Posted in Reviews of books
Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God Written by Bruce A. Ware
Published at Crossway
About the book Equips parents to guide their young children through all major doctrines in an understandable, chapter-a-day format.
Sure, it’s easy to teach your children the essentials of Christian theology when you’re a theology professor. But what about the rest of us?
With Big Truths for Little Hearts, Bruce Ware, (you guessed it!) a theology professor, encourages and enables parents of children 6–14 years of age to teach through the whole of systematic theology at a level their children can understand. Parents can teach their children the great truths of the faith and shape their worldviews early, based on these truths.
The book covers ten topics of systematic theology, devoting several brief chapters to each subject, making it possible for parents to read one chapter per day with their children. With this non-intimidating format, parents will be emboldened to be their children’s primary faith trainers—and perhaps learn a few things themselves along the way.
Who is Bruce A. Ware? Bruce A. Ware is the president of the Evangelical theological Society in 2009 and professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has written numerous journal entries, book chapters and book reviews, and has authored God’s Lesser Glory, God’s Greater Glory, and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
My Thoughts Last month, I have won the prize for bloggers at Crossway which was 25$ on the online store. After much thinking, I choose a book and funny enough I had picked the next book that will be sent to bloggers. I was told about this and was able to select another book since I was going to receive Big Truth for Young Hearts shortly after.
When I first became a Christian – some 12 years ago – I started thinking about how I would teach my kids about God and Jesus Christ. I worried a bit about it simply because I wasn’t coming from a Christian family. I would have to learn from scratch almost. My husband on the other hand had been raised with some Christian values.
I didn’t have to worry because to explain the basis of Christianity it is quite simple. However, when you come to more theological aspects of things, anyone might wonder where to start. Well, I am happy to tell you that someone already thought about it and wrote a book for you. New on the market is Big Truths for Young Hearts written by Bruce A. Ware. The book is supposed to encourage and enable parents of children 6-14 years old to teach through the theology in an understandable, chapter-a-day format. However, I find that 6 years old might be a little too young… especially for children for which the attention span might be short. I can see myself doing a chapter-a-day with my 8th year old son who is able to concentrate on things that is read to him. However, my soon-to-be 6 year old son would have difficulties.
Nevertheless, I decided to dig into this interesting book to discover more about it. The chapters are divided in 9 sections; God’s Word and God’s Own Life as God, God as Three in One, Creator and Ruler of All, Our Human Nature and Our Sin, Who Jesus Is, The Work That Jesus Has Done, The Holy Spirit, Our Great Salvation and The Church of Jesus Christ. As you can see, it is not easy subjects to talk about with children. But questions might arise about some specific one like - What is the trinity? What is sin? What is baptism? And so on.
I find that the author explains in simple terms as well as with illustrations the concepts approached in this book. I see our family using this book as part of our homeschool year and I am planning to sit down with my oldest son during the nap time and go through this book slowly. I want to make sure that he will understand the theology presented in the book. Not only will he learn more about God but I suspect that I will too.
To top it off, at the end of each chapter, you will find some questions to help you discuss the chapter with your child. There is also a memory verse which you can decide to learn as a family together. What a great way to instill a good habit in our children and in ourselves. The Bible does mention about keeping God’s word in our heart.
On this Remembrance Day, I was doing my chapter of the book Power of a Praying Woman and wrote on facebook about Psalm 103 and the reasons to praise God. Funny enough while digging in Big Truths for Young Hearts that day, I come across the chapter God Provides All good Things in the World which also mentions Psalm 103. Is it a coincidence? I think not because in the struggles we are experiencing with our business we need to be reminded to praise Him in all circumstances – no matter what is going on. I definitively got a confirmation of my previous lesson when I read that chapter.
I strongly recommend Big Truths for Young Hearts for any families who want to give a solid base of theology to their children.
This book was provided for review by Crossway.
Posted by Tracy
