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Originally Posted by stark tjej  (...but I DO think that things like that and other cartoon stories of God and from Sunday School did get in the way of me really "growing up" in my faith and made it a sometimes difficult transition to adult thinking in terms of my faith).
Stark |
I heard a great lecture on this topic. If we give kids ONLY kiddie looking stories from the Bible and not the everyday practices (honor, faithfulness, doctrines, etc) then they grow up to believe it was all fairy tales. The speaker had a lot of good points. So in our home we do the kiddie looking stories and add in the Bible doctrines. We make sure mention to DD when we are reading a book that is based on fact, and which ones are pretend stories. She is only 3, but realy caught on quickly.
She has asked for a nativity to play with, but I kinda had the same ideas you had. We have a miniture one (figures are under 2 inches high) that goes under the tree and we explain the meaning and that Jesus really was a real baby. Kids do need something physical to understand Spiritual themes IMO. We have not bought any toy Jesus figures, but she calls all her dolls Baby Moses at one time or another, lol. DD also knows the pictures of tiny Noah's Arks are not accurate. As Ajani said it's amazing what they can get if you explain it on their level over and again.
DD's nursery teachers have been amazing at teaching her Bible stories, also.