Reading to Little Ones From the Bible

Reading to Little Ones from the Bible - Parenting Like Hannah
Photo by jbcurio
One of my weaknesses as a Christian has always been that I am inconsistent in my private Bible study. I will go sometimes as long as a year with consistent personal Bible study, but then I get distracted and am not nearly as faithful in my study times. (I am sure it hasn’t helped that most Bibles when I was a child were of the King James variety.) I have worked hard my entire life to try and make daily Bible reading a consistent habit. I wondered if I could find a way to make it a more natural habit for my own child.

I began reading a Bible story to her every day when she was an infant. I can picture sitting in the rocker holding her before she could even sit up on her own and reading the Bible story to her. I used the Baby Bible Storybook by Robin Currie and Cindy Adams. You can choose any baby or toddler Bible, but preferably one with lots of bright pictures and few words. (I have not really found them to be inaccurate, but you may want to read through it quickly to make sure that there are no glaring errors.)

As a teacher, I wanted to begin to reinforce the idea that there was a difference between fairy tales and the Bible. There is no way of really knowing whether or not my system worked, but I always separated Bible story time from times when we read other books. Even though she was an infant, I would always start by telling her I was going to read her a true story about something that really happened a long time ago. Sometimes during times when I read other books to her, I would talk about how those stories never really happened but that someone made them up because they were fun.

As she has grown older, we slowly transitioned to family devotionals and now at eleven she is reading her Bible independently on a regular basis. (I will post ideas for transitioning children to reading the Bible independently later.) If you haven’t read the Bible to your child, it is never too late to start. Find a Bible you like and a time where you can be the most consistent in your habit of reading it. I have even found that at times it has motivated me to study the Bible more consistently myself. Most importantly enjoy the time you spend sharing God’s precious words with your child. They will be the most important words you ever teach him.

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Thereasa Winnett

Thereasa Winnett is the founder of Teach One Reach One and blogger at Parenting Like Hannah. She holds a BA in education from the College of William and Mary. She has served in all areas of ministry to children and teens for more than thirty years and regularly leads workshops for ministries and churches. She has conducted numerous workshops, including sessions at Points of Light’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the National Urban Ministry Conference, Pepperdine Bible Lectures, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. Thereasa lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Greg, where she enjoys reading, knitting, traveling and cooking.

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