How to Read the Bible with Your Kids
In my last post, I wrote about the practice of beginning each morning by meditating on the Scriptures. Since then some of you have asked me how to include your whole family into reading Scripture together. Well, after several years of trial and error, I thought I’d share how we are currently trying to implement this practice into the weekly rhythm of our family.
To give you some context: Our boys are 12, 10 and 8, and our daughter is the youngest at 6. Tanner (my wife) teaches tennis lessons most afternoons and all the boys are involved in multiple sports that I am often coaching in some form or another. My point is that we have a full schedule; I don’t want you to have the impression that we are some sort of super-spiritual family that just reads and prays all the time.
However, we do prioritize these things in our weekly rhythm, and we do have them on our schedule.
So what does this look like for us?
Well, to begin with, all of this starts with me as the leader of my family.
I’m the one that must lead by example and with love. This means that I must be devoted to this practice of reading Scripture and prayer if I want to see the rest of my family doing this practice as well. I shared what this practice looks like for me in my previous post.
Now, I have invited Tanner and our two oldest boys (12 and 10) to join me in the reading plan that I am doing this year. This year’s reading plan is focused only on the 4 Gospels and the Book of Acts, and it only requires reading two chapters each week. This is the perfect plan if you want to implement reading with your kids because it focuses on the life of Jesus, and it only requires 2-3 minutes of reading each day.
To help my two oldest boys succeed in this practice, I sat down and talked to them about a morning routine that would work for them. Here’s what we came up with…
Wake up one hour before you have to get on the bus
Shower
Go sit in your chair with a glass of water and your Bible
Pray a short prayer of gratitude
Read today’s passage from the Gospels
Meditate - think deeply about the implications of what you read
Pray a short morning prayer
And then they’re ready for breakfast. This short routine should take anywhere from 15-20 minutes depending on how long it takes them to shower and get dressed.
Now, how do I teach my kids to meditate?
First, we need to make sure that we have realistic expectations for our kids. And this is something that I constantly have to tell myself.
The Bible is a very complex and complicated work of literature. The Bible is an adult book. And many of us struggle to read it and understand it as adults! So let’s make sure our expectations are appropriate for our kids. If I could offer you one piece of encouragement that I’d want you to remember as you start this practice with your kids it’s this…
The actual practice and rhythm of starting their day with Scripture and with prayer is the goal; not whether or not they can explain everything that they read.
The goal here is that a new practice and rhythm is created in their life and that they experience an atmosphere in their home where reading Scripture and prayer is prioritized and enjoyable.
And don’t overlook the enjoyable part.
Resist the trap of turning this into a dry discipline that they begin to dread because it’s all about “doing it right”.
Anyway, all that being said, here’s how I teach my kids how to meditate — or to think deeply about what they just read. I have given them 2 questions that I want them to ask themselves every time they read the Gospels.
1. What are you noticing about Jesus?
2. What are you learning from Jesus?
That’s it.
And that’s enough.
I want them to pay attention and to notice things about Jesus — the way that he did stuff, how he interacted with people and what seemed most important to him?
And I want them to listen carefully to the passages where he is teaching and try to learn from him — what is he teaching about himself, what is he teaching about how a human being is supposed to live and how can I be more like that?
These 2 questions guide them in their meditation and can also be used by me and Tanner to spark free-range conversation about what we’ve been reading.
(Yes, I said free-range conversation.)
free-range conversation (n.) — conversation that just happens naturally and at any point within the rhythms of your day or week
So, as I was saying, each morning we are all reading individually on our own, but by being on the same reading plan and by using these 2 questions, we can easily jump into a conversation about Jesus at any point during the day.
Now, you might be thinking… “All this sounds great but what about the younger two kids? Do you just leave them out of what the rest of the family is doing?”
Well, this is where our weekly Sabbath routine comes in.
One quick comment on that and I’m done here.
Reading together every Sabbath
For the last two years our family has imperfectly tried to implement practicing the Sabbath every Friday night to Saturday night. And one big part of that routine is reading Scripture together every Saturday morning.
This is where the younger kids (8 and 6) are included.
This is also the beauty of this Gospel Reading Plan that we are doing. For the first 6 days of the week (Sunday-Friday) the readings are divided into short subsections, and then on the 7th day of the week (Saturday) you read the two chapters for that week in their entirety.
So every Saturday morning we will read our two chapters for the week in their entirety together as a family. This will allow the younger two to stay on track with what the rest of us are reading and create a regular space in our schedule for us to talk about Jesus together.
And that’s it.
This took me longer to explain than I anticipated so it may seem like alot. However, it’s pretty straightforward and simple…
Me, Tanner and the older two boys are following the same reading plan through the gospels each morning on our own, and then we include the younger two children by reading together as a family every Saturday. We create conversation about what we’ve been reading by focusing on 2 questions that can be asked at anytime throughout the day/week:
1. What are you noticing about Jesus?
2. What are you learning from Jesus?
So this is how we are currently trying to read the Bible with our kids.
Trying is something and something is better than nothing.
Hope this has been helpful!
