How to study the Bible with the whole family?

Whoever is conscious of the importance of studying the Bible with the whole family will wish to know how to study it efficiently and interesting. In this article I come to present some practical advice in this respect.

Study daily

Bible study has to be a daily personal discipline of each Christian, because only so you can grow spiritually. We cannot imagine to eat after a day, or after two or to eat more and then not to eat some days anything. Jesus Christ said:

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE’”(the Gospel of Luke 4:4)(NASB)

The systematic and daily study of the Holy Scriptures with the whole family will assure a healthy and prosperous spiritual growth of each member of the family.

Do the study interesting

Parents have to think to do the study so, that it may be as interesting as possible for children and for all those who participate. It will be interesting for everyone who will be involved. But if one reads and the others have to listen to, it is less interesting and maybe some get bored quickly, especially children. That’s why, do so, that every person might be involved to participate in reading, asking questions, aswering, etc. We are used in our home to read the tasks from the book successively, then the biblical text and to answer to the questions. In this way, everone is involved equally.

Have patience

Usually, the youngest children from the house reads slower that the others or maybe he/she doesn’t know to read. Have patience with him/her. If you begin the study now, I advise you to start with the simplest and according to his power. So that we could involve Daniel, who is our youngest child and at that period he didn’t go to school, and he couldn’t read, we began with the inductive study for children, Jonah. He was listening to and he tried to colour and to mark the key words, but the most he liked to draw the pictures required in the study. So, he felt himslef involved and important and he was naver late to give the answer when he knew it. We let him to do it, so that he might feel involved and important in our study. So, he was motivated to learn to read and in this way he learnt the letters, through the Bible studies we were doing. Since then, we have studied many courses and now all children, and Daniel read and are very active at study.

Use interesting books

We use the inductive Bible study books because we find them the most interesting for us and they help us to study the biblical text itself and to deepen in its meaning. Studying according to the books we remain at the same purpose. Then, the books are a possibility to check out how we study the Bible, what answers we give, how we understand and we can go back if we need at every moment. The books turned out the biblical study into an interesting experience that brings out beautiful results in the changing of each of us characters.

Don’t abuse one’s patience

Children are not able to make the same effort as the adults do when they study and to spend much time. That’s why, it is important to measure the time well and to study so that everyone may get well one truth, to be interesting and to wait unpatiently to continue the next day. Here I recomend you again the inductive Bible study books because here the material is divided into lessons and each lessons is divided into days.

Pray together

It is important to pray every time you begin to study the Holy Scriptures, because they were written through the Holy Spirit and the Spirit is the One who helps us understand them. It is also important to pray in the end for the practical application of the learnt things and for other prayer needs that you have. But, adults, be careful! Don’t pray too long, because it may exhaust the children. Let them pray and then pray shortly for them and for the the things you have studied. Otherwise, you can realize that at the end of the prayer one of the children will sleep on the chair. But, the worse is that children may conceive the prayer as a tiresome and boring practice. But we don’t want it to be so.

May God bless you and study the Bible with the children. The Lord Jesus said:

Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (the Gospel of Matthew 19:14)(NASB)

Translated by Djugostran Felicia