Family Devotions and Religious Instruction
by Rebecca Prewett

Wanting, as always, to be relevant and hip, I set off in search of a snappy new Bible curriculum for our children. You know the type: I wanted bright pictures, lots of them, cool (or is it hot?) graphics, excitement, cutesy puppets and totally non-Biblical characters like "Rolfie Rhinoceros" or "Bobbie Baboon" and lots of stories about modern kids, and lots of fun crafts. In other words, what I wanted was your basic "sneak the Bible in and jazz it up and maybe the kids won't complain too much of boredom."

Not really.

This is what we really did...

We have finished reading, with a tiny baby, a two year old, a five year old, and a seven year old, through Genesis and Exodus. Just reading, at least a chapter a day, with some discussion and clarification. A few times we consulted a Bible handbook for further study. Our memory work consisted of learning the books of the Bible. Now I'm going to have the audacity to read selections of Leviticus to my children.

Revolutionary! The Bible standing on its own, as its own curriculum, speaking for itself! Well, it might work for my own children, those rather different--perhaps even oddball, in this day and age--non TV-addicted homeschoolers, but surely such an idea is impossible for anyone else.

After all, we must compete with TV and Nintendo and all that excitement. Children are different today. We can't expect to capture their attention and interest in the same ways we did with their parents and grandparents. Maybe so, maybe so. And maybe TV is the culprit. Maybe busy family lives are also the culprit. If so, would it not be better for us as parents to ban or curtail the TV and clear the social calendars a bit rather than to be forced to "liven up" the Bible in a frantic attempt to compete with our children's various amusements? Why allow our children to become so handicapped and jaded that they cannot endure, let alone benefit from, Bible reading and study?

So, adventuresome soul that I am, I will continue with my wonderful "new" curriculum that is exciting, different, timeless, lively--and what God truly wants us to teach our children.

"But how do you do it?" some have asked. "What about activities? I wouldn't know what to do with just the Bible and nothing else! What if you don't know a lot about the Bible? How do you make it real to the kids? What if the kids are really tiny?"

Here is my method:

Gather everyone in the living room.

1. Pray.
2. Explain that you're going to read the Word of God, that we need to treat God and His Word with respect, and that everyone should listen quietly.
3. Review briefly what you read yesterday.
4. Open the Bible. (I prefer the NIV because it's--debatedly--fairly accurate and still easy to understand for the younger set.)
5. Read. Use a well-modulated voice and read with expression. Read the Word of God in a way that shows your own excitement about what it contains.
6. If someone stumps you with a question, admit "I don't know." Later, you can ask your spiritual authority or research the answer yourself.
7. If you're really brave, you can sum up what that day's reading tells us about God and about how we should respond to Him.
8. Close the Bible.
9. Pray.

In between, of course, if your children are really little and/or squirmy and find it difficult to be quiet, you may have to interject into your reading, "Buford, that's not the right way to sit on the couch" or "Hepzibah, please listen respectfully." These admonitions will become less and less necessary.

The marvelous part of this New Approach is that any literate person can do it. One need not be Good With Crafts, or a Great Storyteller, or Adept With the Flannelgraph, or Musically Inclined. One can just read. Maybe I'm idealistic, but I believe God will honor any effort on our part to read His Word seriously and diligently to our children.

One last word: if this whole idea bores you to tears, do not do it. You might consider asking God to show you why it is that you find His Word so dreadfully boring. While you're waiting for an answer, you might want to read the Bible just to remind yourself why you find it boring and so you'll have even more to pray about. While God never changes His Word, He can change you.

And then you will be eager to share God's Word with your children.

 

copyright 1993 by Rebecca Prewett

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