Love Letters from God; Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart; Updated Edition
It gets tiring as a children’s minister and as a parent having to constantly check for proper representation of God’s children in books. Combing through curriculum, finding ways to supplement so that every child can see him/her/themself in the lessons takes a lot of my attention. When Glenys Nellist first released Love Letters From God; Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart, my children and I added it to our collection. We enjoyed it on our own, but it became a trusted resource for me to use with congregations as they sought to diversify their curriculum offerings. When the updated edition was released and the publisher sent me a copy, I wondered how you could improve a great resource. Just a few little details have been changed, and as a children’s minister and as a parent, I find this edition to be even better than the original!
Love Letters From God; Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart tells the stories of several women from the Bible, including Eve, Miriam, Rahab, Deborah, Hannah, and Naaman’s servant, parallelling the retelling from Scripture with encouragement and God’s promises from other parts of Scripture. God is consistently referred to as God; no traditional pronouns used. Each story is completed with a love letter from God to the reader, detailing the love and promises that God provides. The original version had these as lift-the-flap, and I am thrilled that these flaps are not included, avoiding the consternation when they invariably rip and either hang sloppily off the page or fall off jaggedly and set children up for a tussle with the adult. The book jacket is also no longer included, which is a bonus because we all know how those just fall off/get torn/get stuck on the shelf/cause arguments between adults and children. The stories are well told, and are paired with soft, engaging illustrations.
This updated version can be used in many ways in your ministry. Yes, keep it on your shelf to use in children’s moments and bedtime stories and prayers. Yes, you’ll want this to supplement your children’s ministries curriculum. You can even use it as the spine of a semester of children’s ministries lessons or multigenerational sessions. (Wouldn’t it be amazing to have the group write love letters to God? A collection of prayers around these readings?) Perhaps you want a gift on hand for new members? Or an alternative to give when some siblings are receiving Bibles and you have a child that is not? This would be an excellent choice. I had already kept this book around for these reasons, but with the updated features, I find it even more useful.
