Product Description
A book written to help those striving to raise young children in the Lord. It contains a historic Baptist catechism called A Catechism for boys and girls. There are also suggested scripture memory and hymns that serve to strengthen children to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Parents, grandparents, and teachers find in this little book an excellent aid for commending Christ and the gospel to the coming generation.
Summary
I bought this book on the recommendation of a reformed Baptist pastor friend. I knew that I was supposed to teach my kids, and I had learned the value of catechizing them, but I didn’t know where to start. The Baptist Catechism book I owned seemed “too big” to ask my little ones to memorize. The question and answer format is a great teaching tool, in my opinion, so when I saw that Founders had produced a children’s catechism which was recommended by a trusted friend, I purchased a copy immediately.
Believe me, the church of God will never be preserved without catechesis. John Calvin
I am EXTREMELY happy with this little book. At only $5.25 at the Founders.org website, it’s affordable for anyone. The quality of the book itself seems “sturdy.” I assume this is because the publisher knows that little children will ultimately handle this book and they aren’t gentle!
About the Book
Truth & Grace Memory Book is broken down into several sections. At the beginning of each section, there are inspiring quotes from faithful saints from church history.
- An Introduction — For parents, grandparents, teachers, children’s ministry directors, or whoever is leading the child through this teaching. It’s a brief yet necessary encouragement and exhortation with tips for success and even some detailed instructions for using this little volume.
- The Catechism Questions – 25 pages of question and answers WITH scripture references included. These make for ready-made family devotions with your little ones. The questions range from “Who made you? (God made me.) to questions about heaven and hell, sin and judgment, Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection, and return. There are 135 questions, which, if memorized, will give your child a solid basis of good theology stored in his or her heart and mind.
- Scripture Memory — This section is a list of scripture memory for your child to work on. The verses range all over the Bible and are not just pulled out of context. In many cases, there is a nice chunk of scripture to memorize in context.
- Bible Basics —
- Then Ten Commandments
- The Lord’s Prayer
- Names of the twelve Apostles
- The Apostle’s Creed
- Books of the Old and New Testament
- The Nicene Creed
- Hymns: including Holy, Holy, Holy, Jesus Loves Me, Bless the Lord Oh My Soul, Fairest Lord Jesus, Rock of Ages, et al.
- Pages for tracking progress — Finally, there are pages where you can check off what your child has memorized with suggested goals for each age group.
Review
If I gave star ratings I’d give this book 5 stars. For a family that wants to catechize your children with Baptistic theology and uses the ESV for Bible memory, this book leaves very little to be desired. I would recommend this book to parents anywhere. If your children are beyond the 7-10 age range, you may consider the Truth and Grace Memory Book 2 or 3 which I haven’t personally reviewed.
Further Review
I posted this review in January of 2020 and have a few comments after 6 months of use with my children.
- On page 56, the verse Romans 6:23 is listed, but it is supposed to be Romans 3:23 that is listed.
- In the Scripture quotations, the term “lord” is not spelled out in the ALLCAPS LORD which indicates the covenantal name of YHWH in the Old Testament. Thus, you lose the distinction when learning the verses. So if you are like my family, where we actually learn Psalm 23 as “Yahweh is my shepherd…” you will have to be sure to write in your book anywhere you need to make that distinction.
- The chapters of Psalms do not contain the directions at the beginning. For example, Psalm 23 begins “A Psalm of David…” this text is missing from this little book, and this is text my family memorizes.
- Question 19 in the catechism is “Have you a soul as well as a body?” and the answer listed is “Yes. I have a soul that can never die.” I found this to be an odd answer since Ezekiel literally said, “The soul who sins shall die.” So I looked up the Presbyterian version of this same question and found this https://opc.org/cce/FirstCatechism.html. Notice in question 20 the same question is asked, but answered differently: ‘Yes. And my soul is going to last forever.” In a day and age where sloppy language can make a difference in the direction a doctrine takes, I prefer the wording of the OPC.
- On page 80, the subheading “Verse 3” appears twice instead of “Verse 4.” The song lyrics are correct but the heading is wrong.
Having said all that, I still give the book a 5-star review and hope that maybe in future printings that Founders Press will address these issues.
I particularly have enjoyed the pages in the back that give my children a goal to shoot for. I even began the practice of memorizing the verses with my children and that has been a blessing to me.
For Ages 2 through 4th Grade
Scripture Quotations from the ESV
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 94
Vendor: Founders Press
Author: Tom Ascol
ISBN-13: 9781943539055