When to Start Reading the Bible
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Probably one of the most important jobs for a Christian parent is to introduce our kids to God's Word and the truths that they can stand on for life. But a lot of us, we just don't know where to start. Well, we have encouragement for you today. I'm John Fuller, joined by the head of our parenting team, Dr. Danny Huerta.

And Danny, how did you introduce the scripture to your kids? Oh, perfectly, John. Yeah, yeah. Of course. Yeah. This is a fun one to share because we just did our best. We went to church regularly. That's something that we both grew up with as a value in our respective homes. And so that was natural. We would go to church every Sunday. We tried to go throughout the week whenever we could. And

We tried to read the Bible individually. And I would say Heather has been more consistent with reading Scripture openly in our house and showing this discipline of a relational component with God. And one thing we did is we would portray not reading the Bible or if we missed something as a missed opportunity rather than we're doing something wrong. I missed out on an appointment with God. He wants to talk to me.

And from an early age, kids will get that, that empathy, the empathy neurons will process that differently. Then there's this God that demands I have to meet with him. If I don't, I'm a bad person. It's more he's waiting for us and we just missed an opportunity. They're like, oh, no.

Let's not miss that. And we read a story one time, and I think it was something about the teen's heart. I can't remember. It's one of those chicken soup for the soul type of books. And it had this creative story of God waiting at the table and had an appointment, had a reservation, and this girl didn't show up.

And God just waited there and the waiter came, hey, is this other person going to show up? I go, well, I come here every day and I'm waiting. I know she'll come. She'll come at some point. But I'll be faithfully here waiting. And it gives you this picture that God is waiting to just have a meal with us of the soul where we get to connect with them. And the more we portray that to our kids, that we're not living this life of shame and guilt anymore.

Because we're not pursuing God, but actually a life of missed opportunity to connect and receive guidance from our Heavenly Father and to experience peacefulness in a chaotic world. Then they get that FOMO, the fear of missing out on this relationship with God. And that's what we want to create for them. God is not going to condemn them because they didn't show up once.

there's just really, when we read scripture, he's longing for that time with us. And that's what we want to introduce our kids to. And so that's what we try to do as a family. And then we would read stories out loud as a family. And we did watch That the World May Know many times, even when the kids were younger, they connected with that content with Ray Vanderlaan on looking at the historical context of Israel, gave that visual connectedness to what we were reading in scripture and

And so we have loved his teaching, and we allow for our kids also to teach us sometimes. We'd say, hey, pick up a part of scripture. You read it. Teach us what you're taking in, and let's talk about it. You get to be the teacher. Kids love to teach and be the ones that are being listened to. Give them the opportunity from a young age. Well, there's so much more, and we're going to hear from somebody that's pretty passionate about reading the Bible with your kids and introducing them to God's Word today.

From Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, let's hear now Danica Cooley as she shares about her journey with her own children. You know, one of the practical questions for so many, especially if you have both parents working outside the house, how do you move that up in the to-do list of everything else, like feeding and clothing your kids, cleaning up the messes, and doing everything else you have to do?

And then, okay, we've got to work Scripture in. And I'm asking it a little sarcastically because I think we all would believe doing that is probably the most important thing you need to do. Mm-hmm.

But how do you move that up in your prioritization, I guess, is the question. Right. So we do have to keep our kids alive. It's very important. I think that's a primary goal. Some parents are going, what, really? If you have boys, it's all preventative. Right. This is how the parents of boys speak, by the way. If you only have girls, this is how it goes.

Yeah, yeah, it's different with boys. So we want to keep them alive. But I do think that after that, our primary goal is to introduce them to scripture. And I think it can be done in 10 or 15 minutes a day. And for us, our strategy has been to make that a part of our rhythm. So every day my kids insist on eating. They are just sticklers about it.

I like your boys. Yeah, they're awesome. Right now, one of them's over six feet and he eats constantly. So, you know, we have at least three meals a day. And so what we did was attach scripture and prayer to our meals. To their hamburgers? Yeah. You'd like stick the scripture right there? So now after breakfast, we'll go and pray and read a chapter or three chapters for us of the Bible and then discuss them.

Because they're teens, they can handle three chapters. Yeah, and you mentioned that in the book, too. I think that's a good practical piece of advice. So for younger children, it was a chapter together and then a little older. Give the age breakdown how you follow that. Right. So elementary or preschool, you know, you can do even less. If you have a – Averse. Right. Right.

And then for elementary, you can do a chapter a day. For middle grade, we did two chapters. And then for teens, usually three chapters. And it depends on their schedule. So sometimes it's only a chapter. Right, when they're busy. But the idea is regular, steady diet of Scripture. Right, right. Which is awesome. Let me ask you, some parents, and again, we get there's a variety of parenting styles, and we know that. And we know that we emphasize different things in different moments. Right.

But fundamentally, when you look at it, this is the difference. I mean, having your child understand what Scripture is about, et cetera, is so important to their true salvation. So it's not just a social response or a family response, but so they can make it their own. In that context, some parents might think,

That, you know, the Bible's a big book. I mean, really? You can actually do that? And maybe that shows a little bit of an indication of their own inability to sit and read because they're overwhelmed by the chapters, whatever might be overwhelming them.

Speak to that idea that, no, your kids can really digest the Scripture and they'll get it. Yeah, it is a big book and it can seem overwhelming. And sometimes we don't even know where to open it, right, if we haven't gotten started. So I always suggest that parents start either in Genesis or in Matthew, and there's pros and cons to each. But that way your child's getting the story of Scripture and then you just...

cycle through. So Charlotte's Web is a beginning chapter book for kids. It's around 30,000 words. It's just a little over. If you read Charlotte's Web 24 times, you would have covered the word count of scripture. So yeah. And if you're going to spread scripture out with your kids over three years,

You know, to say that you could read Charlotte's Web eight times in a year is completely doable. And we read books aloud with our kids. So if we break it down in our heads to, you know, I'm just going to read a chapter a day with my kids and wherever we end up reading,

on the timeline is fine as long as we're faithful. And when we can, we read this chapter a day attached to a major event in our day, like dinner or breakfast, it becomes completely doable. Sure. So instead of trying to eat the whole thing at once, we can just do it a little at a time. Yeah. And that's a good way to approach scripture.

I really appreciate Danica's real passion for God's Word. And Danny, let's address the challenge that a lot of us, I think, feel when our children ask us a question we can't answer or they ask an awkward or difficult question as we're talking about the Bible. What do I do? I don't know.

Well, I think we think we need to be the experts at everything. And it's really important to be able to say, you know, I don't know. I think we're going to explore this a lot further. And there are many things we don't know fully in Scripture, and it requires wisdom that is given by God. The more time we spend there and the revelation He gives to us through that,

And so for our kids, they need to understand that a lot of the journey within Scripture is about you going into that and searching for truth and the answers in that. Because ultimately, if I say it, still a child is going to be going, okay, well, is that really true? Is it not? There's an experiential component as kids are going through these big questions in Scripture that they need to settle.

But tell them, hey, let's go on an adventure. Let's go on this journey of looking for the answers that you're looking for. I love the fact that you're curious. Let's go with that. I don't know all the answers. I don't know all that. Let's pray for some enlightenment, some revelation here, that God will speak to us as we're looking for this, and that he'll give us clues along the way. I remember playing hide and seek with my daughter, and she said,

She said, Daddy, give me a clue as I was hiding. And that's what we're looking for here. And maybe play a game of hide and seek with your kids after this question and go, God is wanting for us to find him and to discover truth here.

What we need to do is spend the time to look for it. And there are many resources, especially now with the internet and gathering all the research there. We just have to make sure we're looking in the right places. And here at Focus on the Family, we're committed to providing as much content as we can for you as a parent as you're looking for answers.

And there are plenty there. We have age and stage resources where it has spiritual growth that is stage specific. Look for that. And you can begin that journey through mykidsage.com or look at the show notes. And that can lead you on this initial journey and it can answer questions for you as a parent, but it'll also expose you.

to great children's resources that you can use as tools as you're exploring truth with your kids. And man, we have so much there that parents can be exploring, John. Just the part is be committed to praying about it, letting your kids know that you don't have all the answers, but you are wanting to go on an adventure of discovery with them and then go explore those with them. Make sure you follow up on that. Yeah, well, I appreciate that so much. And again, we'll have a link in the show notes for follow-up.

Let me just wrap up and say we're listener supported. We rely on your generosity to continue making shows like this and to literally reach around the world equipping and encouraging parents. So help us out with a one-time donation or a monthly pledge of any amount. And we'll send Danica Cooley's book, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, so you can have more ideas on introducing your children to scripture in age-appropriate ways.

You can donate and get that resource by following the links in the show notes. More from Danica next time. For now, on behalf of Dr. Danny Huerta and the entire team, I'm John Fuller, and thanks for listening to the Focus on the Family Parenting Podcast.

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