Costume Versettes
About This Site
. . . And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have
power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high
and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
________________________________________________ Ephesians 3:17-19
Back to the Top
Copyright 2010 by S. Walton. All rights reserved. See copyright statement above.
Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.
Dedication:
This site is dedicated to Sarah, my "good and perfect gift from above!"

Description:
This site matches costumes and Bible verses, grouping them in sets--hence the name Costume Versettes. These connections are an effort to teach God's word in an easily remembered way. The opinions on this site are conservative, biblically based and evangelical (see Statement of Beliefs).

Purpose:
The main purpose of this project is to help children ages 5 to young teens (and anyone else who is young at heart!) learn Bible verses and principles using costumes as a mnemonic device. It is said that the more actively involved our bodies, brains and senses are in learning (such as with visuals, crafts, dress-up activities, imagination, poems and songs), the easier it is for us to remember things. Therefore, connecting Bible lessons with costumes seems like another effective way to help children learn and remember God's word. Additionally, many of the costumes involve people, things or stories that we often come in contact with. This should further reinforce the lessons.

Goals:
It took me many years to get around to reading the whole Bible. I have often wished I had done it much sooner. I eventually learned that God’s word addresses a vast number of situations we face in everyday life, imparts abundant wisdom on the best way to live, helps steer us toward good choices and helps us avoid bad ones. With that in mind, my goals are to help site visitors to:
_____1. Most importantly, choose Jesus as their Savior.
_____2. Become familiar with a number of key Bible verses on (hopefully) just about every
_______major subject one could think of.
_____3. Learn logical background explanations for several otherwise puzzling Bible stories.
_____4. Learn how to lead a life pleasing to the Lord.
_____5. Be better equipped to more safely and successfully navigate life, while experiencing/
_______producing for themselves/others the most joy possible with the least amount of pain.
_____6. Discover ways to serve the Lord.
_____7. Be a good influence on and a blessing to others, possibly even leading others to Jesus.

Content Notes for Parents:
Some of the content decisions on this site were difficult to make, requiring judgment calls between what should be addressed and what might be too much. Nevertheless, the opinions herein are conservative ones. A major element of my decision-making process of whether or not to include a subject was considering whether the children are exposed to an ungodly approach to that same subject. Therefore, I have included a few subjects that I would sooner not have addressed, but that in our world today, seemed like they should be addressed in order to present the godly viewpoint. There are even Bible verses used addressing grown-up matters that you may not be ready for your child to deal with. In these cases, the verses are presented reluctantly, but almost out of necessity. Again, this is mostly to help combat the many ungodly influences in the world today that children are unfortunately exposed to......even at very young ages and in spite of how diligently we may try to protect them.

A small number of costumes have comments which may even be a little frightening to some. Rather than name those outright and possibly draw little eyes reading here directly to those costumes, I would recommend you peruse the table of contents pages for each set. As those pages list both the costume titles and the themes covered in each, you will probably be able to figure out on your own which ones you might want to read first to decide if your child should read them. Bottom line, although I have mostly tried to tread lightly, such as addressing the proper way to approach certain things, often without even naming the improper approach, especially if your children are considerably younger, you may want to preview costumes before they read them.

How to use this site:
General -There are seven sets of costumes (52 in each set with a few extras in Miscellanea). Each costume page is complete by itself. The pages can be read as a daily devotional in any order desired (although several will be appropriate for special days and are listed in the Index by Subject under "Holidays/Special Occasions"). To explore the costumes by sets, click on the colored tabs on the horizontal bar on the home page. To explore the costumes by title or subject, click on the green "Index by Costume" or "Index by Subject" button on the vertical navigation column. Eventually there will be art and a link for each costume title. As this will take some time, in the beginning many costumes will have only text (in some cases, also art notes) available and will be accessible through the large button on the upper right corner of each set's table of contents page.

Younger Site Visitors - The ABC Set is designed to be understood even by kindergartners, while also helping with their alphabet studies. The other sets are designed for older children and contain varying degrees of complexity mixed throughout the sets.

Parents, Teens and Other Older Site Visitors - A number of the costumes have an "extra lesson" section. Some of those sections (particularly where scientific subjects were addressed) are geared more for adults and older teens to read. Readers might then wish to select desired portions and put into whatever age-appropriate words their children or siblings will understand. Attempting to be very careful in my research, I consulted numerous sources, as evidenced by my myriad footnotes. Still, I should point out that while I do have a college degree, I do not have a science background. Therefore, if you have any science-related questions, I would recommend you consult the books and websites which I have referenced or other suitable sources.

Errors:
If you discover any glaring typographical errors, or any errors in fact (and you can recommend a reliable source that I can verify the information in), please feel free to contact me.

Website problems:
This website is my first serious attempt at web design and operation. It is taking me a while to learn how all the software procedures work, especially since my limited computer skills are mostly self-taught. I continue to experience problems getting the site to upload properly, so until I am able to figure out how to consistently get past that, sometimes art and color images will not show. Please bear with me while I work through all the kinks.

Suggestions:
Thank you anyway, in advance, for any suggestions, photographs, art, etc., for additional costume ideas, but please do not send them. This is partly to avoid copyright problems, and partly to avoid hurt feelings or any potential misunderstandings. Although receiving more ideas would probably be great fun and very interesting, I gather that doing so could be fraught with problems. Any such material sent to me will not be returned or responded to. Moreover, I already have literally hundreds of my own ideas for additional costumes, as well as a number of ideas for other things that I may eventually want to add to this site, so I have more than enough to keep me busy for quite a while!

Copyright information:
I have been careful to try to avoid copyright infringement and unauthorized non-commercial use of trademark-related material. In fact, I discarded several ideas after I discovered the name, story or item was copyrighted or trademarked. However, if I have inadvertently used any material that you are aware is copyrighted or where a trademark precludes even non-commercial use, please let me know so that I can make the appropriate adjustments or substitutions.

As far as using my material from this website, at this point, I have not yet found adequate copyright instructions governing the type of use I eventually hope to allow for all or part of the project, while simultaneously protecting its inappropriate use. Therefore, in the early stages of this project, until such details are worked out, it seems prudent to simply state my copyright policy as "All Rights Reserved."

About me:
I have a B.A. in psychology, however, I do not have counseling experience or training, nor is anything on this meant to take the place of counseling. I have some small-newspaper experience as a managing editor. As a retiree, I have taught Sunday school and served as a volunteer church secretary. I am the sole operator of this ministry and this website.

Currently, there is still quite a bit more art for me to do and a few more programs to learn. As I am not a professional artist, nor a computer expert, creating the art and learning the software programs/requirements are a bit of a challenge for me. I apologize that these things, as well as a recent move, are taking longer than I had hoped, hence slowing down the completion of this site.

No donations please:
My expenses in preparing and maintaining this site are, at this point, manageable. Furthermore, although this is a nonprofit web ministry, it does not have the official status of a registered nonprofit entity. Therefore please do not attempt to send donations. Thank you anyway for your thoughtfulness. I will, however, gratefully accept any positive Christian prayer support you want to send my way! And, if you really want to bless me, let me know if you or a loved one accepted the Lord after reading something on this site--that would be treasure indeed!

(By the way, many people feel one should tithe to whatever Christian church one attends (or to whatever organization provides for one's spiritual needs). Beyond that, if you are looking for an additional qualified ministry to donate offerings to, you might want to first check them out on the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability’s website at ecfa.org. ECFA's member ministries agree to operate with biblical integrity and follow good stewardship practices. The ECFA site also offers a member-search function that helps you find ministries involved in the various areas that interest you.)