When my daughter has questions about life I want her to automatically turn to God’s word to find the answers. I don’t want her to muddle along, not knowing where to turn, but instead to look unwaveringly to the answers God provides in the Scriptures. Isn’t that what each of us wants for our children, to know that they have a firm foundation when life starts to go awry?
Psalm 18:2-3 says, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” This is where I want my daughter to look for strength rather than turning to worldly answers or trying to rely on her own skills and abilities. I want her to be able to open her Bible in the full knowledge that within those pages she will hear the voice of the Lord, a foundation she can rely on in tough times.
Throughout the years, my husband and I have tried to introduce her to the Bible in ways that are both age-appropriate and engaging. As she has gotten older, she has taken on a larger role in defining how she studies and engages with Scripture.
When she was much younger we focused on reading her story books that were based on Bible stories. She loved the story of baby Moses and the role his sister, Miriam, played in his rescue. As she got a little older we incorporated learning the books of the Bible as part of her schoolwork. I think, being homeschooled, she just assumed that was part of everyone’s school day! We didn’t push very hard but just required her to read them over a few times. She had such a hard time saying a few of those Old Testament names. I didn’t want it to seem like an impossible task for her and some days I felt we just weren’t getting anywhere but, over time, it became clear that the simple act of repetition was working.
Once she mastered the books of the Bible and was beginning to feel bored with the process, we decided to add in some drill work to find the books of the Bible, and then specific books, chapters, and verses as she became more skilled. We wanted her to master the basics of finding the Scripture she was looking for.
In this same time frame, as her reading skills developed, we began to ask her to memorize Scriptures. At first I chose them for her but recently I have been allowing her to make her own decision of which verse she wants to memorize. I have done this in a couple of different ways. I have used a paper with a selection of verses written on it and, more recently, I purchased a little box full of cards with flowers and verses printed on them. She loves to go through this box to pick out her new verse.
Another way we have incorporated learning about the Bible into her daily life is to require her to read one chapter of the Bible each day and then summarize it back to me as part of her daily school work. Scripture memorization and chapter reading are part of her daily routine as school begins. She knows she can begin her school work in a similar fashion each day as she tackles these daily tasks before starting the lessons for the day.
Once my daughter was a tween we introduced her to age-appropriate devotionals. As a younger tween, she wasn’t a big reader and didn’t really enjoy devotionals. Rather than push her into going through the first book I gave her, I just let it slide and, a few months later, she started the book again and really enjoyed it. She just needed to be ready for that next step.
A year ago we were at the annual conference for our denomination and my daughter was carefully studying the book tables. She was sure she was going to find something to purchase. At the time she was eleven, and there weren’t a lot of books geared to that age group. Finally she found what she wanted. It was a pretty little spiral-bound journal. The purpose of the journal was to read through the Bible in a year and record daily prayers and thoughts along the way.
I wasn’t sure she could tackle reading the Bible in a year, but I didn’t want to discourage her and we purchased the journal. When we got home, she took out the journal, tried it for a day and then set it aside. She found the amount of reading it required to be quite daunting. I was okay with her doing this because I want her to eagerly seek out what God is saying to her rather than seeing it as work. A couple of months ago she pulled the journal back out and stated that she was ready to get back at it and she faithfully dove in. I knew she was still struggling with the amount of reading and, one day, she asked if I would read the chapters to her and I happily complied. She now looks forward to having me read through the Bible with her. Sure, she could do it herself, but I think this is precious time we can spend together.
We have found the Bible app from YouVersion to be a great tool as we try to immerse, not just our daughter, but our whole family in Scripture. This app can be set to read the Bible to you and I particularly enjoy a feature that reads a selection from the Psalms set to background music. I have found this very useful for helping my daughter calm down after a busy day or when life just seems to be a little too much. I can set the app to read the Scripture in the background and God’s word just washes over her.
My daughter has a phone and we have downloaded the Bible app on her phone as well. She is then able to use it to access the many online devotionals that are available. She enjoys being able to choose what she wants to read and I appreciate that there are many topics that are relevant to girls her age.
Not too long ago my husband and I decided that we wanted to visually surround our daughter with the word of God. It is too easy to cast our gaze and attention on all of the things life throws at us, rather than focusing on God. This is a struggle for all of us, no matter our age. We decided that I would design some pictures with a combination of lovely artwork and verses and then we would put them up around our house so that no matter where we looked we could see God’s word. As I was putting them up on the wall, my daughter approached me and asked to have one for her room!
She chose a picture that had one of my favorite verses on it. On top of a twilight mountain scene I had printed the words from Psalm 121:1-2. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” I’m so glad she chose this picture and verse because it was a reminder to me that how we live our lives as parents really does matter. We can use our own life applications to surround our kids with God’s word.
A few weeks before I put the pictures up we took a brief vacation in the mountains of Kentucky with the purpose of spending quiet time as a family as we sought God’s presence in nature. While there, we went up to the side of a mountain and had devotions one day. I knew my daughter was bored, but we explained what we were doing and didn’t push or require her to take part in any way other than listening. When I asked her why she chose this picture she explained it was because it reminded her of the time we had spent on the mountain.
When I surround my daughter with Scripture, I trust that God will speak to her through His word. He will be her firm foundation.
Taking it Further:
Let’s create a resource! What are some ways you help your children turn to the word?
Thanks for sharing all the various ways we can incorporate the Word into our children’s lives at different stages, Marcy.
What we’ve found helpful is to have a regular time each day- for us it was bedtime, when I would read a Scripture passage or devotional book with each of our girls separately. My husband would sometimes do this daily “questions” time, too. We’d talk about the Bible passage or just have them ask questions about whatever they were wondering about what we read or whatever problem or concern they were currently having.
Setting aside this daily time we talked when our girls could ask questions has helped build their faith. We’ve always let them set the pace and method, based on their ages and personalities/ways of learning. It makes the learning about the Word fluid and relevant to their every-day lives.