This year, we’re rounding up some of our favorite bloggers to get their thoughts on faith and family. We’re kicking off the series by asking: How does your family experience the Bible together?
Ashley of Life by Ashley Pichea:
We experience the Bible together as a family in several ways over the course of a week. We make it a priority to attend weekly church services together, bringing the kids into a portion of the corporate worship service with us. We also include Bible study time as a part of our daily routine – sometimes this is done altogether, and other times we individually study the same portions of Scripture. Other ways we experience the Bible together as a family include watching Bible-based DVDs, reading Bible-based books, listening to Scripture-based music, and bringing Bible verses and stories into our every day conversations. When you’re intentional about making the Bible a foundational core of your family, you find ways to experience the Bible together as a family on a daily basis!
Whitney of Beauty in the Mess:
Experiencing the Bible together as a family is so important, but it’s challenging with a 4 year old, 3 year old, and 20 month old. We make a point to read the Bible before bedtime if nothing else. We watch videos centered on the Bible during quiet time, sing songs throughout the day, and the older two memorize Scripture each month. The cutest thing is listening to my 20 month old sing the B-I-B-L-E.
Heidi of Our Out-of-Sync Life:
Each evening before bedtime, Daddy sits our four kiddos on the couch for Bible time. He reads a story from a children’s Bible, sings a song, and prays with them. To further this time, after the kids adjourn to bed, he spends one-on-one time with each of them through personal talk about the day and prayer. Beyond that, we discuss the Bible throughout the day as teachable moments occur. Whether this is in seeing the beauty in God creation, in a moment for discipline, or as we read books, we discuss corresponding Bible stories or how Jesus would handle a situation.
Kristin of Bits and Pieces From My Life:
Because we homeschool, we have the opportunity to incorporate Bible reading into the morning of every school day. We begin our day reading a passage of the Bible together. Then we work through a series of scriptures we are memorizing together. Even my 3-year-old is able to recite verses as she hides them in her heart.
Leah of As We Walk Along the Road:
We homeschool, and our school days begin with devotions. I use a children’s One Year Devotional Bible with my kids as well as various resources like books, articles or videos. We also study Bible formally as part of our curriculum. This year we are reading about the life of Christ and the early church. The kids are all in our church’s AWANA program, which gives lots of opportunity to memorize Scripture. To include Daddy and make Bible study a more family affair, we often discuss things that we’ve read or heard in church or just questions that the kids have.
Chad of Remember The Gospel:
When our oldest son was still a baby, we committed to read the Bible to him regularly. We had enough foresight to understand that we wouldn’t be able to bat a thousand, but even if we bunted a fraction of those opportunities it would be time well spent. Now with 4 boys under the age of seven, we find it difficult to regularly engage with them in the Scriptures, but when we make it work, it works well. The kids often ask us for Bible time, and they pick out the stories unless we have particular passages we want to work through with them. We either gather them in the living room or pile on one of their beds and take turns praying, then we read through a story or passage, and discuss Jesus in the text. We sometimes end with a prayer or a song, but often the kids are too wound up or whiny and we quickly end the story and get them to bed! We trust that God can take what we were able to give, even if it was just a small snippet of a story, and make it abound in their lives like the boy’s two fish and five loaves.
Carlie of So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler?:
Every time we sit down to eat at the table together, we read something from the Bible. We also always have 1-2 different family devotionals we read together at any given time. We are a homeschooling family and use Christian curriculum that has scripture interlaced within it’s content. This is how our family is certain to get Bible time in each day.
Crystal Stine:
One of the sweetest blessings we’ve received from having our toddler in a Christian daycare is their daily practice of “Bible time,” which our daughter has introduced to our family. She has picture Bibles that she “reads” to her stuffed animals, we watch VeggieTales & What’s in the Bible? movies together, and we read a short Bible story from one of her little Bibles before bedtime. Nothing makes my heart melt more than to walk by her room and overhear her little voice singing, “Jesus loves me” to her stuffed “friends.”
Anne Marie of Future.Flying.Saucers:
After all of the kids are ready for bed, we pile onto the couch and my husband sits on the chair. We all sit quietly as he reads a portion of scripture, usually a chapter, or a complete portion of scripture to finish a story. Then he asks the kids questions and we discuss what the words mean and how to apply them to our lives. After this, my husband leads us in prayer. Sometimes he alone prays. Other evenings, we all get down on our knees around the ottoman and we each pray to the Lord.
Mary of Giving Up on Perfect:
We read The Jesus Storybook Bible nearly every night. In addition, my daughter participates in Awana and loves learning her Bible verses. (I was so surprised when she loved it so much! It’s been amazing to watch her little brain and heart soak up God’s word – and also “forces” me to learn more verses myself!) She also has a monthly memory verse from church that we talk about at home (although not nearly as much as I want to).
What’s been really cool recently is to see her connect the dots between stories we’ve read and stories she’s heard at church and verses she’s learned at Awana and videos she’s watched. I love watching it gel in her heart and mind.
Penny of Sisters Raising Sisters :
In our family, we have found that our children (3 and 2) learn best when they are exposed to information in several different forms. We read the Bible daily together as part of their bedtime routine. We use age appropriate Bibles to keep our girls engaged. The girls love to discuss the stories we read together and are always finding ways to apply them to their own lives. We memorize scripture together, often in the form of song and through sign language and we pray together daily as well. During the day we study biblical character qualities though Bible stories as well. And of course, we love watching What’s in the Bible? and singing the songs from our favorite characters.
Jessica of Grace for Moms:
We are always looking for helpful resources to introduce our young children to the Bible. We love reading Bible Story books and other story books that share faith in ways our kids will understand. Bedtime is our most precious time to open a book together, all snuggled on my daughter’s bed, and experience spiritual connection as a family. We never point our expectations too high, as young kids can only comprehend so much. But we know we are planting seeds in their hearts that will grow into faith.
Tamika of No Time For Tea Parties:
My children and I read the Bible together as a part of our bedtime routine. We read and recite scriptures we have memorized. For example since their birth all 3 of my kids have recited John 3:16 at bedtime. We personalize it with their names “For God so loved…he gave his one and only son Jesus so when…believes in Jesus he/she will not perish but have eternal life”.
 
I think it is important to make the Bible relevant to kids as soon as possible. Even just hearing it as a baby can make an impression.
Kara of Simple Kids:
When the kids have a question about something God says then we look it up together and talk about what we read. I think it is important for our kids to see their parents reading and studying the Bible as part of our daily lives, too.
Danika of Thinking Kids:
Our family spends time together in worship every evening. My husband reads a chapter from Proverbs and a chapter from another book, then we discuss what we’ve read before we take turns praying. Because we homeschool, we also make the Bible a part of our daily studies. The boys and I read two chapters of the Bible together each weekday. We each read a paragraph in a “round robin” manner. After each chapter, we take time to discuss what we’ve learned about God.
Angi of SchneiderPeeps:
We experience the Bible together as a family in a variety of ways such as family devotions or readings, worshipping together in church and Bible studies. Probably the most important thing we do to experience the Bible together is to encourage every member of our family to be growing in his individual relationship with Christ. The Bible is relevant to every aspect of our lives and when we are each growing in Christ we find we have great conversations about what we are learning or what we are struggling with.
