The Prayer of Jabez for Kids

What can I say? It's the same message as "The Prayer of Jabez" only for those of us with child-like hearts, (and minds, I'm afraid at times) this is a great piece of work.What makes it better?1) Great cartoons2) Illustrations anyone can relate to3) Can be taught with a sock puppet. (Okay, maybe not the whole thing, but don't throw out the whole sock puppet idea, okay?)I'm currently using this book to teach the children in my church the same things their parents learned in adult service.

If you are like me, you remember with pleasure the illustrated stories about the Bible that you read in Sunday School. They helped make the lessons come to life. In this book, Bruce Wilkinson has assembled a youth-oriented version of his best seller in the finest sense of that Sunday School tradition. My estimate is that the book will be most helpful to 7-11 year olds. You could also use the material to tell the basic story to younger children, while sharing the illustrations. The book is filled with fun illustrations, examples that are relevant to young people (wanting to be a ballerina, playing in the NFL, surfing the Web, electronic devices, and young people successfully doing God's work in bringing other young people to God), and many sidebars about biblical figures (David, Hannah, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Gideon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). In all other ways, the book is the same as The Prayer of Jabez.As much as the Bible teaches me, I find that I learn even more by hearing about the interpretations that others make of the Bible. Those interpretations are most beneficial when they include witnessing one's own experiences. Bruce Wilkinson has provided us with many soulful insights from 30 years of reciting a little-noticed prayer in this inspiring book.One reason that it is nice to hear what others say about the Bible is that some of them read Hebrew, which I do not. Knowing what the original text said should provide more clues to its precise meaning. Mr. Wilkinson has provided many insights from the Hebrew texts to help us understand what the translations mean. The Prayer of Jabez is found in 1 Chronicles 4:10 following a brief introduction of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:9. This text is in the middle of a long list of about 500 Hebrew names beginning with Adam in providing a geneology. The casual Bible reader might never notice this material. Since there is so little text, the plain meaning of what is found here can certainly be confusing. "Jabez" means "pain" in Hebrew. Jabez was named this by his mother "Because I bore him in pain." Since almost all babies bring pain, it is hard to know exactly what was different about Jabez, if anything. In this book, there is a nice emphasis on the special problems a young person would have if his name was Pain. Jabez is remembered for having his prayer answered. The prayer was:"Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" Mr. Wilkinson provides several perspectives on this prayer that added much to my understanding of the Scripture. First, Mr. Wilkinson interprets this as meaning that the person praying is asking to play a bigger role in achieving God's purposes. That was a new thought for me. I tend to feel that each of us is kept pretty busy trying to do God's will in whatever roles we already have. How can we do more? Obviously, only with God's help. By taking on even larger ro