Every night of the week my boys and I spend time reading before bed. We take time to read books from their school library and we take time to read from the Bible. I want to instill in my children the understanding that reading holds a lot of potential for their future, not only through God's Word, but also in expanding your mind from other resources too.
While some of the books we read together are silly like "Happy Birthday Bad Kitty" or "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", the book we spend the most time in is the Bible. I want to encourage every parent to do this very thing...spend time with them reading the Bible. If you struggle with reading the Bible on your own time...do it on your kid's time with them, investing in them, investing in your time with God. This can allow you to kill two or three or four birds with one stone. Reading the Bible, not just to, but with your kids helps you to spend time in their life, lets you give them spiritual direction, show them spiritual priorities, help them to learn to read better, help them to learn more about God's Word, helps you to teach them life principles, help you to learn more about God's Word.....should I go on?
I am always amazed at how much they retain. I begin by quizzing them about what we read the previous night and I will even quiz them as we are reading together and they soak it up.
Yesterday, I did something else...something I had wanted to do for a long time, but was afraid it might be too graphic for them. This week during our reading together, we spent time going through the final few days of Christ's life. We spent a lot of time from the garden to the tomb. During our reading, they had lots of questions about the flogging that Jesus took and the experience of the cross...so I finally broke down and showed them the final minutes of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". I was still a little worried about the gruesome nature of the images they would see, but in reality...that is exactly what it was for Jesus.
Our time watching the movie was a memorable one. Our youngest two (the twins) had some of the most funny little questions and comments as any 5-yr old would...things like, "I bet Jesus needed like a hundred band-aids"...but there were other questions from the mouths of babes that held deeper significance....questions that I believe will pave the way for them to cross the line of faith at the right time. For my oldest son (who is already a Christian), he gained a different perspective on what Jesus really did for us and it showed in the seriousness of our conversation afterward.
These moments don't happen if we don't expose our children to the Bible. These moments we miss out if we, as parents, aren't trying not only to live by our faith for our kids but lead by our faith for our kids.
My challenge (not just for you, but for me too) is to continue to show faith by our actions, teach faith by our words, and expose faith through our life. "And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Dt. 6:6-9
LIVE IT! SAY IT! BREATHE IT! SHARE IT! EXPOSE IT!
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