Monday, March 16, 2009

The Prayer That Makes God Smile


God shows His love for us in many ways – by sending us rain to make the flowers grow, by giving us loving families, and by giving us his Word to read. God showed his love for us many years ago when he sent his son, Jesus, to die for us so that we might someday live forever in Heaven. The Prayer That Makes God Smile is the one we pray when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts.

Stormie Omartian writes in a style that speaks to kids. She makes the concept of accepting Jesus into our hearts easily understood. The illustrations, by Shari Warren, enhance the text by incorporating lively, colorful pictures throughout the book and emphasizing certain words in the text.

The author has made the book interactive by adding two special pages at the end. The first one called “My Prayer to Receive Jesus” gives children a sample prayer they can pray when they’re ready to receive Jesus. There’s a place where your child can enter his/her name and the date he/she prayed “the prayer that makes God smile.” The other page is titled “My Prayer to Tell Jesus I Love Him.” It gives children a sample prayer to pray after being saved. There are some blank lines on the page. The instructions say: “Make a little smiley face on the lines below this prayer every time you pray it, and you will be reminded that God is smiling down on you.”

What I Like: Everything. This book is written in a very kid-friendly way. It’s a great tool to use when trying to explain the message of salvation. This would be useful for Sunday School teachers and any others who work with younger kids.

What I Dislike: Nothing.

Overall Rating: Excellent.

Age Appeal: The publisher recommends 9-12-year-olds as the ideal age group, but I think this book would also appeal children a bit younger, also, like 7- or 8-year-olds.

Publisher Info: Harvest House Publishers, 2009; ISBN: 0736923144; Hardcover, $15.99.

Buy it Now at Christianbook.com for $11.99.


OR Buy it at Amazon.com for $10.87.


Special Info: Read our reviews of other books by Stormie Omartian and Shari Warren. Visit the illustrator’s website.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

I appreciate these types of books and your reviews of them....there is so much out there for kids. Sorting it out can be difficult.