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Wise Up: Ten-Minute Family Devotions in Proverbs
Every parent 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!� Wise Up, the newest family devotional from best-selling children’s author and family pastor, Marty Machowski, will help make learning the truths of Proverbs fun and memorable for first- to sixth-grade kids as it points them to the true wisdom that is only found in Christ.
Like his acclaimed Long Story Short and Old Story New devotionals, Wise Up offers families an easy-to-use, gospel-focused resource that can be successfully completed in just ten minutes a day, five days per week. Each session features Bible reading, discussion questions, a fun activity, and a song to make the study memorable for everyone in the family. In twelve short weeks, you can walk your entire family through the book of Proverbs, keeping them focused on the gospel the whole time.
Unlike some other kids resources on Proverbs, Wise Up is not a study on good morals. Machowski examines Proverbs from a biblical-theological perspective—avoiding the dangers of moralism while still teaching 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. Ultimately, the goal of this family devotional is to present the wisdom of Solomon against the backdrop of the gospel to show children that real wisdom comes only as we depend on Jesus for daily help and forgiveness. As a result, Wise Up moves families beyond the practical wisdom of Proverbs, to connect the teaching of Solomon to God’s larger story of salvation.
A corresponding music CD, Walking with the Wise, helps families remember and reflect on these truths and is available from Sovereign Grace Music.
Like his acclaimed Long Story Short and Old Story New devotionals, Wise Up offers families an easy-to-use, gospel-focused resource that can be successfully completed in just ten minutes a day, five days per week. Each session features Bible reading, discussion questions, a fun activity, and a song to make the study memorable for everyone in the family. In twelve short weeks, you can walk your entire family through the book of Proverbs, keeping them focused on the gospel the whole time.
Unlike some other kids resources on Proverbs, Wise Up is not a study on good morals. Machowski examines Proverbs from a biblical-theological perspective—avoiding the dangers of moralism while still teaching 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. Ultimately, the goal of this family devotional is to present the wisdom of Solomon against the backdrop of the gospel to show children that real wisdom comes only as we depend on Jesus for daily help and forgiveness. As a result, Wise Up moves families beyond the practical wisdom of Proverbs, to connect the teaching of Solomon to God’s larger story of salvation.
A corresponding music CD, Walking with the Wise, helps families remember and reflect on these truths and is available from Sovereign Grace Music.
160 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2016
10 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
About the author
Marty Machowski
57Ìýbooks114ÌýfollowersMarty Machowski is a Family Life Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church, a Sovereign Grace Ministries church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, where he has served on the pastoral staff for more than twenty years. As leader of their children’s ministry, Promise Kingdom, he has worked for many years to develop curriculum and devotional material that connect church and home. His passion is equipping families to understand the Bible as one gospel story and help them share that with their children. He is the author of The Gospel Story for Kids series including Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God (OT); The Gospel Story Bible; and the Gospel Story Curriculum: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament and the forthcoming Old Story New (NT): Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God and Gospel Story Curriculum: Following Jesus in the New Testament. He and his wife Lois and their six children reside in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 8, 2021
I found this book helpful and used it for family devotions. Not only is it short but it provokes further conversation.
January 25, 2025
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.
September 2, 2024
We have really loved other books by Machowski, but this one wasn't as good of a fit for our family. It's not a bad devotional, but we ended up going in a different direction for Morning Time this year.
August 23, 2017
Really 3.5 stars. It's a decent book and convenient. It spiritualizes proverbs a bit more than I like, but all around o would recommend it.
July 31, 2020
Quick readings to start the day with kids. Especially great for elementary/early middle school ages
October 22, 2021
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.
May 1, 2022
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.
May 3, 2024
We loved working through this devotional book in morning time this year!
September 10, 2024
This is a great devotional to discuss with elementary kids.
October 10, 2024
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!
March 31, 2024
I used this for evening Bible with the kids at dinner time. Fabulous book which was easy to work through, but generated good discussion. My kids loved it and engaged well with the material. What's great is it takes the Proverbs to Jesus and the gospel and avoids moralism. There are some activities that go along with the weekly themes, and I did a few, but it's not necessary to do these.
Read again with the kids for breakfast readings and prayer. Noted a distinct spiritualization of a lot of the Proverbs which I am now more attuned to. For instance, a Proverb about wealth being the result of a certain way of living will be taken as 'spiritual wealth'. Or even when obedience is said to lead to a satisfying and long life, the general truth of this is denied by showing that Jesus didn't get this. He then jumps straight to Jesus being forever in heaven with the Father. Never mind that the proverb is actually talking about physical life on this earth. This gnostic approach of denigrating the physical world is unfortunately alive in well in the modern evangelical world. Despite this, I found this a good launching point for morning discussions.
Read again with the kids for breakfast readings and prayer. Noted a distinct spiritualization of a lot of the Proverbs which I am now more attuned to. For instance, a Proverb about wealth being the result of a certain way of living will be taken as 'spiritual wealth'. Or even when obedience is said to lead to a satisfying and long life, the general truth of this is denied by showing that Jesus didn't get this. He then jumps straight to Jesus being forever in heaven with the Father. Never mind that the proverb is actually talking about physical life on this earth. This gnostic approach of denigrating the physical world is unfortunately alive in well in the modern evangelical world. Despite this, I found this a good launching point for morning discussions.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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