Lori shares three pivotal reasons to help your children connect with God by daily reading the Bible. She also gives easy ways to fit this into your schedule.
Well Hey friends it Lori Joiner Your discipleship coach.
I am so excited to be on this podcast journey with you, especially this season, as we do Discipleship Coach Kids Edition! Making sure we are teaching our children what they need to know to be Christ-followers for their lifetime. Recall that in
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Moses admonishes parents to teach their children the Bible. He says in verse 6-
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Learning about God, growing in God, is supposed to be primarily taught in the home. The church serves as another great community to help this endeavor, but the primary responsibility lies in the hands and hearts of parents and grandparents.
Ok, are you ready! Let’s jump in!
Today’s Kids Edition Discipleship tip is: To teach your children to read the Bible or a biblical devotional daily.
Uh-oh-Did you just tune me out? Did you think of ALL you need to get done from sun up to sun down and think- Please don’t add something to my plate! Please don’t tell me there is another thing I need to be doing!! Can’t I just leave that to the church on Sundays?
Well, the answer is no. We can’t just leave that to the church on Sundays. But, I have good news for YOU! By the time we are done today-you won’t want to simply leave it to the church. Hang with me! I got you!
Three reasons to open the Bible, or at least a devotional each day…
1. The Bible is the primary way God speaks to us as humans. God wants to communicate with us and he speaks to us through scripture. The words on the page can help us when we are tempted, can comfort us when we are sad, and direct us when we have decisions to face. God uses His Word in our lives. We communicate to God through prayer. But God does not pray to us. He uses His word to speak to us. So we have got to help our children establish a time in their daily lives to actually read God’s word.
2. The Bible is filled with examples of what to do, and examples of what not to do.
I have told my boys, you can learn from everyone presented in scripture. You will learn what to do to stay in step with God's plan for your life and how you will see plenty of examples of people who did not stay in step with God’s plan. My older son was reading about King Saul last week. He read of his jealousy over David, and how he literally went insane at the end of his life and then killed himself on his own sword. We were able to talk at length about Saul. Those things could have been different had he obeyed God at each step of his life and kingship. How he could have trusted God to use him for His Glory and David for His glory. How he cut his own life short and thus canceled any opportunity to lay up treasure in heaven while on earth.
So even the worst example of lives in scripture you can use as teachable moments in your kids lives.
3. Reading the Bible daily is the best habit you can get your child into for their life!
You are teaching your kids to brush their teeth right. Small circles, get to the gum line. Why, you don’t want their teeth rotting early in life. You know how important it is to establish good hygiene as a habit early so it is on auto-pilot and they can save themselves years of pain and expense on their teeth. you are teaching them to wear a helmet on their bike, teaching them safety in the sun, as a new driver, etc. These habits will help them now and set them up for success later. The same is for daily reading the Bible. You as the parent have to help them establish the habit. Life teeth brushing, showering regularly, wearing a seatbelt-you have to help establish these habits-Daily Bible reading is NO different. It will help them now and in the future AND the largest benefits will be reaped in heaven one day.
Ok, so here are some tips to help get this in your schedule:
Choose a time in the day to read the Bible and then put it on auto-pilot! Start the habit, get it going, and then it will definitely Not feel like another item on the to do list.
So for me, I chose mornings. Breakfast time turned out to be my sweet spot for us to read out Bible or devotionals.
Toddler Years: When my boys were toddlers, they would each have a turn sitting in my lap in the mornings as they drank juice from their sippy cup. I would read to them from a kids devotional book. The one I used was called- “The Beginner’s Bible, Kids Sized Devotions. The pages had a lot of white space, the characters were cartoon drawings, and the teachings were simple. Bright primary colors were used. Ok, so listen, we are talking about toddlers here. I am sure that half of what I was saying and reading to them they could not even comprehend. This time lasted like 3-5 minutes tops. But it did contain scripture and they began to hear words from the Bible, names, and places written in the Bible. At its most basic level, they were just easing into the habit of sitting still for 3-5 minutes and listening to me read while they looked at a picture.
Of course, as your kids begin to read, they can read it with you. They will find words, short phrases they can read back to you. I would say, Josh, what is this word, and he would say “GOD.” Yes! What does this say? “God loves me.” Yes! So this is a transition point that parents will have at some point when their kids are reading the entire page to them.
You can do the same devotional year after year. Because let’s face it, they did not pick up much the first time through, or even the next year. But you started the repetition which is so key for children’s learning and you have established a time for God.
Ok, let’s move on to elementary years.
Elementary Years: As my boys were reading on their own, I got them each their own devotional and they would read it as they ate breakfast before school. We don’t watch cartoons or anything in the mornings before school in the Joiner home. There is no electronics out, no iPad, no tv. It is a quiet time of reading devotionals. So as they eat their breakfast they read. I really liked the devotional entitled Our Daily Bread for Kids 365 Meaning Moments with God for their Elementary years. These devotionals were simple enough for them to read on their own, but a bit more lengthy and with an application to life.
I am now in the Junior High years: My 6th Grader is reading The Purpose Driven Life Devotional for Kids by Rick Warren. This is a normal book-sized devotional and all pictures are gone. He reads and applies the principles and verses to his life the best he can as an 11-year-old. My 8th grader is reading through the Bible using The One Year Bible. He told me yesterday he likes that he can read a little of the OT, new Testament each day. I love to hear what he is reading and what he thinks about it.
I have no plans right now to change this situation. My kids are so firmly rooted in this morning time devotional and eating breakfast that my hope is that it follows them into life.
I am not in the High school or college-age phase yet! So moms and dads listening out there-shoot me some advice. I know that next year Josh will start school at 7:30 instead of 9 so that will be a huge change. He also wants to be on the school swim team so that will mean a schedule change! -but trust me, I will hang onto this established plan as long as I can.
There are other families that do this very differently. I know one mom who reads the same Our Daily Bread devotional to her children out loud each night before bed. That is their established plan. The kids know their mom will read to them from a devotional or from the Bible each night. Fabulous!
Of course, there is an entire empire of home school families that are probably finding another system for children. I know one homeschool mom that uses the mornings for walking the dog and breakfast with her kids then starts Bible time.
But the point is, and I want to stress his again, is that there is a plan in place and typically after about a month or so, it is on autopilot.
My children are in public school. So they are without my godly influence in their lives for 7 hours a day. That is 35 hours a week. This is why I do not believe just one or two hours a weekend at church is enough to stand up against any secular or anti-biblical views they may be facing at school. This needs to be a daily practice. Not a weekly practice.
If this has not been your routine, to have a Bible time in your daily schedule I want to encourage you to start now. Not next month, not next semester, don’t put it off to the Fall and the start of a new school year. Start now. It will NOT feel like another to do in your schedule, as a matter of fact, it can bring peace.
One of the reasons the mornings work for us is that I found that when I did not do this, the mornings were stressful. There was a season I can recall where we were watching cartoons, I can’t even remember why…They would fight over what cartoon to watch, they would fight over who had the remote, they would get distracted watching cartoons and not eating their food so I was barking at them to “Eat, eat, finish up, finish up”, etc. Then we would be running late for the bus and I would really be barking orders. Such a yuck way to start the day for all of us. But reading God's Word, me asking about what they read, and even explaining things to them to help them understand and apply to their lives, is 100% more peaceful. The shift away from electronics to scripture is not only more peaceful but they are learning and growing in their walk with God as they read. He will communicate to them through what they are reading.
So we need to be intentional here. Look at your daily routine. What can be tweaked to make room for God to speak through His word to your child? What can be deleted, moved, changed to make time for connecting to God through Bible reading? If you are at a loss, then take it to the Lord in prayer. Ask Him for guidance, wisdom, even bravery to turn the ship in a new direction. I am rooting for you!
Recall that each item we are discussing can be used with the adults you may be discipling as well. Do the people you disciple have an established time with God each day? They may need your help to get a plan and place and time nailed down so it can be on auto-pilot for them as well.
Let’s pray!