I Am: 40 Reasons to Trust God - Review

I AM: 40 Reasons to Trust God

By: Diane Stortz

Publication: February 2nd 2016 by Thomas Nelson

224 pages

Genre: Non-fiction, Christian, Parenting, Devotions

Source: Own

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Goodreads description--God’s names tell us who He is, what He is like, and what He does. This beautiful book covers 40 of the Bible’s many names and descriptive titles for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Jehovah Jireh

The Lord My Shepherd

Immanuel

Rabbi

I Am

Through Bible stories, short devotions, and prayers, children discover the meaning of each name and how it relates to their lives. As they develop understanding of God’s character and His love for them, children will grow to know, love, and trust the great I Am more and more.

Those who know your name put their trust in you. —Psalm 9:10

I wanted to start a daily devotion with my kids. But I was struggling because I had this idea that I needed to create the devotions from scratch. I needed to pick the topic, and research it, and plan a lesson, and maybe even have activities to go along with it. And I just kept thinking about the amount of work that would go into something like that. I wondered where I would find time to research and plan such a thing. I thought about using an existing devotion, but theology differs so much from denomination to denomination that I was afraid of buying something and having to filter the content for them. But ultimately, I decided that I couldn't keep putting this off. So I researched some children's devotionals, and I kept coming across this one.

First, how beautiful is this cover? The illustrations in this book is one of the first things that attracted me to this book. I remember some of the children's Bible books that I was exposed to as a child, and I remember thinking that I didn't enjoy looking at them. This book is beautiful. Really engaging and gorgeous artwork all the way through.

I couldn't think of a better place to start a devotion with my children than about who God is...His character...His story...His pursuit of man. I wanted not just a bunch of children's stories to tell them: creation, Noah and the flood, and David and Goliath. Those are great, but I wanted to show them the WHY behind it all...the WHO. We don't get as much out of the stories if we're not focusing on God and His part in it all.

Doctrinely, I didn't find anything that I disagreed with until maybe the last one or two that were focused upon Revelation, which is the most controversial book in the entire Bible.

Most importantly, I Am: 40 Reasons to Trust God created a dialogue between myself and my children. We conversed and discussed God and spiritual things and questions more than any other time. My son, who we have struggled with behavior issues, was the most interested. He requested this devotion frequently as our bedtime story, whereas my daughter would sometimes groan. Even if the kids weren't excited about reading from the book, it still sparked discussion more than not using anything had in the past. I can count that alone as a win. For me, I Am: 40 Reasons to Trust God was a win all around and deserves 5 Stars. If you're looking for a family or children's devotion--especially a first one--I highly recommend this book. Have you read I Am: 40 Reasons to Trust God? What did you think? Let me know!