Review - Like Ice Cream: The Scoop on Helping the Next Generation Fall in Love with God’s Word
A review of Christian literature by David E. Dean, featuring his favorite reads from 2021.
This book just made it for consideration as I completed reading it on December 30, 2021. I found the book very appealing, and not simply due to the “Dad joke” in the title. The subtitle succinctly states the thesis of the book. Anyone who believes the truth of the Bible and loves their family will naturally desire to transmit a love for God’s word to the succeeding generations.
Our collective challenge is how do we do this? When I was a child, the church used the tools of Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and developed creative ways to transmit Bible knowledge. I recall the comic books, the chalk talks, and numerous craft projects. In my teen years the church provided a youth fellowship, youth rallies, Bible quizzes, and summer camps. When my children were young, we added attendance at AWANA with its emphasis on scripture memorization.
All of these activities, though, emphasized learning the Bible’s content for learning about one’s need of salvation, but other than that it was learning content for content’s sake. Adults hoped the children would love God and His word, but there didn’t seem to be a coordinated strategy to accomplish this.
In Like Ice Cream, Ferrin provided a strategy for transmitting not just content but a love for God’s word resulting in life change. He presents this strategy in nine principles. The foundational principle is that if I desire my children and grandchildren to love God’s word, I need to love it myself. An excellent resource is his book How to Enjoy Reading Your Bible, which would have made this list had I read it this year.
Other principles include: talking about what you learn in the Bible with your children; read the Bible together; make Bible reading real (read the Bible where children can observe); surround your children with people who love the Bible; and make Bible reading a priority.
I recommend this book to anyone concerned with passing on their faith to their children. It is a short, easy-to-understand book with 2 pages of valuable resources in the appendix.