I’ve had many experiences in my life where I have felt the love of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives, that He is my Savior and Redeemer, and that He is aware of me. That knowledge has been such a blessing to me throughout my life!
One of my greatest desires is that my children and grand children are able to have similar experiences. That they will know they are loved and will have a desire to follow the Savior and rely on Him.
While my kids were growing up, we constantly looked for ways to give them experiences where they could feel the Savior’s love. We told them stories from the The Bible and The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ and we read together from these holy scriptures daily. We took them to church meetings, prayed together morning and evening, and tried to share our feelings and testimonies of the Savior with them. At Christmas time we de-emphasized Santa, read from Gospel of Luke, and tried to focus on the most important gift of all, a Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful that my children know and love Him and are striving to follow Him.
Thankfully, my kids are doing similar things with their kids. The world is turning further and further away from Christ and it takes more and more effort to combat those influences and stay close to the Savior.
One new thing that we’ve done as a family is create a Jesus Loves NAME book for each grand child. This book briefly tells the story of the birth of Jesus and his life and testifies of his role as Savior and Redeemer. It is personalized for each child to let them know that Jesus loves them individually. Here is what Randy’s book looks like.
Making these books is really easy and only takes a few minutes using a Story Template in the Read With Me Kids app. The grand kids love looking at their own book on their parents’ phone and do it often. We’re also getting each of them a printed copy. We hope they will feel of Christ’s love for them as they read these books over and over! We hope they will turn to Christ and rely on Him as they navigate this sometimes challenging life!
Darren Croft is the father of 5, a grandfather of 4 (so far) and the developer of Read With Me Kids.