Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll


Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll


I have been meaning to write a short review of Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll for a while now.
About two months’ ago, I decided to change from Bible stories to doing this topically based study.  The Squire and the Scroll is a lovely picture book, illustrating the quest that a squire and a knight go on.  It highlights the importance of following God’s precepts and remembering what to watch out for on the path through life.
The Life Lessons book is an additional Bible supplement to the picture book.  Each week has a different topic to explore, based on the story of The Squire and the Scroll, as well as the development of godly character.  It is mainly aimed at boys of around 8 – 12 years of age but can easily be used outside of this "target" audience.  Since when is guarding your heart, your ears, the importance of memorising Scripture and being a light for those around you limited to a certain age group or gender?
The lessons are divided into sections. " A Squire Prepares" this usually contains the introductory text.  For instance, Week 5 is "Accepting the Protection of Authority".
It starts off like this: Remember that part of The Squire and the Scroll when the son is leaving home?  His parents aren’t happy that he’s leaving but they are proud of him.  They trust him to be successful in his quest. They’ve done their best to teach him from the scroll and  to remind him that they will always  support him in his quest for the king. (Deuteronomy  6:6-7).
 We usually do the next title " A Squire’s Prayer" on the first day as it is a lovely way to conclude our time of meditation.
The next section is entitled "Scroll of Faith"  It has the Bible verse for the week printed there.  I have decided to make up our own sheets, combining copy work with a picture from the book.  Below are some examples:
Day 3, I usually look at the section on "Heroes of Faith".  In this topic, it was on Ham, Shem and Japheth.  Usually when we read the account of Noah and the Ark, we focus on Noah’s faith.  This study looked at the faith of the sons to follow in the footsteps of their father, even though the world scorned what he was doing.  It was a powerful example and I was struck afresh by how radical that ark-building was for these sons.
As we have a 4 day week, I will choose between the section called "Creative Squire Adventures", that has fun and different ideas for exploring a topic, and the section entitled "Battle Plans".  This week, we looked at the Battle Plan topic.  It asked – What keeps you from giving your heart to your parents for safekeeping? Plus many more questions along those lines.
I am so heartened by the words, the encouragement that continually flows from this guide and the positive way to share these concepts with my boys.   I feel challenged as a parent to ask myself a lot of the same questions.
I strongly urge you to consider spending some time in either this guide or the one for girls, Life Lessons for The Princess and the Kiss as you won’t be disappointed.

No comments:

Post a Comment