One of the most difficult things when it comes teaching our families the Bible is keeping the interest of our children. Many times we have this ideal picture of the perfect family discipleship time. We imagine people we look up to having these picture perfect moments in their family time. The truth is, none of our family discipleship times go smoothly and perfectly. We are all busy, we all have good and bad days.
The issue that we most of us don’t want to admit is that the interest in the Bible at home is lacking. Therefore, when we decide that we are going to engage with the Bible, others may be disinterested in the moment we choose.
I want to encourage you today in a couple of things:
1. Don’t romanticize this family discipleship time. Realize that the moments might be a bit of a struggle especially in the beginning. Realize that you are going to need to set some ground rules for the time. Realize that it may not be at the same time and day every week. Figure out what days you can set aside with a realistic time limit and do the best you can. I would suggest not letting this time be more than 15 min at most in the beginning. Depending on the age of your kids you might can adjust that based on your family.
2. Let everyone know at the beginning of the week when you are going to do these things so that everyone can plan their week and set their expectations of the days accordingly.
3. Figure out your kid’s passions and interests and see if there is a way to build your family discipleship times around those interests.
Example: If your kids like LEGO, then check out the following video. This would be a great way to use something that your kids already love to connect the Bible with them.
https://www.biblebuilds.com/?wvideo=1ys0d13p3e
Another example from our family, my son and I love to listen to Andy Mineo. He is a Hip Hop artist that follows Jesus. We were on a trip to Amarillo recently and we had a conversation about some of the lyrics that turned into a discussion about our identity being found in Christ and Christ alone. It was a 5-10 minute conversation. It was my favorite part of this whole last month.
What things are your kids involved in that you can find Gospel paths to have conversations with your children?