A Simple Bible Study Method For the Family
Excellent post written by Rhonda Owens at ForTheFamily.org
My parenting journey has been peppered with amazing friends — fellow parents who, like my husband and me, long very much to “impress [God’s commandments] on [their] children. Talk about them when [they] sit at home and when [they] walk along the road, when [they] lie down and when [they] get up” (Deuteronomy 6:7-9).
The difference between some of these sweet friends and us is that on a scale of 1-10 for family devotional creativity, they are actually on the scale; we are not.
In all fairness, I did try my hand at planning a bible study object lesson which included a lamp, unplugged. And ice cream.
{The ice cream was a last minute addition. You know, because ice cream makes everything fun, right?}
Note that I said I planned “a” bible study object lesson. My enthusiasm waned when everyone got more excited about the ice cream than the lesson.
And that’s how it has gone for us over the years: we’d try a devotional idea here, attempt structured family Bible study time there… but we just couldn’t seem to find our rhythm.
More candidly, it seemed that no matter how hard we tried, our efforts seemed kind of lame when compared to fellow parent friends whose devotional times with their children seemed outlandishly fun and meaningful.
{Side note: it’s always a good idea to compare our parenting styles with our friends’ parenting styles, right? NOT! But that’s the subject of another post.}
Our ideas simply didn’t measure up to the dramatic depiction of David’s slaying of Goliath {complete with homemade sling shots} or the creation of no less than 40 handcrafted Easter ornaments {each accompanied by a Bible verse, individually wrapped, ready to be opened for every day of Lent, and THEN hammered theatrically onto a handmade cross} or the Christmas Advent calendar prepared with 25 selfless acts of love to perform as a family to teach lessons in being the hands and feet of Christ.
{Find out what Rhonda discovered worked best for her family…which also happens to be identical to my family – over at ForTheFamily.org}
Whahahaha…. took a while to work out that I needed to click the link. I was TOTALLY lost trying to work out what the point of your post was. It’s ok… blond moment over… I’m all over the new page now.
I’ve never been able to get my boys to sit and listen for a long amount of time to anything let alone the bible. So instead we do a craft here and there or when a life moment comes up I answer it with scripture. I’ve learned that right before bed they are the most quiet and open. I talk to them about God then, we read the Adventure Bible , and we hash out some of the days troubles pointing back to what God gives us as an answer and then we pray. And through all of that “random moment” teaching I’ve seen God’s word produce fruit in my children. He is faithful to those who he calls.
We have three boys and we have discovered that simple is best with them (ranging in ages from 17 to 8). We do the reading from “The Daily Bread” and sometimes even discuss what it means to us. But it is a time to reflect together as a family – oh, and we do it just after the meal that we are all sitting down together (which happens to be lunch for my family).
This is a great post! I am currently looking for a children’s bible (not a story book bible, we have plenty of those). I have two boys 4 & 3 and we have read and reread the children’s bible stories. I would like to find an actual bible with books, chapters and verse that we can read together as family. Does anyone have any suggestions? In the meantime I reading from my bible. 🙂 Thanks!
I’m so glad I found this post on Pinterest! I look forward to implementing this in our little family. I remember my parents always trying to get a family devotional going, but there was never really any consistency. Even though there wasn’t though I can say just the thought impacted me and I did grow up enjoying the Bible. I look forward to sharing the exploration of God’s Word with my children! They have such a pure approach to it and their input alone can impact the way we understand God. Great post! http://whatsoeverislovelyliving.com/