guess it's my hope that NOT having a Bible quiet time is a foreign thought to them when they grow up because it's just a part of living life right on a daily basis.

Whether it's reading straight from the Bible or from Story Bibles, I have a total respect for the thoughts on both sides of that coin. But, either way, daily reading of God's word is soooo important that it cannot be overdone. This passage is constantly playing in the back of my mind...
Deut. 6:5-9:
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Wow - that's like all the time, isn't it? Anyway, great question - thank you so much for posting it! It is an excellent question to ponder, and one that is worthy of consideration.

In Christ,
Julie

[MelInKansas]

Thanks Julie for your thoughts. You're right, they can never read the Bible too much. With the several different ones we have, picture Bible, Beginner's Bible, baby board book Bible, and a children's Bible that contains the whole scripture with some study helps for kids, my kids like to get out each one and "read" them.

I guess also it seems strange to me that at least for LHTH and LHFHG there are two different (or actually even 4 different) Bibles recommended. This is where it seems a bit much to me. Couldn't there be one that you could use for both of those programs? Of course I haven't done LHFHG yet so I don't know much about how it differs from LHTH (my guess is quite a lot). I am really looking forward to doing it though! And like I said before, I will probably buy the Bible for LHFHG just to make my preparation/planning a tiny bit easier. I'm sure we will really enjoy it!

[Carrie]

Melissa,

You've already had some great responses, so I'll just pop-in and explain our thinking on the two Bible choices within LHTH and the two within LHFHG. At the LHTH age range one Bible is suited for 2-3 year olds and one is suited for 4-5 year olds. There is a huge difference in what a 2 year old can listen to as to what a 4 year old can listen to, hence the choice of Bibles. In LHFHG, we did only have one Bible choice (beside reading from the actual Scripture itself) originally for the 5-7 age range but when it went out of print we added a replacement Bible. Then, the previous Bible came back in print again (so now we offer a choice of younger Bible and older Bible in LHFHG as well).

Blessings,
Carrie