Bible study, like any other subject, has a wide range of approaches and usually just as many opinions about it all. When it comes to curriculum, one of the things I appreciate most is when authors leave all the controversial opinions out or at least up to the parent/teacher's discretion. Bible Study Guide For All Ages dives straight into the content of the Bible provides multiple avenues to learn, remember and understand what the Bible says. This a program I had never heard of before, but will be sticking with for a while as the result of his review.

For my two big kids (7 and almost 5), we received the Primary (1st & 2nd grade) level which included Primary Student Pages, Primary Teacher Guide, Bible Book Summary Cards as well as the Wall Maps and Timeline set. There are a total of 416 lessons altogether, but we received 1-26 to get us started. The company was very generous in all the things we were given to look at!

Student Pages - Each child used a set of the Primary Level Student Pages. They also offer a Beginner, Intermediate, & Advanced Level Student Pages depending on the age and grade of your student. The student pages are consumable and full of multi-sensory learning activities designed to enhance understanding and memorization of scripture. The primary level includes activities like fill in the blank, coloring, review questions, timeline exercises, and character building ideas. The pages are easily pulled apart which makes the teacher in me panic a little. There's no real reason to keep them attached because once they are used you don't revisit them.

Primary Teacher's Guide - This is a spiral bound book that walks you through each lesson step by step. It is easy to follow and gives directions for every element, even the optional ones like the music CD and the Timeline.

Bible Book Summary Cards - These come in two sizes and we received the large, 8.5" x 11" ones. With just a few specific pictures, each card provides visual reminders of the books events on the front and a list of review/memory questions on the back. The cards are a fun tool for comprehension and retention.

Wall Maps and Timeline set - This includes a timeline, three maps, and the figures to go on each. These are really big! If you don't have much wall space, it won't be useful to you. However, if you have a place for it, it is a fantastic educational tool! I know my understanding of Bible time and locations would have been much different had I grown up with something like this around.

This picture is so true in our household. They are usually pretty enthusiastic about anything Bible related, but Bible Study Guide For All Ages has made our Bible study time easy and fruitful in all areas! Even though miss Z was on the young side, she surprised me with all the information she was remembering. With so much interaction and application of the scriptures, our daily conversation was considerably changed for the better! We reviewed the Primary Level, but remember there are 3 other levels that may work slightly different. Be sure to read through the rest of the Crew's reviews to get a feel for the other levels.

Keep with Bible Study Guide For All Ages on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BibleStudyG/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BibleStudyG

Originally posted in July 2018.

Offending people is getting harder and harder to avoid these days.  Have you noticed?  Everyone is mad about anything and EVERYTHING! The other day I ran across a homeschool meme that listed several things that are likely to discourage a homeschool parent.  It mainly focused on complaints about having children at home or how hard life is when kids aren't in school. Being a homeschool parent myself, many of them resonated with me and caused me to chuckle.  In the caption, the author asked, "What would you add?" As I read the comments, I royally got more than I was expecting.  I seriously thought we were just having a good time, trying to lighten the mood, but the comments sucked the wind out of me.  Just about every complaint was pointing out something they hated seeing on social media.  And, yes I agree there are some annoying and offensive things people post, but ya'll, I just unfollow those accounts!  One woman hated seeing posts about kids and sports because she couldn't afford them herself.  Another commented about pictures with grandparents because her children didn't have living grandparents.  There were complaints about pregnancy posts, promotion posts, negative posts, sibling posts, spouse posts and they just went on and on.  The discussions got more pointed with expectations suggesting that everyone in their chosen category needed to stop posting about that thing because of how it hurt the commenter.

And in that moment I realized how ridiculous we all sound.  Our society has truly bought into the idea that life is fair and social media just hasn't gotten the memo yet.  I agree that there are always more polite and respectful ways of doing things, but if I were to base my posting  on these people's suggested criteria, I literally couldn’t.  I could not post pictures of my children (the most common thing people do on social media) because many suffer from loss or infertility.  I could not post about any hardship, because someone has it worse (and they aren't complaining).  I could not post about my husband because it's anti-single or full of made-up lies.  Don't talk about money, religion or politics because 2020!  Don't post pictures of your purchases because some can't afford it.  Don't even mention a garden because it's making those without the space or the want-to feel bad.  Spoiler alert!  Under those conditions, everyone has the 'right' to be offended about something because we are all lacking in some way.  It's just as surreal as it is ridiculous.

To be fair, I have certainly found myself in a tizzy over other people's posts.  I absolutely do NOT agree with a lot of things that get touted around.  This last year has been worse than ever.  The temptation to let others know how wrong I think they are is huge some days. So, I am not in denial about disagreeing with what other people choose to say or post.  But that is really my point.  It is impossible to create a healthy environment in which I agree with everything other people say.  Impossible. I'm not able to champion all the causes you think I ought to without offending everyone else.  So everyone just needs to stop perpetuating this lie that YOU have to stop being you in order to make ME feel better because it isn't sustainable and certainly not healthy.

Since it is a foregone conclusion that my entire existence and life choices are offensive to somebody somewhere (according to social media consensus), what should I do? What CAN you do?  Some choose to remove social media from their life, which isn't the worst option depending on the day.  Others go on the offense with a blast of lunging aggression at anyone who might not adore everything they say or post.  Maybe you have a good suggestion that's a little more balanced than those two.  I sure would be happy to hear it.  The best course of action I have come up with is to focus on my people and pray that you do the same for yours.

No one else is in the greatest position as I am to love and support my children and husband. Whoever your people are, you are in a unique position to love and serve them. Since I try really hard to not be hateful, spiteful or insensitive already (especially online), at the end of the day I owe my kids and my husband love far more than I owe Jack or Jane in Anywhere, USA silence about my joys and tears because they are struggling too. The victories of making our marriage work (when it can be incredibly hard) or navigating an ADHD discovery that affects all of my children is real to my life.  Just as real as the thousands of dollars in school loans I walked out of college with or the severe allergic reaction to Ben & Jerry's ice cream that resulted in a pus-filled rash all over my body the spring before we got married.  In this age of bait and switch marketing, I feel like we owe each other real life more than carpeting the world for everyone's  short stick situation.

Real life really stinks sometimes. For everyone. But real life isn’t all bad either. For every rotten thing that happens to you in your life, there’s half a dozen more great opportunities. Let’s work harder at caring for our people and give less space for getting our feelings hurt.

You’re not the only one who feels lonely a lot.

For every person who could write volumes of praise about their best friend or circle of friends, there are half a dozen other people who would admit they feel lonely a lot and not satisfied with  the friends they may or may not have.  The disconnection of this past year might feel like a good explanation but I assure you, this was the case long before the world was forced to stop.  Society has been struggling with connection for a while now.

Maybe we need to start an application process for friendships!  Would that save us all a lot of time and heartbreak?  That way we could know someone truly desired a friendship, the application process might determine if they were really compatible.  Like, if I forget to text you back over 18 hours, will you lose interest in me or judge my sincerity? Will you always invite me to come along, even if you think I'll say no?  How many times have you silently, maybe subconsciously held expectations of a friend only to be disappointed?  You get invited to the bigger things that most people on the fringe are anyway, but the just because I want to spend time with you, those are rare.  What about the incompatible ones? You feel like you ought to be the best of friends, but they don't get how you spend your money or parent your kids.  High school friends are often friends out of convenience, but once that common meeting place goes away, maintaining friends is really hard for a lot of people.  Especially if you're in the market for more than a surface friend.  Can you tell them you're having trouble without feeling judged or alienated?  Honestly that is a really unique skill that most of us aren't very good at.

Let's be honest.  Some people aren't good at being friends.  Some people are too busy to be close friends.  Many people define what a good friend is VERY differently.  Some people are afraid of rejection.  Some people are consumed with their own life.  Some seasons of life literally push us down a crack and no one notices until it's too late.  Most of us aren't in the habit of expressing our needs or desires for a friendship.  I'm good at feeling left out or longing to be the it-person for someone I admire, but I would likely hyperventilate before expressing any of that to the person directly.   Maybe you're like that.  And so assumption after assumption gets made about how full other people's lives are and what kind of friends are bringing them joy.  We assume people don't need our friendship.  We assume other people aren't lonely.  The loneliness that people do feel doesn't see much light of day because it typically gets tagged as whining or pathetic. 

So, reality gets hidden and mental health issues continue to grow.

I recently had someone I've known for many years, but have never lived by start texting me regularly with the expressed intent to be better friends with me.  No expectations or judgements, just genuine interest and discussion.    If you know me at all, you know I'm way better at deep soul talk than small-talk so this has led to some bearing of the heart in really great ways.  This really positive thing has me wondering about the rest of the world.  Do people normally do this? Because this is the first time it’s every happened to me. Have you ever purposed in your heart to be a safe friend for someone? I think I have tried to help people from time to time, but I don’t think I’ve been quite so intentional and consistent. I fear I have no clue how most of the world maintains their relationships, but I wonder if this approach has possibilities for improvement.

We're all holding our collective breath and have been for about a year now.  Our fear and humanity has been paraded around like a side show almost. It's taken our disconnected living and put it on steroids.  We've yearned for normalcy and human interaction.  As the world recovers to a better place, what are we going to do about connection? I'm not sure what all the answers are, but I believe we have to do better somehow.  Even if we don’t see it right away, surely you know people are in pain that they don’t feel safe talking about. Maybe we just all need to be a little more honest about our feelings and needs.  If I want my children to grow up with a healthy mental and emotional life, I can't teach them that it's right to ignore pain (mine or yours) until it grows into a forest fire out of control.

One of my children recently had something on their mind, but was struggling with telling me or not.  Turns out they were afraid we would laugh. The beauty of it was how normal of a question it was. But in their child-like mind, they were afraid they were alone in this concern.  We all have concerns or fears that the devil tries to convince us are ours alone.   But it's not true.  Lots of people feel lonely.  Many people struggle with their place in the world.  We are not alone, but more likely just not communicating very well.

Let's work on that. 

As Christians we claim to listen for God's direction.  When the world gets uncomfortable, we remind ourselves that God is still on the throne.  The messages we agree with and the sentiments we spout suggest that we are concentrating on what God is saying far more than what men are saying.  I grew up going to church and spent my whole life in religious circles.  The purpose of preaching is to hear what God has to say, right? But who are we really listening to?

How much of our lives is spent pouring over what mere humans are saying?  Culture, experts, trends, jobs, news, corporations, and so many other entities take priority in our heart over God's powerful and proven word.  It's easy to get caught up in playing house, as we do and make unconscious concessions simply because life seems to demand it.  Playing sports seems to demand missing family and church functions.  Corporate interests seem to determine how I spend my money.  The world's experts demand I dismiss how God designed the human body.  College and jobs determine where I live rather than the spiritual health of my family.  How many ridiculous trends have led to the absolute mistreatment of others or permanent damage to ourselves?  The way we live life in this modern age does not make sense on so many levels, but it especially falls short when compared to the instructions in living we find in scripture.

There is a lot of bullying going on in our world, even in the church and I wonder how many of us are participating?  Society is pushing their own ideas hard and when anyone thinks differently, they are often overtaken like a swarm of insects in the summer.  It's not a new thing for Christians to disagree with the world's ideas, but the habit we're in of attacking each other for considering God's ideas above man's is one we need to quit cold turkey!  When we're carefully handling God's ideas, rather than being consumed with the world's chaos, there is much peace to be found.

Today in Oklahoma it is 18 degrees and not supposed to get above freezing for a week or so.  I am 41 years old and I don't ever remember that happening.  I'm told the last time was sometime in the 1980's so I know it's possible, but just another item in the bizarre column of life we have stacked up.  The world looks crazy right now, but hasn't it always? Could it be that we've just listened to imperfect humans for a little too long?  Every day, every circumstance, God has something to say about it.  He's been giving guidance and direction from the beginning of whatever is troubling you.  Are we bothering to consider it?

Are you struggling with something wildly accepted by the world?  Is there nagging in the back of your mind, but absolutely afraid of the onslaught that would come if you start asking questions?  It's easy to dismiss some of God's directions, because they feel unreasonable up against our modern existence.  But doesn't that tell you something? You're listening to the wrong expert.  The world is a mess on a good day so why should we get bogged down by all it is saying?  The very foundation of the Christian faith is built on truth.  How on earth are you going to find truth in worldly places right now?  The next time you find yourself getting weary of all the chatter, ask yourself who you are listening to.  Jesus came so that we might have life in abundance.  That means we have to listen to what He has said far more than the messages of culture, corporation and corruption.

"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joins and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

Hebrews 4:12