Preparing for Story Time

While we have accumulated an entire storage box of possible stuff for future kids, most of what's in it is pretty dependent on what age/gender the kids are (not sure that a 7 year old boy would want a soft fuzzy pink lamb).

Before last weekend, the only thing we had thought of that our kids would for sure need no matter age or gender was sheets (even if some of the kids started in a crib, they'd need sheets at some point).

However, we were in Half-Price books selling a bunch of stuff on Friday (yay for more stuff getting out of the house!), and I found a must-have for our future kids.  It's a selection of 270 Bible stories.  And they're not simplified versions, they're excerpts from the ESV (English Standard Version) Bible, but it's full of kid-friendly illustrations and put in chronological format.

I started marking selections I'm extra excited about reading to our kids.  I can't wait to show them where it talks about how much God loves children.  It's hard to express how much I'm looking forward to sharing with our kids how Jesus himself was adopted by Mary & Joseph.   I desire so deeply for them to know how much God loves them, and to know that God's grace is theirs if they believe in Him.  My prayer for them tonight is summed up in Ephesians 3:17-19:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I can hardly wait for story time.