In this post about our schedule, I mentioned my struggle with being disciplined to have personal Bible study time. I appreciated your encouraging comments. I’m working to just schedule it in so that I’ll be more consistent about it. It’s not like I don’t have time…its just about DOING IT.
Anyway, in the meantime, I wanted to tell you what works for our family Bible time.
First, may I hop on my soap-box for a moment? (thank you)
The responsibility of teaching the Bible to YOUR children does not belong to anyone but YOU. It is not up to their Bible class teachers or the ministers at your church or anyone else. The Bible tells PARENTS to train up their children in the way they should go. I think Bible classes are wonderful and I LOVE what my kids learn at church from their teachers. BUT…if we let their Godly training END with Sunday morning and/or Wednesday night Bible classes…we’d be neglecting our duties as parents. It’s our job. Godly character training doesn’t begin and end at the church door.
Okay, now that you know how I feel about that…I’ll sum up what works best for our family Bible training time in two words:
Meal.Time.
It’s a time we’re all sitting down together (ooh, another soap box)…and if the kids have food in their mouths, they are less likely to be talking (hopefully)…so they are able to focus their attention on you and listen.
For years we’ve had “Bible at Breakfast” time. It’s been a great way to start our day. We’ve done a variety of things from reading chapters from the Bible to reading through Egermeir’s Story Bible to reading short devotionals from books.
Then, at lunch and dinner time, we do memory work. Usually, Daddy leads this and asks the boys to repeat after him as he works to teach them new verses. We’ve learned lots and lots of new verses this way…and it’s amazing what the littlest guys can learn just by repeating the verses over and over. Often now, Malachi (age 3) stands up in his chair with his hands on his hips (this is not the exact way Daddy does it, by the way) and says, “‘Peat after me!” and then he launches into the verse he’d like us to repeat.
This has made our meal times even more memorable and filled with purpose. Hmm, you’ve gotta love that kind of nourishment!
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Andrea says
I so agree that Bible classes are a blessing, but aren’t where synthesized learning springs.
It’s the day to day, moment by moment, side by side times that allow for learning which creates a heart for God, in a child (and his parents).
No doubt I feel inadequate at times, when I’ve allowed a day or two or even a week to go by without time IN the Word with my boys.
Honestly, I believe I seize the moments more often than not. In my heart, I believe the Lord will find me faithful because I have made every moment of their lives with me, about HIM.
My true shortcoming is not praying enough for my kids.
Kate says
I love your soap box stance Laura, and I could not agree with you more! Sadly, our family time in the Word has been really lacking as a whole. We are gradually working on it. Thanks for your encouragement!
sally says
Ooh, I love your ideas. And I totally agree with you. You’ve got to get more at home than just what they teach in Sunday school. My parents did this when I was growing up, and while we’d groan when Dad got out the devotional book, I learned a lot, AND more importantly, I learned how important God is to my parents. And what a great way to make sure the family sits down all together at least once a day!! Watch out, Lil Major – this is coming soon for you!
Miss you, cuz!
Heather says
I TOTALLY agree with your soap box paragraph! In fact, I have been known to get on my soap box about that very issue!
Emily Kay says
What a blessing it is to hear the word of God spoken from the mouth of your child! A little over a year ago, the Lord really convicted me about this. My oldest daughter (she was 3 at the time) could pretty much quote the entire movie “Cars”. I felt that if a child can quote movie lines, she can memorize scripture! I would much rather her hide His words in her heart than “Tractors are so dumb…”! So, we started working on scripture memory. We had always read the bible together, but never had focused on memorizing. Well, in only a week, my then 3 year old had memorized the entire 23rd Psalm. It was so beautiful to hear her say it! And she was able to bless a lot of people’s hearts by reciting it for others. Now, over a year later she still remembers the whole thing, plus we have tackled many more verses! The bible is very clear that it is our responsibility to train up our children to be Godly. And it is my priveledge. I am so thankful and blessed…”my cup overflows…”:)
Sherry says
We’ve been trying to incorporate more Bible time at our house with morning devotional and a proverb. Most evenings we also do another devotional and Bible reading. They have Bible studies with their schoolwork as well.
Do you do any memorization for yourself? I’m trying to start doing it, but having a hard time. Ugh! :( The children do so well at it.
Theresa says
“Tell me the stories of Jesus;
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the stories most precious;
Sweetest than ever was heard…”
Some of my ‘bestest’ memories are
of my grandmother and her Bible
stories….and upon learning to read, she gave me my very own Bible. Oh! Yes, I could vie with the older cousins then I tell ya! We were terrible seeing who could memorize the most…and get to sit next to Grandma at church….now that was special.
Even now special verse will pop
into my head. So blessed I am to have a heavenly Father to keep feeding me at just the right moment when I need him most.
You are so very blessed to have
a Godly husband and father to your sons. I commend you and he
for taking the high road in teaching the Bible to and learning with your babies. This
will mean more to them than you can ever know.
Char @ DigiScrapChat says
This is awesome, Laura. Thanks for the suggestions!! I guess we need to work more on meal-time as a family too…
Barbara says
I’m on the soap box with you! Hubby gets up much earlier than we do, so it’s just the 2 kids and myself for breakfast. We pray for the people on our Samaritan Ministries list and we also read “Keys for Kids. (We take turns praying so that they are learning to do this too; they love family prayer time, where we each pray for one thing, then on to the next person, around and around until we feel led to end.) We start our school day with prayer and Bible Class is always first (except when we are doing ‘backwards’ day!). I started teaching my kids to memorize scripture when they were 3. I usually write little jingles to help them – and in the end, it helps me too! I listen to scripture CDs throughout the day, and the other day I heard my son singing those songs; I didn’t even know he was listening – what a blessing!!! I also write verses on card stock and hang them around the house. It’s amazing what we’ve learned just by reading a verse as we pass by.
Keep teaching them :-)
Lisa says
What great ideas and encouragement! Thanks! Goes well with my “deliberate living” ideas. Thanks
Kris @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers says
I do Bible with the kids each day before we begin school, but we rarely have a family Bible time that includes dh. Thanks for the reminder.
MamaHenClucks says
I’m with you, up there on your soapbox. We do our devotional time at breakfast because we are all sitting there and I like to send them off to school with scripture ringing in their ears :)
Amblin says
What a lovely blog! I’m here by the way of WFMW at Rocks in my Dryer.
We also take seriously teaching our children of God and His Word. We do our nightly family devotion time just before bed. At 8:30 all family members meet on our (mom and dad’s) big bed where I read the scripture of the day and Daddy reads the devotion. We answer some questions about that passage and devotion. We give prayer requests and then pray together. It’s a wonderfully peaceful way to head to bed. And the Word of God is the last thing their brains were absorbing before sleep. I like to think that they’ll dream God’s word due to that. :)
Kari says
“Peat after me” is a far cry from Malachi’s daddy as a little boy sticking out his tongue at everyone in the room during family prayer time :-) Or should I not mention that “in public”?
If you do more on teaching your kids about God, you should blog sometime about your creative prayers times. I cherish memories of being a part of tag prayer.
Miss you guys…
Catherine says
Thankyou for this encouraging post – we have a weekly bible memory verse which we focus on and talk about during meal times but I would like to also implement a daily bible reading too. (My husband is not as supportive as yours sounds like he is, so it feels like hard work to me.)
Catherine says
Sorry, I meant to say, my husband is not as supportive in the area of family bible reading – but I think it came across as meaning he was generally unsupportive.