We have a Childrens Bible that my children love. It has 25 Bible stories: David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion’s den, Abraham, Joseph, etc. I asked my children about some Book of Mormon stories such as Ammon and the sheep, Nephi’s boat, and realized that my children weren’t familiar with these stories. So, I decided to write my own version of the most important Book of Mormon stories that I thought my kids could understand. I used the Childrens Bible as my guide, and tried to tell the stories in about 100 words or so, and thought it would be fun for my kids to draw pictures of the stories.
As it turned out, my kids got tired of drawing pictures, and I can’t count very well–we stopped at 24. I realized that I was leaving out some stories. Here’s my list.
- Lehi Tells the People to Repent
- Lehi Finds the Liahona
- Lehi’s Dream of the Iron Rod and Tree of Life
- Nephi Breaks his Bow
- The Brass Plates
- Nephi Builds a Ship
- The Big Storm
- The Promised Land
- Jacob Teaches Everyone to Be Nice
- King Benjamin Tells Everyone to Serve
- Alma and the Sons of Mosiah
- Ammon Defends the Sheep
- King Lamoni gets Baptized
- The People of Jershon Bury Their Swords
- The Title of Liberty
- Samuel the Lamanite
- The New Star
- The Great Destruction
- Jesus Appears to the Nephites
- 200 Years of Peace
- Mormon Abridges the Plates
- The Brother of Jared
- The Nephites and Lamanites are Bad
- Moroni Buries the Golden Plates
There were other stories that I missed–Enos, Abinadi, the Waters of Mormon, The Stripling Warriors, and many others. I was originally going to add the Stripling Warriors, but I wasn’t sure what to tell my kids to draw (they’re 7 and 5.) I also didn’t really want to stress the war stories in favor of some of the other stories, in order to give a variety. I felt there was enough war stories already. On a side note, I had my kids watch the old 1960’s movie on Netflix: The Incredible Mr Limpet. They had no idea why the US was trying to blow up all the Nazi subs. It was hard for me to put it in terms they understood. I realized that this rated G cartoon/movie had some more difficult subjects to explain to little kids, and I didn’t want to get into the Holocaust with them.
So here is my question. If you had to limit the list of stories to 24, what stories would you remove in order to include some of the ones I missed?
Mormon Heretic 
My favorite is when Shiz becomes the only man in recorded history to do a push-up with no head.
I swear I remember hearing a story of a man in france who picked up his head after he was guillotioned. i’ll have to find a reference.
but bishop rick, do you think this is a worthwhile activity for children, or should I avoid the book of mormon because you think it is ahistorical?
When my daughter was about the age of your kids, she’d make the wilderness the common areas of our condo complex, invite a couple of kids from church over, and they’d have a fun time acting out the Book of Mormon stories. The balcony of our apartment became the high towers as needed, and tents can always be assembled by draping cloth over strategically arranged furniture in the living room.
You’re on your own about what you wish to teach about the complex issues of war and peace in the Book of Mormon, but sons will love to play both the roles of the Antis (although their marterdom WILL tend to be somewhat dramatic) as well as the Sons of Heleman.
What you’re doing is worthy.
I think a children’s version of the BoM is every bit as valid as one on the OT. That is how I learned about all the OT stories…by reading a children’s book. I loved it. No reason, why kids can’t have the same experience with the BoM.
FireTag, I would have loved to witness your children acting out BoM stories. I wish I had been a neighbor.
Bishop Rick, I didn’t find the reference I was looking for, but this reference to Living Heads (a subheading of Guillotine) at Wikipedia has some interesting points.
So, perhaps this pushup of Shiz was some sort of involuntary muscle spasm.
With that story, we’ve now turned my rated G post on a Child’s version of the Book of Mormon into a rated PG-13 post…..
Now, let’s return to our original post. Now that I am thinking about it, I think I should have added the story of Enos praying to the Lord all day and night. Perhaps I’ll try to put that in between #9 and 10.
No doubt that involuntary muscle spasms are possible after decapitation, and have likely happened many times. But how many times have they been recorded? I only know of one. Shiz doing a pushup was a big joke in the MTC. Just a little levity.
MH, I’m going to have nightmares now… 🙂
The church publishes children’s stories from all of our scriptues – “Book of Mormon Stories”, “New Testament Stories”, Old Testament Stories”, and “Doctrine and Covenant Stories”. Why not just order those? I had all of those as a child and I have them for my children now.
DB, I went to the BYU Bookstore and came up empty (they had plenty of children’s books). Do you have a reference for these?
I will say that my kids have really wanted to read “their” book, so it has been fun to do.
If you’re in Utah you should be able to find them at a Distribution Center but I don’t if they would be in the children’s books section or the scripture section. You can also order them from the church Distribution Services at http://www.ldscatalog.com. Look under “Scriptures” – “Scripture Stories”.
You can also view them in various media formats by going to http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=12f1d9e1ec1cb110VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD&locale=0
Sorry, but I don’t remember the beheading of Shiz being included as one of the stories. Go figure.
Shiz has always been misunderstood.
Thanks DB. I think I did see that, but it’s just too long for my kids. They seem to like the more cartoon type drawings than these paintings too.