Family Bible Times
God has put us in families of all shapes and sizes and has set them up as the places where our children get to learn about the good news. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 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.”
But it can be hard! Where do we begin? How do we make sense of that!? How do I explain this?
Don’t fear! Help is at hand.
At church, we have a few things available to buy that can help (we can deliver!)
Children’s Bibles - We have a couple of good children’s Bibles for 2-4s and 4-6s. It’s a great thing to be able to read through a story together and then to be able to ask your kids a few simple questions about what they learned from it.
Bible Notes - There are a selection of notes to help you as a family spend some time together in the Bible each day. There’s a short Bible passage to read and a few simple questions to get you thinking and some kind of creative way of helping think about what was learnt. For those with Preschoolers there is 'Beginning with God' and for families with kids aged 4-8 there is 'Table Talk'.
If you want to dip your toe into family devotionals without buying some to begin with, you can access a number of weeks' worth of some good family devotionals in the Old Testament here and in the New Testament here for a free trial on Google Books. These would be suitable for families with primary aged kids.
There are also plenty of good Bible notes and resources for older kids to read along themselves and for you as parents to ask them about: there are 'XTB' for 7-10s, 'Discover' for 11-14s and 'Engage' for 14-18s. They can be bought online here.
The message of Easter is at the heart of the good news about Jesus and it’s a great time to look at the Bible together. Here are some bits and bobs that might help you to do this:
Here is a free online video, along with quizzes and an activity sheet telling the story of Jesus meeting his friends after his resurrection. This would be great to have a look at for 15 minutes altogether at some point over Easter.
For our youngest ones (2-4s) there are some lovely picture-book retellings of the Easter story, like this one. (We even have a few free copies at the back of church!)
For the 2 week run up to Easter Sunday there is an Advent calendar-style set of interactive family Bible times, ideal for 5-8 year olds. These are available to buy from here
And for our older ones, there is a lovely graphic novel of the full Easter story using the proper Bible text that’s a great way of engaging with the events of that first Easter in a fresh way, available here.
There are loads of good resources out there to help teach kids God’s ways and plans for life, but it can be hard knowing where to go. Do feel free to ask me or Sam at any time for some pointers and directions as to things that may help in this great job of raising kids to know and love the Lord Jesus.
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