Sticky Situations: 365 Devotions for Kids and Families

by Betsy Schmitt

Sticky Situations is a devotional book for families with children ages 8 to 12 that offers short readings for each day of the year. Each reading begins with a kid who is facing a moral dilemma and ends with multiple-choice solutions for the family to discuss. Often there is more than one acceptable course of action to take. Parents will find tips in the back of the book that interpret the various choices made by the children and offer follow-up questions for further discussion on each topic. Scripture references are provided to give biblical insight into each situation. Sticky Situations is a great discussion starter that will give parents the chance to share their own values with their children.

Genres: Parenting

474 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 1997

Reviews

[Robbie Bashore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first devotional we've tried as a family that my kids actually seem to like--they ask about it, if we forget. They are 9 and 10, and the situations are often things they won't encounter until middle school, but they still see them as relevant. We usually ask them to come up with their own answers before reading the choices. My daughter will do this, and she comes up with some good solutions. My son always asks for the options; he will then answer with something like, "God would do A, but I would probably do C or D."

I have two minor issues with the book. The first is that sometimes it's pretty hard to figure out how the verses they provide apply to the day's dilemma. The second is that the author may be a bit more conservative than us about some things, e.g. creationism vs evolution taught in school. To her credit, though, she does leave enough room for discussion and interpretation--to use the same example, I opened up the discussion to see what my kids thought about the debate between creationists and evolutionists. I'm always prepared to introduce an idea by saying, "some people think...what do you think?"

[Nathaniel Spencer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thinking better of my long-winded, critical review, so I’ll just stick to the basics. This book (devotional?) contains virtually no Christian gospel that I could discover. Kids need the gospel. Kids want the gospel. They will settle for schoolmarm-y moralism, but only because we tell them to, and we should know better. Please, please, please, authors of Christian children’s material: learn the gospel inside and out, from every passage of the Bible, and then frontload it into every message you write for children. Please. It’s of first importance.

[Shannon Evanko · Rating 4 out of 5]

So outdated with some of the situations, but I tried to edit/update them on the fly while reading. This one is nostalgic for me because my parents grew up reading these to me. It’s great to get their brains thinking about how they would react in certain situations because of Jesus! 3.5 for me.

[Michael Hung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flipping through my old, very old scanned copies of "reading materials" for students in MST, I found this book. Way back in late 20-00's. I use many articles in this book to share positive values to try solving students' difficult situations. by equipping them with readings from others. The book was in MST library and I do not have copies. Looking for this book in Amxzon and order used copy. Received them and read and remember the old days.

Well, the author ask (or collect) real situations and questions young adults ask. Give them a solution with backup quotes from Bible. Quick search when you have to tackle them or just go through them as daily reading.

[Therese (Terrie) Ross Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to help continue the lessons of right & wrong for youngsters.

[Ronald Ng]

Good