Dawn R. Deem Stephens

The True Story of The Three Little Pigs and Truth Discovery

I still remember when I first discovered this book. I was an immediate fan! I had just begun teaching and built and had built an entire Kindergarten unit around Fairy Tales which included the three Little Pigs. I used the story of The Three Little Pigs to teach about natural and made-man resources and about staying safe at home. When this book came along, I found a whole new platform of discussion about discovering truth, judging others, and working through our differences.

If you by chance have never read this book, allow me to fill you in. This is the Not-So Big and Bad Wolf’s account of what happened in the story of The Three Little Pigs. The wold was simply making a cake for his grandmother while he had a very bad cold. He needed ran out of sugar and needed to borrow a cup from his neighbors, who just happened to be pigs.
At the straw and stick house, he just happened to sneeze, destroying the house and killing the first two pigs. Since the pigs were already dead, he ate them. At the third pig’s house he tried again to borrow a cup of sugar, but the third pig was rude and refused to let the wolf in. The wolf got angry at how rude the third pig was being and as he tried to break down the door, the cops came. Once they found that the wolf had destroyed the other two pig’s houses and eaten them, the wolf was arrested and the story of Three Little Pigs and The BIG, BAD wolf was born.

Using this book in the classroom allowed students to see there are always two sides to a story. I challenged students to re-write other fairy tales from another characters point of view. How would the bears tell the story of Goldilocks? How would Goldilocks’s version have been different. It is an exercise that helps children to discover we all put our own selfish desires before that of others. It teaches students that when they have a disagreement with someone it is good to hear their side of the story. When the two sides do not agree, we wonder what is the truth.

Here is where God’s Word needs to be taken into account. It is the source of Truth. And if we can each evaluate our opinions and actions based on God’s Word, the difference in opinions we have with one another can be solved.

Let’s see what scripture says:
1 Cor 1:10-17 The Bible says we should agree with each other- Wow, that’s a tall order! It goes on to say though that the disagreements are because we follow different teachers. It is Christ’s teaching  that we should be following. Other verses to consider are Cor 13:11, Eph 4:3, and Philippians 1:27. These verses refer to being of one mind and one spirit. Sometimes we just need to get with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and put aside the things we don’t agree on and focus on the one important thing we do agree on. The Truth of God’s word. All other issues pale in comparison anyway.

For other Bible lessons using Children’s Literature:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Seven Blind Mice and the Cure to Our Blindness

The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Hungry Christian = New Life

Learning the Bible from Pinocchio -by Debbie Boush

Harry the Dirty Dog: Lost Dog, Lost Son
Where The Wild Things Are

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a Chance to Pray

Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

The Biblical principles in this book are being shared by:

Kathryn Hughes, Kdg. teacher at PROMOTE in Chesapeake, VA

-thanks Kathryn.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter. has several parallels to scripture. 

1. Peter is expected to be obedient to his mother, as we are to be obedient to God. (This can also correspond to Adam & Eve in the Garden)

2. Peter disobeys and after he’s had his fill and a tummy ache, He realized his mistake (remorse). 

3. He searches for the way out. How many times are we tempted to ‘knowingly’ cross the line only to run in circles before finding the gate?  The way out is the Gate, (Matt. 7:13)Jesus says, “I am the Gate”, He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  (John 14:6)

4. Peter is running for his life from Mr. McGregor. Peter loses all of his possesions. There are times, when we must lose everything we have in order to find Christ. (Luke 18:18-23)

As you read this wonderful classic story with your children, relate the lessons Peter learns to the Biblical principles God has for us in His word.

For other bible lessons using Children’s Literature:

Seven Blind Mice and the Cure to Our Blindness

The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Hungry Christian = New Life

Learning the Bible from Pinocchio -by Debbie Boush

Harry the Dirty Dog: Lost Dog, Lost Son
Where The Wild Things Are

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a Chance to Pray

Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

Seven Blind Mice, by Ed Young

 This is a great story with a great lesson for children, adults, and everyone in between. In the story seven little mice each examine a different part of the elephant and decide they know what the object is. However, it isn’t until the seventh mouse runs across, around, up, and down – over the entire elephant and reveals its true identity. The story ends with the moral: “Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole.”

Many times in the Bible we see examples of Jesus curing the blind. The Bible also teaches about a spiritual blindness. In John chapter 9, Jesus illustrates our need to be cured of our own spiritual blindness. 

I love Seven Bind Mice for many reasons. The color references, the days of the week, and the ordinal numbers all lead to great teaching lessons with children. -And it’s easy to reference the moral that our children don’t alwasy see the “big picture” and make incorrect judgements. – But I think there is an even greater opportunity in discussing that the mice were blind. Their blindness kept them from seeing the whole picture.

Let’s just say for comparison sake, that the mouse is me, and the elephant is God. God is so much bigger than I am. I may see a part of Him or know Him in some small way, but I can remain blinded to other parts and therefore make wrong judgements of who He is and what he is all about.   Jesus explained to the healed blind man and the Pharisees in verse 36-41, that He came so the blind would see and those who see would be blind. The Pharisees think it is jibberious talk and miss the point altogether. The blindness Jesus speaks of is a spiritual one, where - if we reject the truth we become satisfied to exist in the darkness of the lies we then believe.

Each mouse was happy to believe that the elephant was something else.  At least, until another mouse, who had a different idea and perspective, challenged his, the very state of his blindness was revealed.

As Christians we get very comfortable with our view of God. But God is never comfortable with our lack of knowing Him. He wil bring other Christians  and non-christians into our path to challenge us and reveal to us our blindness.

Now, that said – the danger here is that we listen to every person’s perspective and draw an incorrect conclusion of who God is.  We have to take those perspectives back to the Bible and check that what they “see” is truth.

So – how do we cure our own spiritual blindness?  We recognize and see the “light” – We may not ever be able to see God fully in all His Holiness until we reach heaven – but we can begin the journey of knowing Him through His son who is known as a “healer of the blind.”  Then, once we’ve met Him and begun the journey, – allow yourself to continuing “seeing” the bigger picture of a bigger God.

For other bible lessons using Children’s Literature:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Hungry Christian = New Life

Learning the Bible from Pinocchio -by Debbie Boush

Harry the Dirty Dog: Lost Dog, Lost Son
Where The Wild Things Are

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a Chance to Pray

Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

On Thursday, Oct 8 – Read Across America is asking us to join in reading,

The Very Hungry Catapillar by Eric Carle to children.  Make sure you have a copy of this book and are ready to read and registered. Register at www.readfortherecord.org

So, in  joining in the effort I chose this book for the blog today.

The fabulous thing about this book is the pictures.  Kids love the way the book has “flap” pages and holes in the food that look like the catapillar ate right through the pages.

Our Bible lesson to go with this story is Matt 5:6 – Blessed are those who hugner and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.

Children see how the hungry catapillar eats and eats and eats. It is always hungry. until, finally it spins the cocoon and turns into a butterfly.

After reading this to children you can share with them Matt 5:6 and explain to them how we can be “hungry” for more things than food.  If we are hungry to do what is right, than God will bless us and “fill” us.

2 Cor. 5:17 is also a great verse to share with them when they discover that the catapillar becomes a butterfly or a new creature. They need to know that when they accept Christ they also become “a new creature.”  Unlike the butterfly, they may look the same on the outside, but inside they have become something beautiful in Christ.

Beyond the Bible lesson, you’ll find lots of activities on the Read Across America website to do with your children.

For other bible lessons using Children’s Literature:

Learning the Bible from Pinocchio -by Debbie Boush

Harry the Dirty Dog: Lost Dog, Lost Son
Where The Wild Things Are

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a Chance to Pray

Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

Learning the Bible from Pinocchio

Although The Adventures of Pinocchio, a classic of children’s literature, was originally written in February of 1883 by Carlo Collodi, the movie adaptation by Disney (February 7, 1940) is, without doubt, the most well known version of the book. These Bible lessons relate more to the Disney version than the original book although some of them may relate to both.

The lessons to be learned are in Italics.

The Characters:

Pinocchio, the puppet made of wood. He wants to be a real boy, but doesn’t know how.
He is the sinner.

Ghepetto, the puppet maker. He wants a son who will love him as a father.
He is the Creator, God, the Father, and God, the Son.

The Blue Fairy, the Guide and encourager who gave physical life to the puppet/boy. This is God, the Holy Spirit.

Jiminy Cricket, The puppet’s adviser.
He is the human conscience.

Pleasure Island, the place where boys who act like jackasses, begin to look like donkeys.
This is the obvious results of sin.

Monstro the Whale, the final consequence of Pinocchio’s disobedience.
This is Hell and the grave.

The Story:

Ghepetto, the lonely puppeteer makes a puppet that he loves very much. He names it Pinocchio. He moves Pinocchio about as if he can dance and sing and talk, but without Ghepetto’s help the puppet can do nothing. Ghepetto wishes the puppet were a real boy who could commune with him and love him back. Lonely and tired, Ghepetto goes to bed.

God created man in his image and gave him a free will, so that we would love Him because we want to, not because we must. God didn’t want “puppets” that only do what he makes them do.

While Ghepetto sleeps, the Blue Fairy comes and gives the puppet life, although he is still a puppet.

Our physical life is given to us by God, but we are born into sin. We are born with a sinful nature so, without God, we are prone to sin.

With that life the puppet receives a conscience (Jiminy Cricket). Now Pinocchio is able to move by his own free will without Ghepetto’s help. But the only way he can become a “real” boy, is to learn to know the difference between right and wrong and choose to do good and not evil.

God made “The Way” for us to be saved. We can only become a Christian God’s way. That way is to believe God’s plan of salvation.

The conscience, if Pinocchio listens to it, is there to guide him, and if he doesn’t, is there to convict him. He has a hard time listening to his conscience until it’s too late.

Our sinful nature causes us to sin! We can’t save ourselves because we are sinners.

We need to listen to our conscience or it will become seared. In other words, it will cease to warn us that we are headed in the wrong direction.

Pinocchio is easily pulled by his “friends” into doing things that seem to be appealing, fun, and enjoyable, but in the end, they turn him into a donkey, something he does not want to be, stuck in a place he does not want to be.

Watch out for “friends” who have a bad influence on you.

Even in a perfect situation like the Garden of Eden, man had difficulty obeying God. God only gave Adam one rule to follow and he failed.

Sin leaves its scars and changes us into something that we don’t want to be.

Sin has consequences.

Ghepetto, his father, willingly risked his own life by going to find and save his child. He ends up in the belly of the whale because of his son’s disobedience.

Jesus went to the cross for us and literally into Hell to rescue us from our sins. He gave His life for us because He loved us so much.

Too late Pinocchio realizes that he was foolish, and has disappointed his father. When he goes to find his father, he also ends up in the whale. They must find a way to escape or they will die. They find wood to burn and make the whale sneeze.

When Jesus died on the wooden cross, Hell gave up its captives.

Pinocchio actually died in the rescue attempt, and his father wept for him.

When we are saved, we become dead to sin… but alive unto God.

Jesus wept for sinners.

The Blue Fairy brought Pinocchio back to life and made him a real boy.

By believing in Jesus and trusting Him, we are now alive unto God, saved, and a true child of God.

We receive the Holy Spirit to guide us in our Christian life.

The story of Pinocchio relates so closely to the story of God’s working in the salvation of a soul. If you look at it carefully, no doubt lessons other than these will come to mind that you can teach your children.

Debbie Boush – 2009

For other bible lessons using Children’s Literature:

Harry the Dirty Dog: Lost Dog, Lost Son
Where The Wild Things Are

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a Chance to Pray

Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

Today, our picture book is Harry and the Dirty Dog. I loved this book as a kid. so much that today I own a dog that looks alot like Harry. In the book, Harry is a very happy dog.-except fo one thing, he hates getting a bath. Infact, he hates taking baths so much that he buries the scrub brush in the yard and then runs away from home. While away, he becomes quite dirty. He has fun, but also gets dirty and dirtier, Then finally he misses his family and returns home. His family doesn’t know it’s him, however. He is no longer a white dog with black spots – but a black dog with white spots. Finally, Harry remebers the scrub brush and digs it up. He gives it to his family and once they give him a bath, they discover that he is their very own dog, Harry!

In Luke 15:11-32 – Jesus tells us a story about a son who was unhappy with his life and runs away from home. After time the son realizes that his life with his father was much better and then returns. Unlike Harry’s family, the father recognizes him and welcomes him back with open arms. This story illustrates how when we leave or wander away from our heavenly father – we can always return to Him and find Him waiting and ready to receive us.

In Ephesians 5:27, christ explains how He washes so we can be without “spot or blemish”. He is talking about forgiving our sins.

Harry became dirtier and dirtier in his worldly adventures away from home. And friends, when we travel away from God, we become dirty in our own sins. We need the “washing” of the Holy Spirit to make us clean again. Yes our heavenly father does recognize us in our flithy sin, but he reamins ready to wash us clean again when we return home.

I remember rooting for Harry as a little girl and feeling frustrated with him when his own family didn’t recognize who he was.  I also remeber being so excited when his family discovered it was him and they were happy again. I think God must feel that way about us too. He is rooting for us, ready for us to return home to Him, so we can be washed and live happily ever after!

To buy Harry and the Dirty Dog click here:

For other bible lessons using Children’s Literature:
Where The Wild Things Are

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a Chance to Pray

Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

Where the Wild Things Are.
Who doesn’t love this book? Max puts on a wolf costume and then “goes wild”.

If for some unknown reason you aren’t familar with this story, let me fill you in. After all, the movie will be out in less than a month, and you should be prepared.

Max puts on a wolf costume and then begins to be so wild that he causes a lot of mischief and gets a tad disobedient in answering his mother. He is sent to bed without dinner. In his room, however, a forest grows and opens to the world around him. He then climbs into a boat and sails across time to where the wild things are. The wild things have terrible eyes, terrible claws, and terrible teeth. They try to scare Max, but he remains completely unscathed. He tames the wild things by starring into their yellow eyes. They then make him the king of all wild things. As king, max gives the order to: “let the rumpus begin!” And the wild things and Max have a “wild” time. Until, Max orders them to stop. Max is lonely for his family and hungry. He smells good things to eat from way across the world. So, “He gives up being king of where the wild things are.” and goes home. When he arrives, his supper is in his room waiting for him.

OK, that’s the story. Without the wonderful pictures it may not seem as exciting. In fact, when reading this book with children, the most fun pages are those in the center of the book that do not have any words at all. They simply depict the wild things and max having a great time causing “rumpus”.

As a teacher, it was always fun to get kids to draw and create their own “wild thing”. They could use the heads of one animal and the body of another. Or simply create a totally new creature from their own imagination. These pictures can make a great class mural.

Now, let’s look at a Biblical truth that we can teach our children using this highly imaginative story. There is the obvious one of Max being respectful and how much his mom loves him and he loves his mom. But, let’s make some comparison here to God and our relationship with Him. Let’s first look at what caused Max to act ‘wild” in the first place. It was the fact that he put on a wolf suit.

The bible mentions “wolves” to illustrate christians among nonchristians in Matt 10:16-”Behold, I send you out as a sheep in the midst of wolves” and Luke 10:3-”behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves”
It also uses the term to warn us against false teachers: Matt 7:15, refers to wolves in sheeps clothing. I think it easy to reverse that thinking in that if a false teacher will disguise himself to be gentle sheep, that Max wanted to disguise himself as a “wild thing”.

Now in the context of make-believe and a child’s imagination, there is no harm in that. After all, our imaginations were given to us by God and we want our children to use them. The concept, however, has a truth to it that we must also examine. The attraction for Max to be wild exists within each of us. We are born with a sin nature and left on our own, will seek the “wild” side of life. And, it begins with what we “put on”.
The greatest part in this story isn’t the fun that Max has being wild, it’s that when he grows tired and hungry, he returns home to find love and acceptance. Matt 11:28 tells us to come to Christ when we are tired and He will give us rest. Psalm 107 explains how he rescues us from hunger and fills us with goodness.
We must let our children know that living a “wild” life may seem fun and attractive for a time. They may even feel as though they are the “King” of that world. But that happiness won’t last. They will only find true happiness when they live under the one true King. -Jesus Christ.

For other bible lessons using Children’s Literature:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and a Chance to Pray

Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

I must say I was suprised when I heard the children’s book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett was being made into a movie. Pleasantly suprised! I read this book to my students every year when I taught school. I had several objectives in reading it. First and foremost, it really got kid’s imaginations to run wild! They loved the idea of food falling form the sky. I typically gave them a writing assignment where they would create a town like “Chewandswallow” where other things besides food made up the weather. I got towns that had animals falling from the sky, and towns where the weather was made up of colored paint, pencils, and crayons. One child, who loved music, even had instruments fall from the sky and the townspeople had a music festival every afternoon. I used this book as a starting point for science lessons on weather, history lessons on the pilgrims fleeing to America, and health lessons on the food pyramid.

But to go along with my blog series for developing Bible lessons within Children’s books, I had to think long and hard about some Biblical perspectives that we could pull into this story. The obvious Bible story that goes with this books is found in Exodus 16 when God provided Moses and the Isrealites “Bread from Heaven” He was very specific, however, in how much food they should collect each day. (vs. 4) If they took too much it would grow worms. And it only lasted for that day. The next day they would need to go collect more. The bread was called Manna and they lived on it for forty years. (vs 35).  In numbers 11, we even read about the people getting tired of eating only manna. They complained and wanted to eat meat. God sent them quail and they ate it, but got sick. One lesson here is that God’s way is so much better for us than our own desires.

The similarities of the Bible story and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is obviously that food is coming form the sky.  But beyond that, the differences are greater. In the true Biblical account, God is in control and sending the food to provide for His people and and teach them about His power and sovereignty. In the ficitonal story by Judi Barrett, we simply have a fun plot of weather going out of control and the people being forced to flee. No reference to God is ever mentioned. With the plot of leaving a town in mind, we can share with our children the story of Lot and his family in Genesis 19:18-29. They had to flee Sodom and Gomorrah before it was destroyed by a volcano.

I hesitiate, however, to do too much comparisons with true Biblical stories to the the tall tale that exists within Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  Children already are being toldtoomuch by society that the Bible is fictional and the stories could not have happened. So without spending more time in comparison of stories, let’s look at a Biblical principal we can help train our children into thinking through as they read and enjoy this wonderful and imaginative book.

In the story, the people of Chewandswallow had some big concerns and problems. It is always important to have your children think, “What would you do if you lived in Chewandswallow?” -Hopefully their answer would be to pray. It should be obvious to our children that these townspeople couldnt control their weather anymore than we can control ours. However, we know a God who is in complete control of the weather each and everyday.  This might be a great time to share with them Mark 6:49-51. Here, Jesus not only calms the storm but He walks on the water too. Our children need to see that when they are facing tough times and things beyond their control, they have a Heavenly Father in complete control that they can talk with and give requests too.

That probably seems like an easy cop out for a Biblical lesson to draw from this book, but as I thought more andmore about it, I wondered- if we live and walk in the spirit this should be common sense – truly to the point our children ask us when we read this story to them, “Mom, how come the people never prayed?” You see, we treat our everyday weather as someting so mundane and insignificant. We don’t bother to bring God into the mundane stuff unless it gets as serious as a tornado or hurricane and we become really scared.

Ironically, we teach them to pray before every meal and don’t go into too much detail with them how important it is to keep that line of communciation open with God all the time. When is the last time you just “talked about the weather” with God? You know what I mean, the everyday stuff. The small talk stuff. Remember, God provided only enough manna for a day at time. – If you haven’t talked to Him today, you are probably not getting all you need to survive.

For other bible lessons using Children’s Literature:
Children Who Love Jesus may be at risk of catching: A Bad Case of Stripes

Is Your Mama a Llama? Are you the image of God?

The Paper Bag Princess and The Paper Bag Christian

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is a favorite book of my students and children.

We want our children to be fruit pots and bear the fruit of the spirit. They can’t if they have a bad case of stripes!

In the story Camilla Cream is afraid to say that she likes Lima Beans.  In not eating them she catches a bad case of stripes.  this disease causes her to wear or turn into whatever others say around her.  A child may love Jesus but be afraid to stand up for Him.  Camilla thought no one else liked Lima Beans and our children I’m sure think at times that no one else loves Jesus. They often agree with others so they can blend in and fit in a crowd.  But, if we want our children to stand out and stand up for Christ we have to make sure they know it is OK to be different.  Just as Camilla was afraid to let others know that she liked lima beans, our children may be afraid to let others know they love Jesus.  If our children are afraid to say what they believe they will begin to take worldly influences. They will have their own case of stripes develop within them.  Notice the cure was to simply eat the Lima Beans. If our children have a caught a case of stripes, the cure is to give them a dose of Jesus!  When you read this story with your little ones don’t miss the opportunity to tell them how important it is to be comfortable in who they are and that they know Jesus!

Is your Mama a Llama? This is one of my all time favorite books. As a teacher, I loved reading it to my students. The rhyming verse and the predictability of the next word as you turned the page made it a completly interactive experience. It was a great tool in teaching students to read. I also had the privledge of meeting Deborah Guarino in New York and she is as fun in person as she in her text.
But lets get into our Bible lesson with this story. The young Llama goes about questioning the other animals to see if their “mama” is a llama.
The boldness of this little guy is inspiring. I wonder as we go through our days meeting people if we bother to question who their heavenly father is. The animals identify their “mama” by the way she looks, what she eats, and the sounds she makes (”moo”).
Christ identified who he was by letting us know who his father is. In Colossians 1:15, Paul tells us that Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  Knowing that Christ is the Son of God is the foundation to the Christian faith but it goes beyond that.  When we accept Christ as our savior we become a child of God ourself. (1 John 3:2) – So, the natural lesson in this book is in genetics. We all inherit genes that make us look like our mamas and daddies. But don’t miss the opportunity that we also need to take on the image of Christ. We are now children of God. If we’ve received Christ as our savior then we have a heavenly father wants to reveal Himself to us. He wants us to be more and more like Him. If we are, then others will recognize it – and just as Lloyd the Llama could guess each “mama” by the traits it possessed, others will recognize that we are Christians by the things we say and do. So, the real question isn’t, “Who is your Mama?”- it’s:  “Who is your heavenly father? – And how can we tell?”