That’s When I Talk to God

That’s When I Talk to God
Written by Dan & Alison Morrow
Published at David C Cook

About the book

A little girl discovers that prayer is more than a bedtime ritual; she can talk to God anytime, in any place, and about any thing.

As a little girl says her bedtime prayers, her mother asks a simple question that sparks a powerful discovery: "You know we can pray to him any time we want to, right?" With that, the little girl suddenly finds things to talk to God about everywhere-in her garden, in a friend's backyard, and on the soccer field. The girl's prayer life will never be the same.

That's When I Talk to God is a sweet story that will deepen the prayer lives of children four to eight. This charmingly illustrated tale steps beyond explaining prayer and models constant communication with God.

Who are Dan & Alison Morrow?

Authors Dan and Alison Morrow (Worlds Collide, Violette Between as Alison Strobel) live in Colorado, where they and their two daughters love exploring around their home. In between their adventures, Alison writes women's fiction and authors a blog, while Dan works on numerous projects for children and adults.

My Thoughts

I had previously reviewed That’s Where God Is from the authors and loved the book.  So when the opportunity arise to review their new book, I immediately jumped on it.

This particular book is about prayer.   On Monday night in April, while my husband and my two oldest kids went to a Jeremy Camp concert, I sat down with Jérémy age 5 and Jasmine age 3 and proceed to read this book. 

They enjoyed it very much and loved the pretty images that are accompanying the story.   What I personally liked about this book is that it brings the whole process of praying into context.   The kids will see various situation where the child in the story will realize that this can be an opportunity to pray and talk to God.   It gives them an example on how to communicate with this invisible God we serve and worship.  I like the fact that my kids are introduce early to pray regularly to God and have a strong relationship with Him.

At the end of the book, the authors are helping the parents to instill a prayer life in their children’s life.

The authors took the time to answers some questions about how this book and the series.

Q: Where did you find the inspiration for this enchanting series? Within the lives of your children or elsewhere?

We were pregnant with our oldest when Dan was came up with the idea of a boy and his grandfather talking about “something”—that eventually evolved into That’s Where God Is. The more we worked on that book, the more we found ourselves not-very-impressed with a lot of the children’s books out there that talk about God and Christianity, and we started brainstorming about what we would do differently.  You start thinking long and hard about these things when you have a little one on the way!

Q: Why do you feel it is vital to introduce the foundation of spiritual truths at such an early age?

Young children’s minds are open to new concepts in a way that older children’s and adults’ minds are not. Immersing them in the faith early on takes advantage of this. It’s like teaching them their native language—we don’t wait until children are older before we start talking to them. We start from the minute they’re born, and we talk as if they understand everything we’re saying. Talking about spiritual things should be no different.

Q: Do you think that adults often forget to teach their children to talk to God other than at meal or bedtime? Why?

Unfortunately, adults are often so busy with life that they themselves don’t think to talk to God except during mealtime or bedtime prayers. I (Ali) struggle with this and I’ve been a Christian for thirty years! So if we’re not talking to God throughout our day, it’s hard to model the kind of prayer life for our children that we want them to have. I’m slowly getting better, and God is faithful to draw me closer to Him—in fact, He uses my girls to do it! They’re the ones who will say, “Mom, look, a fire engine is going somewhere—we should pray that everyone is okay.” I only thought to suggest that once or twice myself, but they’ve really grabbed hold of that kind of mindset, and now they’re very diligent and faithful to ask that we stop and pray for people whenever we see emergency vehicles out with their sirens going. And whenever we do that, it brings God back to the forefront of my mind, and I’m more likely to remember to suggest that we pray for other things in the course of our day—thanking God for creation, for health, for safety; asking Him why things are the way they are in the world, etc.

Q: How will it benefit children to learn to talk to God early in their lives?

The earlier and more thoroughly we immerse our children in the faith, the deeper those roots are going to go. And the deeper those roots go, the more stable their spiritual foundation is going to be. Kids are leaving the church in droves when they turn 18—I think that we can put a dent in that statistic if we help our kids to cultivate a rich prayer life and teach them the deeper things of the faith early on instead of feeding them “spirituality lite” in the form of Christian cartoons or isolated Bible stories.

Q: Do you have suggestions for those who purchase your story to effectively emphasize the truths presented?

Children learn through repetition. Anyone who has lived with a toddler or preschooler knows they love to read the same books, play the same games, and ask the same questions over and over. God wired them this way, and parents can use this to their advantage. Both books in the series include a variety of familiar scenes and situations that kids and parents can easily relate to.  You can incorporate That’s When I Talk to God into your bedtime routine (the book actually starts and ends with a bedtime scene, so it suits nighttime reading well!) and talk about times in your own child’s life that they can talk to God like the girl in the story did. Kids also bow to peer pressure, as we all know, and parents can encourage the “peer pressure” of the girl in the story by drawing parallels between her experience and their child’s. Parents can also read through the Scriptures in the back of the book and talk about how God speaks to us through the Bible. I think emphasizing the fact that God actually does respond to us is key, because so often prayer can feel like a one-way street. By pointing out that He talks back—and identifying the times He does throughout our day—parents can help their children to avoid the common pitfall of thinking that prayer is just them talking and no one responding.

That’s When I Talk to God is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: This review was possible because I received a copy of the product from B&B Media for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.