Last week, I was contacted by an aspiring Christian writer named Bonnie Lucas. She wanted to share some of her children’s stories with our readers, so I gave them a quick read through.
The stories were awesome and I wanted to pass them along to you. My first thought was to add some discussion questions and use them for learning actives related to different Christian topics. That would make them very useful for parents and Sunday School teachers.
Here’s the catch. We want your feedback. Specifically, I want to know how you could imagine using these stories in your ministry. Are teaching stories something that would be useful in your ministry?
Take a look and leave a comment below. Bonnie is waiting for your feedback, so don’t be shy about leaving a comment.
Download The Stories Below
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
We just finished reading Grandma’s Tea Cup. It wasn’t bad and my Kindergartener was able to read most of it, so if the age group is K-1st grade, it’s not bad. There was a missing “let” in one of the early sentences where grandma was going to “let” Stella hold the tea-cup. I think the sentence was phrased “was going to her the”. The story wasn’t bad, though. I think with some illustrations, it would work out pretty well for the younger reader.
If it’s going to tie in to Christian themes, some sort of author’s note might be a nice to have as well. Maybe a set of questions to discuss with the kids after the story. This would be good for people who just aren’t creative with coming up with questions. We’ll read through some of the others soon and give you some more feedback.
For use within ministry, I can see this being used most easily at our preschool academy to tie in with a theme. I don’t know if I’d easily work it in to a Sunday morning lesson or not, but that could be a possibility as well for the younger kids.
Peter,
Thanks for your feedback. Bonnie is very appreciative of your interest. I’m glad to have readers like you.
I just read all three of the stories. I appreciate the author’s desire to receive feedback. That is a difficult thing to do, allowing your own creation to be evaluated.
As a mother and a leader in the children’s ministry at my church, I’m looking for good books/stories to communicate the truth of the gospel to children. My concern is that so often the moral of a “Christian” story is to “try harder” to obey. This seems to be a large part of most children’s curriculum and stories. Isn’t the Gospel message that we can’t try hard enough, but need the work of Christ? The challenge is how to communicate this to children (it is hard enough to communicate it to adults!). Rules and obedience are definitely part of the message, but should this always be the focus of Christian children’s books? I think the non-Christian world can communicate this message just as well and sometimes better. What sets us apart is the truth of Christ and the need for his work upon cross. Very “religious” words, I know, and I would love to hear how other communicate this in the language and understanding of children.
Perhaps the questions that the previous comment mentions would be helpful to bring this message in. It would also be great for the actual story to communicate this truth.
Freddy’s Bath Time ~ Question about the structure of this story… At the beginning Teddy Bear saw his brother in the bath tub (and would have seen the water running). A little while later it seemed like neither bear was in the bath, but were having a conversation outside about whether or not they would get in the bath.
Hope this is helpful. I would challenge Bonnie to keep writing and keep seeking feedback. It is wonderful that she is using her gift/passion for the Kingdom!
I think it is a nice little story,but it needs more like the little girls emotions all the night before and how the child was trying to think of somethings to say to grandma if she found out and maybe prayed that night looking for the answers but she kept remembering her sunday school lesson on lying . so she desided to make the right choice after praying, and came to her grandma with the truth .
I realize you are just presenting the stories for review,the scripture and lesson plan comes later..I really liked the stories and could immediately think of scripture to apply,especially to obedience..i think we look at obedience in the wrong light alot of the time…as needing to be “good” or working at being “good” ..we aren’t and need God’s grace &mercy…it’s not about being good but having a heart submitted to Him in all ways…it’s the heart..Jesus submitted Himself to God the Father… it is so imperative that we all learn and train them in obedience to the Lord and His authorities, so ulitimately our children will have their hearts turned to Him instead of away in rebellion and pride …if we can instill this early in the child and reinforce that which is to be trained in the family ,then it is helping to round out the spiritual responsiblity we have to these children who are in our “family” to lead them to Him in all ways,come alongside ,disciple them …it’s difficult to teach to the very young group we have ,and I appreciate the “story” approach before the scripture application…it can help a young child to relate to the scripture truth then… i thought of some small craft “ideas” to tie in as well…Bonnie if this is the gift the Lord gave you,He will guide and develop it for you,as He created your mind ,heart and body for this work ,use it to edify the church sister!!!! ps.do you permitt me I use them asap in Junior church,try them out on the “audience”?
Hi Jody! Thank you for the response. I’m so sorry it has been so long for me reply! I didn’t get many responses at first and kind of lost track of this. If you receive this please let me know if you used the story and how it went. I’ve been struggly with whether to continue to write. These 3 stories were my first three and just wanted to see how they were received. They weren’t meant to be lessons, per se, at first. I look forward to hearing from you.
I think the stories were good stories to use for Sunday school. They are short stories that can be told in 5 minutes–good for the short attention span of younger children. I especially liked the Grandma’s Teacup. Perhaps the stories should include the Biblical applications or a verse for the children to memorize or think about.
Laura, Thank you for your reply and suggestions. I look forward to revising this story. This was the second story I wrote, so the process is very new to me. I will definitely use your suggestions.
I enjoyed Bonnie Lucas’ story about Grandma’s teacups. It was very realistic and it had a probable real ending. It is what I call a good life skills story, useful in Sunday School and to encourage discussion during youth group sessions planned around dialogue. But it will not be remembered long by today’s children who are accustomed to video games and lots of animation. To “update” what is a good story, may I suggest you put it into book video format. Add the main words to a powerpoint presentation having a picture background and include voice narration. It can be burned on to a CD/DVD or uploaded to video sites. Keep writing life skills stories.
Cheyenne, thank you for your feedback. As I am new at this, your comments are very helpful. I lost track of this and am anxious to revise and continue to write for the Lord. Thanks again for the excellent idea!