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Bible study at home (help)

G

GojuBrian

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I'm looking for some insight about how to teach my kids about the bible.

We go to church on a regular basis, pray at the dinner table, prayers at night, but shamefully I haven't started home bible studies yet.
I feel God is strongly urging me to start this before they start developing (more of) their own beliefs from school or friends which is where they spend most of their time anyhow.

A little background. Recently married, I have two children ages 6 and 8, wife has two children ages 13 and 8.

I want to do this, but I want to do it in such a way that is pleasing to God and will serve my kids well.

My dad was pretty harsh and mostly condemning and I don't want to come across that way at all.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Are you looking for a way to do something together with them or work with them separately. Either one has it's challenges that my wife and I have run into.

If you try to integrate Bible studies/devotions into their nights together, you have a 13 year old and a 6 year old at different levels of comprehension. I have 3 from 9 y.o. to one going on 15. Through the years, this has been a challenge. We could have discussions, but if we tried to study the Bible and provide an understanding, from the concept of the whole Bible to specific verses, 1 or 2 would be either bored or confused.

Trying to do it separately means taking over an hour/night in splitting up their time. Our 15 year old is able to use a Teen Bible Study on his own now. But when he was 12 and our youngest was 6 with an 8 year old in between, it was taxing.

I guess I would suggest you and your wife, or if she's not as equipped, you, alternate nights. Do it every other night with one or the other. Find a good devotional targeting your kids' ages and even sexes (there's some good ones out there) and use it to talk about issues and use the references in the devotionals to turn to scripture. Depending on the comprehension level of your 6 yo, he/she might be able to keep up with the 8 yo's. Sometime at this particular age, a few years might make a big difference.

One thing I learned was to keep it short. When you drag it out is when they lose interest, and it becomes a burden. Then they come to resent the time and it becomes negative. I would say 20 minutes a night for the 6-8 yo and 30 minutes with your 14 yo. :twocents
 
One thing that is important to me is teaching them how to have a relationship with God. We teach kids so much about God, but we don't teach and instill in them ways to have a relationship with God. As a part of this, one thing I do with my older ones is also to encourage self studies. I want them to be able to look and know how to find the answers they needs in the Bible. Or to discover and learn verses that they can lean on. When we do Bible studies as a family they are things that the children can tie into their own lives and relate to. For example, once we did one on names, and we talked about all the names of God, the meanings of names, etc. As a part of this we talked about the children's names and what those names mean. When we do a study like that we spend several weeks on it. During the course of that particular study, my 8 year old discovered on his own the verse in the Bible where Hagar bestowed a name on God (during his independent Bible reading time). He was so excited. (We had not gotten to that part in our family study yet, so we did it at that time.) One thing we do during our studies also (besides being flexible) is that we encourage the children to ask questions and we also watch for things that they take interest in, so that we can follow those interests and keep them interested.
 
Thanks for the advice!

I'm also thinking we could just talk around the dinner table. I could bring up how their day went and what questions and then bring up 'what does God have to say about this subject' (the bible) and go from there. I won't have all the answers, but I can always come back here and ask. :D

I'm desperately trying to get the 13yr old away from anime, but she is obsessed. :crazy
 
I dunno anything about anime.... but have you tried looking to see if there is any christian anime out there? One of my children brought home a secular music CD that I absolutely did not like him having and so I offered him a trade-- any CD at the christian bookstore in exchange for the CD he had. He took my deal. My oldest has always been into fantasy novels, and there is so much demonic stuff out there that I have difficulty finding things that are appropriate for her, and lately I have found some books at the christian bookstore for her to read. Maybe if there is some christian anime then you can get it for your oldest. Books, music, etc. from the christian bookstore is one thing that I will splurge money on to buy for the kids.

Dinner table talks are excellent. :thumb One thing we have done to promote healthy relationships is to go around the table and everyone must give a compliment to someone for something they did nice or good that day. We have go around and take prayer requests and we allow the children to take turns praying.
 
In the OT the Israelites were told to talk about God when they laid down, when they got up, when they walked, etc. One thing that we have done is when you do the prayers in the evening tell them a Bible story. This should be plenty for the youngers ones, just remind them that these stories are true. The older ones you can go into detail of what the story means and how it is applicable to us today.

In all just remember to keep God as part of your everyday life.
 
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