Also by this author: Held: 31 Biblical Reflections on God's Comfort and Care in the Sorrow of Miscarriage, What Are Hands For?, What Are Eyes For? Board Book, What Are Ears For? Board Book, How Do We Know Christianity Is Really True?, What Happens When We Die?, Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?
Series: Training Young Hearts #5
Published by Good Book Company on November 1, 2024
Genres: Children's
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Practical, fun tool for parents raising kids. Encourages obedience motivated by God’s love and grace.
Fun lift-the-flap board book that motivates small children to use their feet in a Christ-like way.
This helpful and engaging training tool will help parents to teach their kids that God didn’t make their feet to kick or stomp but for positive actions like running, dancing, swimming and jumping!
Not only will children be encouraged to follow Jesus’ example but they’ll also be reassured that he loves us no matter what we do. He can forgive us when we fail and help us to change.
Parents, teachers, and other loved ones can refer back to these resources when specific behaviours need both to be corrected and to be connected to forgiveness, grace, and growth.
In this board book, Abbey Wedgeworth teaches kids about what God made our feet for. She gives examples like dancing, running, and pedaling a bike, and then she writes about things that we shouldn’t do with our feet, such as kicking, stomping, and running away from caregivers. She introduces Jesus after that, saying that he was a child once, and that he always used his feet to go where God called Him. The following pages cover Jesus’s submission to God’s plan for salvation, saying that Jesus died for us because he loves us.
Wedgeworth encourages kids that when they feel tempted to use their feet in sinful ways, they can ask the Holy Spirit for help. Wedgeworth explains that the Holy Spirit helps us to obey God, and that we can use our feet to share the good news about God wherever we go. I appreciated all of this, but noticed that Wedgeworth didn’t mention the resurrection. This was a missed opportunity, both because it’s essential to fully understanding the gospel story, and because it could have fit very well with the theme. Jesus used his feet to walk out of the grave!
What Are Feet For? expresses important concepts in simple, child-friendly terms, and the illustrations from Emma Randall are colorful, expressive, and fun. The children in the illustrations are very diverse, and one of them even has a prosthetic leg. Every page in this book also includes a flap to lift, and these work very well. The flaps come up easily, and the material is thick enough to survive many repeated readings, as long as a child isn’t too rough with them. The flaps aren’t just for fun, either, since the illustrations and words under each flap are integral to the book.
What Are Feet For? can help children appreciate God’s design for the human body, and can help them understand the difference between positive and harmful choices in everyday life. Although the books in this series can feel slightly redundant because they follow the same structure and formula, the illustrations are all unique and the words are different. Many parents will find this board book helpful, since it gives them a concrete way to engage their kids with important topics instead of just giving verbal instruction.