Eight Practical Tips

Many men were waiting for this chapter when they saw the word “practical” in the title. So many of us are wired for practicality, for getting our hands dirty and diving in to the problem or project. Too many times, discussions about family worship and Bible reading with our kids get mired in the philosophical and abstract. Don’t get me wrong, it is necessary to have a philosophy of Bible reading. We have to know why we should do this before we can really get into the nitty-gritty of how to do this. But we’ve done that in the previous chapters and posts. Now it’s time to get some tips on how to actually do this.

Jon Nielson gives a helpful caveat at the beginning of Chapter Four, that his experience at the time he wrote the chapter consists of his wife and he doing Bible reading with their kids ages 5, 3, and almost 2. While they may be somewhat subjective, I think they are very thoughtful and field-tested. I’m going to briefly outline the eight tips and comment on each of them in what follows. Be it known far and wide that I am not an expert either! Some of these we do well in our family, and others we do not. The number and ages of your children will require different approaches, but the principles are solid. Buckle up!

1. Pick a regular time and place for Bible reading

While Nielson’s family has chosen the “before-bed” time, he also admits that many families can utilize the time immediately following dinner while everyone is together at the table. Of course, when you have an infant or a toddler, either of these times becomes difficult. For example, my wife often misses some or all of our time because she is usually putting our one-year old toddler to bed. And when our toddler is in his high chair too long, forget it! When we just had the two girls, things were easier, of course.

That being said, Nielson’s right about finding “some kind of routine” that works. This helps develop a family habit, and gives your children the expectation that Bible reading/devotions/family worship are an important part of who we are as a family, and we will make time to make it happen.

2. Read short chunks of Scripture

I have to admit a weakness in my own practice of reading the Bible with my kids. So far (my kids are 8, almost 7 and 1) we have rarely read from the Bible, except when we’ve memorized a couple passages (Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer). We have mostly spent time in Bible storybooks, which tend to accomplish this second point. This is something our household will be working on in 2019. There will always be tension between covering ground enough to move through a book, and making sure to understand what we’ve read. Reading ahead and just a little bit of planning can help you stay on track here. And remember, we want our kids to understand the Bible, and that means figuring out how much they can comprehend. So keep it short!

3. Where possible, pick a literal Bible translation

I do not feel as strongly as Nielson does on this point, but he is careful to emphasize that this tip is primarily for older children. He also points out that by using a more literal Bible translation (he suggests the ESV, RSV and NASB) it allows you to read and interpret the Bible for your children, rather than relying on the translation to do the work. I think this is an admirable goal, something to work up to. I also think there is great value in using the NIrV or the NLT to help your younger children understand the Bible. We encourage our young readers to use the ESV, because that is the version our church uses, as well as being the version they memorize verses in for Awana.

4. Stop often to explain and gauge comprehension

I really like this tip because it is so easy! Yet we often forget about it or fail to use the time-tested tool of slowing down, pausing and asking questions. Or perhaps you’ve read a big word or referred to a geographical location they don’t know. Stop and simply explain. What good is it to gain the whole story and lose the meaning? Sometimes you can tell when your kids are distracted or losing interest. STOP! Time for a question. Or, perhaps time to pray and go to bed! Either way, don’t forget to focus on comprehension. We want our kids to get it, not just hear it!

5. Think of age-appropriate questions for follow-up discussion

This is really the fruition of number four. It’s cool to see Nielson’s creativity with this one and that his daughters grew to love this time so much. With a little preparation and attention to detail (and perhaps a bit of sanctified cheating by using any supplied questions!) we are teaching our children how to study the Bible. The most advanced biblical scholars practice this study tool: ask questions of the text in order to understand the meaning and significance! So ask silly questions, ask easy questions, ask hard questions, ask content questions, and ask application questions. This also communicates to your children that the Bible is important, meaningful and alive (Hebrews 4:12). They know how important this is to daddy and mommy and they know that it matters in real life, not just at church or Awana or school.

6. Connect each story/passage to Jesus

This is something that The Jesus Storybook Bible does explicitly, and it mostly does it well. However, sometimes this principle can be strained. In the desire to do a very good thing, sometimes both the trained and untrained alike can begin to search for Jesus in places he’s not meant to be found. So I want to preach restraint here. However, I think Nielson does help us in our endeavor to introduce our kids to Jesus. He acknowledges the obvious ease we have in teaching New Testament stories and letters about Jesus.

It’s the Old Testament where we can run into problems. He gives four Ps to help us remember how OT texts point to Jesus: promises, patterns, persons and predictions. When we see promises or covenants, we can point to their fulfillment in Jesus. When we see patterns that are repeated or replicated in the NT, we can see the obvious outworking in Jesus’ life and ministry. Some persons are types of Jesus, that is, their work, character and/or circumstances point to One who is to come (think Moses as the prophet and lawgiver of Israel; or Joseph betrayed by his brothers to eventually save his brothers; or David as the shepherd from Bethlehem). And last (and probably easiest for us) are predictions. At Christmas time this becomes easiest because so many of our Advent readings and our carols refer back to prophecies made in the OT that are kept in the Christmas story. Matthew and Luke are not shy to reference previous prophecies in their tellings of the Christmas story.

7. Let the Bible reading guide you to a time of prayer

I’m not very good at this with my kids. Nielson points out how this adds variety and purpose to our prayers, where so often we can get bogged down in good-yet-surfacey requests about pets and scrapes and stuffed animals and other requests. By focusing on that night’s story, we have templates for specific requests. When reading about the armor of God from Ephesians 6, we can transition into prayer time by praying for a particular piece of the armor for each child. Or when reading about the simple trust of a shepherd boy to defeat a giant enemy, we can ask God to help us trust him like David did.

8. Be willing to do it badly

As my advisor and professor in college used to say, “your first stories will be terrible!” That was meant to be encouraging, believe it or not, because you can’t get good at something without willing to be bad at it first. Think about your first season playing a sport, or your first recital, or maybe your first year of marriage! Were you good yet? No! It’s the same with reading the Bible with our kids. Nielson quotes G. K. Chesterton as saying, “if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.”

So, don’t succumb to Satan’s temptation that you’re not smart enough to do this, or that you’re too tired, or that it’s your wife’s job. Your kids’ lives are at stake, their future depends on knowing how great and good God is! Do it badly for a week, and the next week will probably go much better. Do it so-so for a month, and the next month is bound to improve. Keep getting better and maybe, just maybe, your kids will be bouncing on their beds, asking to read God’s Word!

Men, let’s lead our families well by submitting ourselves to God’s unchanging word. Let’s be men of the sword of the Spirit, learning to wield it more and more skillfully against Satan’s attacks, and for the good of our children. May we “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). If you’re already doing this, keep going! Please leave your feedback in the comments below. If you can’t seem to get started, ask for help, ask for prayer and dive in!