Posts by Rachel Schultz

WHY CHRISTIANS DON’T DO IMAGES OF JESUS IN CHILDREN’S BOOKS (OR ANYWHERE)

October 31, 2022

I share book and movie curations, and one thing you may notice is that we do not use ones that have images of Jesus. I laughed a little bit working on the upcoming christmas curation because when I list that we want christmas content that does not have images of Jesus, many present day christians might find it confusing. Like are these people atheists then? The opposite! The short answer is, we do not do images of Jesus because of the second commandment. This is the histroic presbyterian view.

This understanding is not new in history, but it has fallen out of style in the american church and I think lots of christians have never thought about that it may not be a good thing to do.

This post may not be very long. But it is perhaps a cornerstone piece of blog content because as said above this is referenced in my book and movie curations. This summary is just in my own words, as a homemaker. It is similar to how I would explain this view to one of my children or a younger mom.

This quotation from the westminster larger catechism in question 109 can help. “The sins forbidden in the second commandment are […] the making any representation of God, of all, or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever…”

The other biggest thing is to paste the second commandment bible text here from Exodus 20, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above…”

I guess it’s that simple! We must worship the real Christ and worshipping not the real Christ is heresy.

Lastly, not a steel trap, or even primary argument but an extra tidbit for consideration that I loved from a friend when we were chatting about this. She in her humorous and straight shooting way simply quipped something to the effect of, “THEY’RE ALL WEIRD.” I think people know every image of Jesus they have seen portrayed made you feel a little off. Partly because it was just, somehow, not enough.

Well like I said, this post isn’t long. It is just an faq to answer!

This post is a part of my very selective curations series of books and movies.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL (HISTORICAL, CHRISTIAN) THANKSGIVING CHILDREN’S BOOKS

October 29, 2022

Rachel Schultz

November is my favorite month of the year! You get the moodiest beautiful autumn month, THANKSGIVING, and even a dash of Christmas. What better way do I like to celebrate any time of year than with a children’s books curation. Here are the links to the previous (yet still pertinent) autumn book lists: apples and early fall, classic autumn, and reformation day. Now, let’s do a thanksgiving session!

I love curating book collections (and I don’t discriminate against “lower” art mediums so movies too) that are beautiful or good in some way to share with others. And I am highly selective! In general what I look for in children’s literature (and all art forms) is a piece that somehow captures some of whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, of any virtue, or praiseworthy.

Books that come out into the house annually for a season are going to be powerful for family culture so I want to find good ones. I consider this work to be refining a child’s palette. I am helping shape an appetite for what is beautiful, as defined by God.

All of my Thanksgiving books are Christian, of course, because this is a Christian holiday. This can be in one of two ways. First, if a book has the story of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, it must include the explicit historical, Christian motivations of the events. I don’t include books that fragile-ly skip over the enormous WHY the pilgrims came, to just talk about the survival story. Or, lots of books try to include (once) only the stock phrase that Puritans couldn’t worship “the way they wanted” in Europe, which is a harmful summary, setting an individualistic message present day. (And a little trite for the theological and liturgical differences Puritans had from Anglicans.) Give your kids the severe, brave story of masculine men and feminine women who brought Christ’s reign of heaven and earth to bear on one specific spot of land, beautifully creating an unambiguously Christian state.

Or second, I have included seasonal books with the relevant themes of gratitude, generations, fellowship around food, domesticity, and tradition. Thankfulness always has an object. Our gratitude is to the one true God.

The Blessings Jar by Colleen Coble
Sleep Tight Farm by Eugenie Doyle
Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness
Spot’s Thanksgiving by Eric Hill
A Very Thankful Prayer by Bonnie Jensen
The Voyage of the Mayflower by Allison Lassieur
…If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern
Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story by Pat Miller
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas
This is the Feast by Diane Shore
Thankful by Eileen Spinelli
God Blesses Us with Thanksgiving by Evana Vincent

All of these on amazon (at time of posting) would be $138 to have the whole slate. If you wanted just a few, I’d say the shortlist of the very, very best are Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving, Sleep Tight Farm, and God Blesses Us with Thanksgiving – in that order. But, all of these are strong and over a long time I have filtered out MANY ugly or poor ones, even just within the thanksgiving niche!

If it’s helpful, I put all these as amazon links, so you can source them easily there! If from this list you know of one I’ve missed that sounds like we’d like please tell me!

This post is a part of my very selective curations series of books and movies.

AUTUMN LEAVES CHILDREN’S COTTON SWAB ART

October 25, 2022

Rachel Schultz

I would be remiss to not mention one of the loveliest components of seasonal decor around a home – art made by children! Even with next to no budget, your home can be filled with beautiful seasonal colors and charms from making art with your children. And the activity session to make it together is part of the autumn festivities too. Helping children grow up into making and building beautiful things is a key part of motherhood.

MATERIALS

paper
brown or black marker
rubberband(s)
cotton swabs
red, orange, and yellow paints

INSTRUCTIONS

Draw the base of the tree with a wide trunk. Add three main branches and smaller branches coming off of each. Have the base of each branch begin wide and taper to smaller.
Bundle a small handful of cotton swabs together with rubber band.
Dab cotton swab bundles into paint and stamp onto tree to paint leaves.

Here you can see more ideas for art with children and more posts about autumn.