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Roar Like a Lion

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Many thanks to Thomas Nelson for providing this product/product information (Roar Like a Lion) for review.  Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive the product in exchange for this review and post.  Affliate links will be used in this review, no cost to you but it encourages me in my blogging.  🙂 

Are you looking for a way to teach the stories of the bible to your children?  Tommy Nelson has provided 90 devotions within the cover of Roar Like a Lion to help us develop a courageous faith in our children. Now who wouldn’t want that?  Written in a conversational tone to engage his readers, Levi Lusko has a heart to develop faith in children. 

roar like a lion

The Basic Details of Roar Like a Lion

Roar Like a Lion holds to 192 pages which contain 90 devotions, information about the author and illustrator, along with a challenge to find anchors.  If you can’t find them all… he gives the answer to that challenge as well.   Published by Tommy Nelson, I was contacted by Momentum Influencers for the purposes of this review.

The devotions cover such topics as 

  • peer pressure
  • working hard at what you do
  • bullying
  • handling difficult emotions
  • depending on God
  • and understanding how we fit into God’s great story. 

Written by Levi Lusko and Tama Fortner.  Mr. Lusko is a pastor of a church in Wyoming where he lives with his family.   Ms. Fortner is an author and ghost writer, she lives with her family in Tennessee. 

Catherine Pearson is a Swiss illustrator who likes to create playful illustrations. 

Talking about the Basic Set up

Within the pages of Roar Like a lion you will find these cute illustrations gracing every devotion.  Each illustration spoke to the devotional it was representing.   Isn’t this sloth adorable?

Each illustration is followed by a bible verse taken from the ICB, NCV or NIV bible versions. 

Then you come to the main devotional.  Written over a two page spread, containing a prayer and either a Get Read to Roar sidebar or a Did you know sidebar (more on those later).   The devotional itself contains fascinating stories and is written in a conversational style.  Imagine you were listening to a children’s story at your local church, that is what these devotionals read like. 

Roar like a lion

Every other page you’ll find one of these two sidebars. 

You’ll either learn, in the did you know sidebar,  some interesting fact about the moon, or some animal, history, nature, people or whatever.  Some fact that is like HUH, I never knew that.  Cool connection.   

Get ready to roar gives a variety of calls to action, like prayer asking God to help you cope with loss, or making cards sharing the good news of God, talking with your parents, or even a place to call your own to journal.  Steps of action that children of all ages can do mostly without help.  

Closing with Prayer

As most devotionals do, Roar Like a Lion is no different, it closes with prayer.  Simple prayers that speak to the heart of a child reaching out to God.  Do children need simple prayers?  No.  They can and do listen to long prayers.  But you know what?  Most adult devotionals that I read have super short simple prayers closing out a day’s reading as well!   I found that, even though I did not read every page, those that I did, the prayers were on target with the day’s lesson. 

No devotional does everything perfectly.  What I like with this particular devotional is that the art draws you in, interesting facts show a broader picture, and the action steps.  Get children out busy for the Lord… it’s a great thing to do. 
 
Now… Roar like a lion is doing a giveaway.   It is ONLY open to USA folks (sorry my fellow Canadians but my guess they don’t want to ship here!).   You have to comment ON THIS REVIEW POST by Sept 25th or you won’t be in. I know, short turn around but I got to work with what I’ve been given!  What would win?  A physical copy of Roar Like a Lion.   Make sure I have your email so I can holler at you if my son draws your name out of a hat. 
 
Hashtags: #RoarLikeALionMIN #roarlikealion #tommynelsonbooks

Should you get it?

Well, like with all devotionals you have to approach them from the vantage point that people are trying to help children understand the bible more.  Devotionals are often a mixed bag.  Some devotions will be spot on, others will take scripture out of context, and yet others will oversimplify concepts, and some will mix it all up within the same reading!  It’s hard to please everyone when it comes to devotionals. 

Roar like a Lion is no different.  Some of the readings are excellent, others I kinda wondered where he was going, and others were a mixed bag.  That’s why parents read them with their children.  Then you can take the time to correct what needs correcting and even from a young age start teaching our children discernment. 

You can purchase it here. The bright colourful images, the calling of children to prayer, and the desire to help children become more like God… it’s good that! 

The Electoral Process In Canada

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Today is an election day in Canada.   Two years ago the Liberal government won a minority government.  This means to pass any laws they need to find a way to get along with other parties.  It’s makes for a more difficult governing process but tends to represent the goals of Canadians a bit better.  When parties are forced to concede to each other, one would think that representation would be clearer.   Since I am working the election this year I thought it would be good to talk about The electoral process in Canada a bit. 

Canadians are NOT happy with this election.  It seems a bit pointless and then happening during a pandemic seems rather thoughtless.  It will be interesting to see the turnout. 

The Electoral Process in Canada

Who Can Vote in Canada?

If you are over the age of 18 you can vote!   Doesn’t matter if you are a prisoner or not.  Doesn’t matter your ethnicity, place of origin, or colour.  If you are a Canadian Citizen and 18 years old or older… you can vote!   

All you need to do is utitilize one of these four options:

1. Go to election headquarters for each electorial distriction and vote in the pre-advance election.

2. Vote at the advanced polls.  

3. On Election day attend the polls between 930 a.m. and 930 p.m (or 7-7 in BC). 

4. Use the mail-in vote option! 

We give all kinds of options so that if a person really wants to vote, they can do so. 

On Election day itself we render whatever aid is needed.  From having options in braille, large print, assistants, wheelchairs, and more.  The goal is to help Canadians participate in the vote. 

Electoral Districts

Canada is divided up into sections that are roughly the same size within a province.   The current electoral districts can be found at Elections Canada.  Within an electoral district there are a number of smaller polling districts.  This year I will be serving as an information officer in the ordinary election poll. 

Each poll has a number of people helping it run smoothly. 

  • Deputy returning officer 
  • Information officer 
  • Registration officer 
  • Central poll supervisor 
  • Returning officer.

Information officiers: Greet people, make sure they get the help they need to vote – so if they have their voter card and valid ID we send them off to the poll, if something is wrong when send them over to the Registration Officer, who will then help them and send them off to the right poll.  

Deputy returning officer is the person who actually helps you vote.  This person gives you your ballot and guides you to a secure, private area to vote. After you have voted they assist you in putting your ballot in the ballot box (if required). They have ALOT of paperwork to do!  🙂 

The Central Poll Supervisor also has tons of paperwork to do, she also manages staff breaks, handles anything that the IO’s can’t do, and basically helps the returning officer. 

The retuning officer is in charge of the whole shebang basically.  He keeps everything running smoothly, handles candidates, starts and ends the poll, communicates with head office and such like.  You can learn more about these positions at Elections Canada.

This at least is the process for the federal election, I know that provincial elections are mostly the same. 

The electoral Process in Canada

Want to Learn More?

It’s good to learn more about our civic responsibilities with elections and voting. 

You can find some online resources at Elections and Democracy. as well as at the Alberta Teacher’s Association.  British Columbia does something similar. 

Of course you can always participate in the election by being part of a Student Vote. Learn about the government and the electoral process.  Get out and research the candidates and learn what the issues of the day are.  Develop your debating skills as you have your own electoral debates. Help your students understand the electoral process in Canada!

Civix has resources for highschool students. This site provides a variety of activities on various civic areas. 

Highschool students can discuss government systems around the world and compare them to Canada’s system. 

Your Time is Now

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Your Time is Now) through Ascot Media.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so.  🙂

Jonathan Evans, chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys writes a book encouraging us to get ourselves right with God and to get out and do what we need to do.    Your Time is Now 

Your time is now

About Your Time is Now

Jonathan Evans, you can learn more about him on Outreach, has provided us with a 176 page book entitled Your Time is Now: Get What God has Given You.   This came to me as a black hardcover book from Ascot Media Group for my review.  Nine chapters, complete with QR codes for additional information.  This is a book to help Christians with their personal or spiritual growth. 

What does it look like?

I received a black, approximately 8 x 4 inch hardcover tome that feels lovely in the hand and was super easy to tuck into my purse for my car service recently.  An easy read I got about half way through during a 30 minute service.  Having the hardcover meant I didn’t have to worry about damage while in transition. 

Within it’s 176 pages you’ll find nine chapters. 

Some of those chapters come with a QR code if you want to hear more about what he has to say.  These of course only work if you have the tech that allows for it!  🙂 Needless to say, I didn’t watch any of them. 

The chapters are little adorned, with a simple one word title. Most pages are written in this smaller font. Easy to read though if I had poorer eyes I’d probably want a page magnifier.  🙂 

Occasionally you will find these large font pages with points that Mr. Evans wants to emphasize.  I particularly liked this page. I thought it was spot on.

If you are a seasoned believer who knows scripture well you will struggle with some scripture taken out of context as well as some poorly researched points.   Some of these was things about how God looked at Adam and Eve in their plant-made clothes and said “let me make you something better” as if it were all about the clothes, and others from reading into scripture and taking passages out of context like the one below. 

Overall though his message is simple… see what God has given you.  Now… get off your duff, align yourself with God’s plan for your life, and get a move on.   (or words to that effect).  🙂   

Should You Get it?

So, there is much good.  BUT I want to offer some cautions as well for Your Time is Now: Get what God has given you.

He says some things that aren’t quite biblically accurate and takes some scripture out of context.  Now, that’s not always a bad thing as it provoked some discussion within our household.  But for people who don’t know to be careful, not such a good read. I would not offer this to someone who was not firm in their biblical knowledge. 

I did appreciate his call to action.  His get up, and get going call.  Too often we sit around too much waiting for everyting to be just right, or pinning our hopes/action on what we think is best.  But perhaps God has something else in store for us and we should just get on with doing it!  Perhaps we need to change our focus or mindset and get ourselves realigned with God and his purposes. 

 

A Purpose to Hold

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Purpose, so much depth hidden in that word.  I recently listened to a two books that talked about purpose.  One a fiction book, the other a faith based one.  I’ll link to them down below I think.   Very different styles, with a similiar take on it I think.  I find it interesting how such divergent books focused on having a purpose to hold.  Having this purpose gives a focus to life that nothing else really gives. 

a purpose to hold

Know your purpose
the litany entones.
If you know your purpose
the rest of your life will unfold.

In a story a gal
needs to discover
a way to beat back
A rather difficult mother.

Can she discover
a purpose to hold?
A end goal in mind
To combat a magic so bold?

She needs to not only think
but to gather her heart
It wasn’t enough
A role is just a part!

The other brings along
a samurai warrior
Impatient an apprentice
wants to run past the barrier.

The training so hard
The working it through
His master teaches
Life focus, not just work pursue.

Know your purpose
NOT YOUR goal
the master reminds
Purpose will bring control!

Purpose gives focus
requires more than thought.
The heart needs to engage
Or all is for naught.

The same goes with God
And the faith we live out.
Our purpose? To worship and
glorify God, us the devout.

Purpose affects the
very life that we live.
Does all that we do
show what we believe?

Scriptural Insight

1 Chronicles 29:18
O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you.
 

and your care has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;
I know that this was your purpose.
14 If I sin, you watch me
and do not acquit me of my iniquity

Mind you, i read these verses and the question I am left with is this.  Whose purpose is it?  Is it our own or one that God lays down on us?  How then do we live it out?  

If interested in those books, here are my amazon links.

A Lady in Attendance

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (A Lady in Attendance) through Nuts About Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so.  🙂

I THINK, yes this is me thinking,.. 🙂 that I would happily read a Rachel Fordham book again.  A romance that isn’t just a romance.  Awkardness, sweetness in character, determination to make things right, a mystery, friendship, and then finally romance.  This A Lady in Attendance.  A romance that didn’t have me snorting in derision at expected, and super quick falling in love.  But one that focuses on history and friendship and what it looks like in action. 

A Lady in Attendance

A Lady in Attendance was published by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group.  Running at 352 pages, written back in the history of the late 1800’s.  Learning about how women were treated in reformatory, and societal treatment of those women when they were released. Rachel Fordham walks us through the pain of mistakes, of working through redemption, and the hopelessness of feeling like lost cause.  Reviewed on behalf of Nuts about Books.   It’s billed as an historical Christian romance but I didn’t find the faith played a big part (if at all really) in the lives of the characters. 

The details for A Lady in Attendance

Each chapter opens with a decorative pencil line and a basic chapter heading.   Hazel is the main character, with a roommate, an employer, a lawyer and family rounding out the cast. 

The text is large and easily readable.   I found the language uncomplicated and suitable for most anyone to read.  It feels like a cozy, sit down and read in the course of an afternoon book.  I did read it over a weekend camping, sandwiched between family activities.  Well developed characters with a need to solve a mystery kept me fairly glued to the pages.  The bumbling of Hazel’s beau made me smile and occasionally want to kick him in the pants.  

Firmly appreciating seeing history first-hand.  I never realized how having office receptionists and doctor’s aides came into being.  I rather enjoyed seeing the dentist’s growing awareness of just how much he needed this help in his office. Surprising though, to see all that Hazel was required to do.  This would not be the norm nowadays! 

Should you read it?

If you like light, historical romance that isn’t all sappy and helps you learn details of the past….. A Lady in Attendance will meet your needs. 

Curl up on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy a bit of mystery, with a touch of history, and a turn to love.  You won’t regret it one bit!  You’ll laugh and sigh, and find yourself with hope renewed. 🙂 

Creation Based Apologetics

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So the other day I asked my lad if he would be interested in doing an apologetics course.  He surprised me by saying yes! As he’s reaching the stage of questioning everything it’s good to give them ideass to think through and answers to consider.  I thought about doing a creation based apologetics course with him and thought I’d share the results of my research with you. 

creation based apologetics

Why Creation Apologetics

Depending on your child, they simply might not have thought through the truths of scripture or given much thought to how non-creation science connects with the bible.  There is so much we don’t know.  Like for instance, I don’t believe in evolution but I can’t explain how speciation/natural selection makes a cat look different in one climate over another.  How some wild cats are large like jaguars and snow leopards and other wild cats are as small as a housecat but very feral.  How this happens makes zero sense to me so when people question it all… I understand that.  Having resources to help make sense of all it matters. 

Making a point of studying creation apologetics gives over dedicated time to your student so it gets done.  I don’t know about you but I have a busy teen.  Working, schooling, helping around the house, and spending time with friends takes up the bulk of his time.  Finding solid time to actually think through faith, science, and it’s interconnectivity isn’t the easiest thing for a teen to do.  Therefore adding it as part of his course load makes it much more doable. 

Types of Creation Apologetics

Now, I’ve long known that people have different ideas about evolution.  Some believers are creation scientists all the way through to the bone, others don’t quite get how there are dinosaurs and mammals…. and so called proofs of evolution.  Others again are like me and don’t buy into evolution, but natural selection and the sheer variety of animals and the interconnection of species is a bit mind-boggling. Yet other believe in intelligent design and there are a variety of takes on how that works.  Designer created and then left everything to evolve/naturally select, on it’s own. Or Designer created and then guided changes.   It’s actually quite interesting to see how people try to make it all fit together, and sometimes try to meld two worlds together. 

Biblical Creationism: follows the teaching in Genesis.  God created all life.  Tends toward a young earth philosophy. 

Intelligent Design Movement:  This movement wants to encourage discussion by not only teaching evolution, but to encourage the asking of questions considering alternatives to evolution.  This means looking critically at evolutionary ideology, considering the flaws in evolutionary theory, and keeping an open mind to alternative explanations.

Progressive creationism.  This thought process is that God created life over a period of millions of years. It takes an old-earth approach, and believes that new lifeforms emerged fully-formed not slowly through evolution at different times. 

What I found

Answers in Genesis takes a very biblical, creation as written in the bible approach.  They have a six courses in creation apologetics.  They used to do it as one Master Class.  Now each of those courses is done individually and each contains several lessons within. 

Creation Illustrated, the magazine.  Produces good articles, might answer questions, or spur some additional thinking.  Not a curriculum per say, but creation-biblically based.  Could make a creation based apologetics course out of several magazines I think.   If you are interested, I reviewed unit studies from them a while back. 

You could check out BioLogos. They do hold to an ancient view of the earth, and believe that evolutionary theory can be reconciled with the Bible’s teaching about Creation.  Francis Collins (the head of the human g-nome project) teaches the course on DNA technologies and ethics. Worth checking out.

Another resource to check out is Reasons to Believe. Even just introducing teens to their website would be a good thing. Their online learning resources look good, but their courses were geared more to college age. They do, however, have an Educator’s Help Desk page that has tonnes of resources to help you find a suitable curriculum, along with a list of recommended resources. Note: some of their recommendations are secular sources, and some are Christian. You may want to watch their video on using secular textbooks to hear their rationale. They makes some good arguments.

If you look on Christian Book Distributors you’ll find a whole whack of books from a creationist viewpoint.   With some time you could easily put together an apologetics course that is creation based. 

creation based apologetics

Have I missed anything?

So tell me, have you found any creation based apologetics courses?   If so, please tell me!   I’d love to check them out.

I recently discovered Reasons to Believe, a series of courses relating science to faith.  

Dawn Raid

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Dawn Raid) through Raincoast Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so.  🙂

It’s not every book that does this, but Dawn Raid, by Ms. Smith peaked my interest in an historical event.  Let me explain.  This past weekend I went camping with the family, I brought Dawn Raid along with me. As I read I would stop and talk to my lad about what I was reading.  I had never heard about the dawn raids in New Zealand before so this was all new to me. My son was quite surprised as well. It made for some interesting discussions that my hubby joined in on as well.  When I got home I headed to youtube to learn more.   I think every country has sad periods like this in it’s history don’t you? 

Racism is such a hard topic to have a discussion about isn’t it?  In the states they deal with it as we learned in Uncomfortable Conversations with a black Boy. In Canada we have the First Nations people which a book I am reading slowly communicates about, Five Little Indians.  But learning about it and how it affects people, helps to change behaviour a bit doesn’t it? 

About Dawn Raids

Anyways, we should probably get on with the book eh?  🙂    Dawn Raid was written by Pauline Vaeluaga Smith, she also started a small museum that helps people to better understand the dawn raids.  At 304 pages it is an easy read for most middle schoolers especially with illustrations on many of the pages.  Written from the point of view of a 13 year old girl.   She talks about family and school life, as well as life as an Islander in New Zealand.  Published by Levine Querido c/o Chronicle Books.   Reviewed for Raincoast books. 

One thing you need to understand.  Sofia’s family is of Islander stock.  They came over to New Zealand to help when they had a labour shortage.  Many stayed…some legally, some not so legally.  Other nations of the world did the same thing.  Coming to help, and sometimes overstaying their welcome.    The thing is, ONLY islander people were targetted in these Dawn Raids conducted by the government via the police force.  This is the story of one such Islander family. 

Details about Dawn Raid

13 year old Sofia, a New Zealand girl, gives us a first person account of her families life in the mid-1970’s.   We learn about her brothers who have more energy than brains. My son couldn’t believe the antics those boys got into. Their antics provided comic relief to the rest of the story.  A hard-working family teaching their children to be good citizens. 

The language is typical of a 13 year old and easily relatable to middle school age children.  For me it was a bit of a walk back into time with go-go boots and the Osmonds.  🙂 

Dawn Raid

Illustrations liberally dot the pages.  I appreciated the addition of maps so that I understood better just where those islands where.  There is a continent game I play on my phone but it’s not clear enough to really show the detail needed to see where all the islands are.  Having the maps helped me practice my geography skills for sure! 

I loved the natural way history and community flowed within the diary pages of Sofia.  I often felt like I was there helping Sofia do her milk run, or attending the doctor with her mom and younger brothers, and her father dealing with the oldest brother.  The fear of being woken up so early in the morning… Sofia expresses emotion well.  

Dawn Raid

Should you Get Dawn Raid?

Should Dawn Raid be part of your library?

It’s an interesting read.  I have to admit, when I first started I wondered what the purpose of this diary was.  But seeing how the family lived, how school life progressed and some of the daily life experiences shared.  Gradually the politics of the time were introduced until you wanted to know what would happen.  

If you are studying New Zealand, add this book to your shelves.  Gain some understanding about the politics of the time and what it meant to the people involved.  It would either be a good way to introduce the topic of racism in New Zealand or be a finish out the study.  It would also be a good way to show the racism isn’t just in Canada, or the United States, but is actually a world-wide concern. 

If you are just looking for a good story to read that tells of a family’s experience living in New Zealand during a hard rough time in it’s history, it’s a good read in and of itself!  🙂