Teaching God's Word to My 2 Year Old

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to share God's Word with James now that he is 2 and developing his vocabulary and comprehension. I'm sure there are a million ideas out there but here is what has been working for us.

I bought James a lot of Bible story picture books. We have the Jesus Storybook Bible but it is a little beyond his attention span right now. Some of the books we got that he really enjoys are: 

God Made Me this Way

101 Bible Story Words

Touch and Feel Creation

The ABC Bible Verse Book 

I love the ABC Bible Verse Book the most because it has a verse that begins with each letter of the alphabet as well as cute illustrations that help drive home the meaning of the verse. 

I was toying with the idea of helping James learn a memory verse but I had some doubts about him memorizing and the last thing I wanted was to pound something as important as God's Word into him and cause him to resent it (and me). 

But then I thought about the fact that we are learning our ABC's, songs, colors, body parts, etc. and thought we might be able to learn a Bible verse in the same fun repetitious way. So one day while we were reading the ABC Bible Verse Book we got to the letter  G and I knew it was the PERFECT verse to learn first.

God is love! 1 John 4:8 

What better foundation could there be for James' understanding of God and his character?

So we wrote it on our chalkboard and started practicing...

And low and behold the most precious thing happened! 

I'm praying my sweet boy will always know in his heart of hearts that just like 1+1 will always equal 2 and B will always follow A, God is love and always will be! 

What's Up With James?

I thought I'd do a catch up post on the little fella so I could remember what he is like at the sweet age of almost two. After all, this blog was intended to document our time in New Orleans and as it turns out, James Timothy Donaldson has become a pretty big part of life.

James has the longest eyelashes known to man. I would gladly trade with him any day and never have to wear mascara again.

James is a weird eater. He goes through phases of eating like a horse and then barely eating at all. He JUST started eating chicken in addition to bacon and those are the only meats he will touch. This proves he is an American male living in the South. Otherwise, he loves grapes, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, apples, milk, cheese, yogurt, mac n cheese, cheerios, shredded wheat, animal crackers, raisins, and french fries. And all sweets except ice cream. Weird.

We have really loved having a baby in New Orleans. There are so many things we enjoy doing with James around the city. Some of our favorites are the Audubon Zoo, City Park, LaFreniere Park, Story Time at the Norman Mayer Library, the LA Children's Museum, Palm Tree Playground, playing at the Disney Store and PB Kids, and like most other moms and tots - Chick-fil-a!

James loves to read (finally, this took a while) and his little attention span is getting longer and longer. Some of our favorites are Giggle, Goodnight Nola (which he calls nite nite gola), Chugga Chugga Choo Choo, Talking Train, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Little Blue Truck and a book just called Trucks. 

James is always happy when he is outside. This is one characteristic that has stayed exactly the same since he was born. So, we go for A LOT of walks and play on the playground almost every day. There are some major perks of living at the seminary. We have 3 playgrounds and a lot of green space to safely explore. James also can't get enough of watching the train go by right outside our apartment. Which leads me to his biggest obsession....

Planes, Trains and Automobiles! The kid loves machinery. He even got really enthralled when NASCAR came on TV the other day. I never thought a day would come when I would be watching NASCAR and saying things like "Sweetie, where's your backhoe loader?" 

James also adores playing "airplane" with his daddy. Andrew puts him on his back and runs around. Just watching them is exhausting so when James asks me to do it I tell him I can't because I'm too little. HA! (He will probably figure out pretty soon that this is the furthest thing from a good excuse!)

James really has the sweetest little spirit and is truly a joy to everyone he meets. He gives lots of hugs and kisses. He loves his grandparents and always has the best time when he gets to visit with them. He is so blessed to have some pretty incredible cousins who adore him. And the feeling is definitely mutual! The hardest thing about having James in New Orleans is being so far from our families. We miss them all the time. 

James, you are the best thing that ever happened to your daddy and me. We love you more than anything and know you are going to grow up to be an amazing man of God. It is a joy to be your mama. I love you!!