If you read this blog often, you most likely are a parent, grandparent, or teacher who loves Jesus, loves children, and wants children to know and love Jesus too. And books help you teach them.

One book, of course, forms the foundation for every Christian children’s book written by the authors who post here at Christian Children’s Authors–the Bible.

I was blessed in 2000 to join a women’s Bible study group formed to read through the Bible in a year. Although I’d been a Christian for many years and had read many parts of the Bible and used the Bible in my work as an editor for a Christian publishing house, I had never actually read the entire Bible. I joined the group, and it changed my life in so many ways.

Out of that read-through-the-Bible experience, which I’ve repeated in various forms most years since then, I wrote A Woman’s Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year: A Life-Changing Journey into the Heart of God (Bethany House, 2012). And as a Christmas gift to readers, Bethany House is making the e-book version FREE all day tomorrow, December 28, as well as offering it at a great discount December 29-January 4.

You can access these offers from Bethany House here or at all major online vendors.

The reading plan in the book–just three chapters a day–alternates Old Testament and New Testament books. You’ll never feel “stuck” in the Old Testament, and you’ll make Old Testament and New Testament connections more quickly than in a Genesis-to-Revelation reading plan. You’ll find just a few short paragraphs of background information and one question to answer each week: How did you experience God’s heart in this week’s reading?

The focus all year is simply on getting to know God better though his Word. You can start at any time of year and use any Bible version. Use the book on your own, or join with some others to read and get together to talk about what you’ve read.

We can’t lead our children into a relationship with God that we don’t have. Spending time with him each day, getting to know him better through his wonderful Word, can be a yearlong Christmas present to our children and ourselves.

I hope you’ll take advantage of this wonderful offer from Bethany House and get your free or reduced-price e-book version of A Woman’s Guide to Reading the Bible in a Year.

And have a blessed 2014!

DIANE