Every parent and teacher wants to see their children make good choices, grow in wisdom, and learn how to live a God-honoring life. But Christian parents know that teaching good morals isn't enough. Kids (and adults) need gospel power in order to "wise up!" Christians through the centuries have used the book of Proverbs to teach children the godly wisdom needed to navigate their everyday lives. Wise Up, by author and family pastor Marty Machowski, is a two-part discipleship resource geared to help children grown in the true wisdom that is only found in Christ.
Wise Up offers two separate discipleship tools. The first product, a twelve-week curriculum and companion music album is designed to connect the teaching of Proverbs to God's larger story of salvation. Children will learn that Solomon's wisdom, life, and failures all point to "something greater than Solomon" they point to Jesus. The goal of this curriculum is to present the wisdom of Proverbs against the backdrop of the gospel to show children that real wisdom comes only as we depend on Jesus for daily help and forgiveness. Each lesson includes Bible reading, discussion questions, object lessons, a fun activity, and songs for families from the Walking with the Wise music CD by Sovereign Grace music. This curriculum includes three learning levels preschool and kindergarten (ages 4Ð6), elementary (ages 6Ð9), and middle school (ages 10Ð12).
Also available in this series is the companion family devotional, Wise Up: Ten-Minute Family Devotions in Proverbs, which will help make learning the truths of Proverbs fun and memorable for the whole family. Each compact session features Bible reading, discussion questions, a fun activity, and a song to keep children engaged in making gospel-motivated good choices. Each wisdom theme in Wise Up is carefully and repeatedly connected to the good news of Jesus's life, death, resurrection, and coming return. Wise Up moves families beyond the practical wisdom of Proverbs to connect the teaching of Solomon to God's larger story of salvation.
"Marty Machowski has delivered yet another faithful, clear, and accessible book for parents and families. Wise Up is a compelling resource that winsomely communicates the wisdom of Proverbs to a modern generation, while also showing how Proverbs fits within the biblical storyline that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This book is a helpful tool for any parent who treasures the spiritual lives of their children and wants to nourish them in the faith once for all delivered to the saints."
Albert Mohler, Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY
"In Wise Up, Marty Machowski has given parents a thoughtful, creative, compelling, gospel-centered resource to train their kids in biblical wisdom and Christ-exalting living. Marty's love for his readers and the Savior are obvious throughout, and I was overjoyed that Sovereign Grace Music could partner with New Growth Press for this project. If you're a parent looking for help with family devotions, this is a gold mine."
Bob Kauflin, Director of Sovereign Grace Music
"I am pleased to recommend another of Marty Machowski's wonderful family worship resources. Wise Up is a twelve-week study in the Proverbs. Each family devotional can be done in about ten minutes and includes Scripture reading, brief comments followed by provocative questions and a suggestion for prayer time. This book is engaging, interesting, full of good content, and above all doable a valuable resource. Get it and use it for the good of your kids and generations yet unborn!"
Dr. Tedd Tripp, Author, conference speaker
"Wise Up by Marty Machowski is an excellent resource for family devotions. Over the course of twelve weeks, he provides engaging lessons that help families explore the wisdom of Proverbs in a five-day-a-week format. Wise Up uses songs, purposeful activities, and probing questions to draw families into the Bible, allowing them to grow closer to one another as they grow closer to God. Of all the activities we can do with our children, family devotions are the one opportunity we cannot afford to miss!"
Melissa Kruger, Women's Ministry Coordinator at Uptown Church PCA, author of The Envy of Eve: Finding Contentment in a Covetous World and Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood
"In this volume, Marty Machowski has provided a precious gift to Christian families. In the pages of this book parents will find an accessible road map for sharing the riches of the wisdom of the book of Proverbs with their children. The author assists parents with this task by providing illustrative activities and songs, facilitating prayer, and by providing relevant questions aimed at unfolding the wisdom of God's Word."
Anthony T. Selvaggio, Preacher; lecturer; author of The Proverbs Driven Life
"Wise parents want to raise wise children. But life conspires to make us live less wisely than we'd like, or they need. Wise Up helps parents to live wisely and instill that wisdom in their children. By means of fun projects, daily Scriptures, insightful explanations, helpful discussion questions, and even memorable songs, Wise Up makes family devotions doable and enjoyable for everyone."
John Kitchen, Senior Pastor, Stow Alliance Fellowship, Stow, Ohio and author of Proverbs: A Mentor Commentary
"Wise Up will help your children see that a life of wisdom is honest, hard-working, forgiving, generous, and faithful. But best of all, Marty Machowski shows us that this God-fearing life will only be ours when our hearts are made new by Jesus, who is himself God's wisdom for us our righteousness, holiness, and redemption."
Jared Kennedy, Pastor of Families, Sojourn Community Church Midtown Congregation, Louisville, KY
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Twelve weeks of walking through Proverbs for your family devotion time. Great for a variety of ages, lots of song ideas, practical hands on examples, and biblically solid teaching to disciple your family. Because of the length it took us six months to get through it, could easily be paired with reading through Proverbs. Devotions are short and sweet. Includes a prayer prompt for each one.
We read this together for our morning family devotions. Short, but packed with goodness and truth. Looking forward to reading the one about Jesus’s parables next!
This is a great devotional to discuss with elementary kids.
We loved working through this devotional book in morning time this year!
Whoever had the brilliant idea to match the album with a devotional book: THANK YOU! On top of that, there is also a curriculum for churches. In that curriculum there is also puppet sketches for all 12 lessons. I can’t say enough how blessed we have been when we discovered the curriculum. It all start with our music director in London, England telling me to use the Sovereign Grace Kids songs at our Promiseland Program in our church in London. I felt in love with the music and started using straight away. The songs also spoke to me and our adults volunteers. 12 years later, I’m again, a children’s minister and with a child (8 years-old). In the effort to expose my child to the Gospel as much as possible, I always find myself playing the Sovereign Grace kids albums, Psalty the book, Hillsong and other Christian bands. Last month, I found out that all the Sovereign Grace Kids albums have devotional and Church Curriculum that matches the songs. What a brilliant idea since their songs are catchy and well composed. Now, about the devotional book. It is long. So expect to really be a 10-minute devotional. It also has two or three questions with answers to help the parents. And a suggestion for what to pray on that day. The devotional is based on the album “Walking with the Wise” so it has 12 chapters (12 songs). Each chapter has 5 days of devotional. It also offers activities. I think it would fit a homeschool kid. We don’t do the activities since school is a full time thing in our household. Great book. Don’t hesitate in buying it or the church curriculum. Or the songs!
We love doing this together as a family at night. We’ve had some great discussions and even us as parents are sharing our sins and talking about them with our kids.
Really helpful to go through with our 10 and almost 12 year old. Sparked some good discussions and questions about the Bible, Proverbs, family, school, work, etc. I recommend it.
I liked this book about proverbs and wisdom and how is interwove the New Testament in and all Jesus. It was a good 12 week family devotional.
I found this book helpful and used it for family devotions. Not only is it short but it provokes further conversation.
Quick readings to start the day with kids. Especially great for elementary/early middle school ages