Danika Cooley - Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible

You Can Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible

M om. Eriks tone from the backseat was serious. Why does the Bible call Jonah a prophet and not a missionary?

I dont know. Im seriously not up for this today . Buddy, youre three. Hey, look at that train! Doesnt it have a lot of cars?

Whoo! Whoo! My four-year-old, Forrest, was always down for counting train cars.

Mom. Answer my question! Erik could be very stern for a three-year-old.

Ill have to get back to you, okay?

Soon, Mom.

Erik and I eventually decided that Jonah was both a missionary and a prophet, but the role of prophet in the Bible is a special and important one. So we just call Jonah a prophet. Kind of a prophet-trumps-missionary title. Also, Jonahs mission activity was performed under duress. In fact, his missionary work was not terribly heartfelt.

That conversation, held in a minivan littered with toys, raisins, and an odd shoe, was one of many Bible discussions Ive had with my younger boys over the course of their lives. Both of my husbands, Eds, older kidswhom I consider my own heart-children, and whom I raised from the ages of eight and tenhad moved on to adult life just months before the great Jonah debate. Though I grew up in church and in a Christian family, Id come to know Jesus and to read the Bible only a couple years earlier, and I was making up this whole Christian-mom thing as I went along.

I was certain I needed to be intentional about teaching the gospel and reading the Bible to my children. I found a childrens audio Bible on CD and played it at bedtime as the kids fell asleep. The boys loved it, and soon they took to regaling me with questions from their car seats as we ran our errands.

Then, they grew up.

Erik. You cant read the Bible at warp speed. I can barely even process the words as you say them; I know you cant process them!

Erik rolled his eyes and slowed waayyy down as he pronounced each syllable in the paragraph he was reading so slowly, I wondered if he would ever finish. I bit my lip and refrained from looking at my watch. Eventually, hed get tired of this particular game. He did and resumed reading at a quick pace just below warp speed. I took my turn reading a paragraph, followed by Forrest. By the time we reached Erik again, he was asleep, his head nodding slowly toward his chest before jerking to a mostly alert position again.

My sweet little three-year-old Bible explorer has grown up to be a sincere sixteen-year-old athlete, artist, and musician. Erik is pushing six feet, and he eats pretty much whatever fruit or vegetable he can gain access to, no matter the time of day. Erik still loves Jesus, he knows the Bible, and yet through the years, we have had our struggles over Bible studyusually when he is exhausted from another strenuous basketball game followed by a late-night drive home.

My kids have not always loved my efforts to inject Scripture into their lives. My childrenall four of themare just like your children. We have good days, great days, and days the Lord grows my patience and perseverance.

Heres the thing about helping our kids learn and love the Bible: It doesnt have to be hard. Our kids learn about life and the world through exposure. Little people love what their adults love. When you introduce your small kids to Scripture from an early age, with enthusiasm, they will naturally want to know more about the wonderful book you delight in, the Jesus you adore, and the salvation in Christ that you treasure.

Older kids and teens want to be invited on a journey. They really do care about learning Scripture, about the God of the Universe, and about a right relationship with Jesus. As our children move toward adulthood, we may work harder to persuade them to join us in meeting God in his Word, but the effort is well worth our time. Through my years of parenting, Ive been constantly surprised by what my kids absorbeven when theyre reading it at warp speed, followed by a power nap.

A legacy that means something

Ive always thought Timothy is a nice name for a young man. Its sincere, studious, and solid sounding. Indeed, Paul writes two letters to Timothy in the Bible, and in the second letter, he calls Timothys faith sincere. This is no small thing, to possess a sincere faith.

In fact, Paul valued Timothys faith so much that he took the young man along with him and Silas on an epic missionary tour, sharing the gospel with the Gentiles of Macedonia, now

Timothy was already a follower of Christ when Paul met him in Lystra, in what is now Turkey. The Bible calls Timothy a disciple, and we learn that the local brothers-in-Christ spoke well of this young man, whose mother was Jewish and whose father was a Greek.