A Child’s First Book About Marriage by Jani Ortlund

Book Review: A Child’s First Book About Marriage by Jani Ortlund
Christian Focus Publications, 2018

Our young children are growing up in a society that views marriage in a completely different way than previous generations. While most of us grew up within a culture that held views on marriage similar to that found in the Bible, nowadays children as young as two years old are bombarded with same-sex marriage in cartoons and commercials.

So how do we graciously talk with them about what marriage is, where it came from, and why God’s way of marriage looks different than the world?

Jani Ortlund has written a wonderful resource in the form of a picture book. A Child’s First Book About Marriage, is a winsome introduction to marriage. She shares about how God created marriage, beautiful and good, and that it is a sacred promise between a man and a woman.

I also appreciate how Ortlund tells kids how not all countries agree on what marriage is, but that’s okay because we base our views on God’s unchanging truth. She gently addresses divorce and same-sex marriage in a loving, yet truthful, way.

I highly recommend this book, as it is one of the few picture books out there that I have found addressing marriage in a biblical way. The book doesn’t idolize marriage (sometimes in Christian culture marriage can be seen as more spiritual than singleness, or that every girl should have marriage as their end goal. I would argue that godliness is every girl’s calling and purpose), but it shows the immense value and beautiful picture it is in our world today.

The publisher sent me this book for review consideration but all opinions are my own.