Hardcover
160 pages
Written by Amy Parker
Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Zonderkidz, December 2015
ISBN 978-0-310-72522-0
SRP $14.99
Ages 9-12
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Amy Parker wants kids of all ages to understand that they’re not alone in this world—God has plans for them! And he’s given them talents and gifts and is able to help them make good choices about how to use those to serve the world.

That’s the message of her picture book The Plans I Have for You, which debuted last summer. (You can find my review here.)

And now the same author-illustrator team is bringing that same message to tweens and preteens with a ninety-day devotional just for them. Also available (although I haven’t seen it yet) is a journal to use along with the devotional.

The format and design of the devotional are appropriately more grownup. The ninety devotions are organized into six “sectors” that build upon one another:

I’ve Got Big Plans for YOU
I’ve Given YOU a Purpose
I Don’t Do Things Small
There’s Nothing YOU Can’t Do
Find That ONE Thing
What I Created YOU to Do

But Amy encourages kids to use the book in whatever ways work best for them, with the focus always on spending time with God:

Pray before or after or both! You can flip to a random page or read [the devotions] in order. Look up the verses in your own Bible or just read them out of the book. But the one, single, solitary, absolute, most important thing is this: Spend time talking to God to and listening to God. Every day.

Based on events in the lives of Bible characters or on related verses, these devotions are short, conversational, never boring or condescending, yet full of challenge and instruction (even for adults, should you decide to borrow your child’s copy of the book from time to time).

One aspect I really appreciated: about halfway through I found this, in the devotion titled “God’s Purpose”:

Even if we don’t follow all of the directions . . .
Even if we can’t seem to get anything right . . .
Even if we have no clue what our purpose is . . .
It’s okay. God has called us to his purpose.No matter what.
And in the end, it’s only God’s purpose that truly matters.
Spend some time today discovering God and his purpose.

That’s wise advice, and this is a wise and worthwhile book!