Category: Bible Study

Fun Family Devotional on Friendship (With a Twist)

Quick. Name the Bible story most often used when discussing friendship with children and teens? If you guessed David and Jonathan, you are probably correct. Have you ever noticed though, that the story is often told from the perspective of the benefits David got from the friendship – namely getting advance notice from Jonathan that Saul wanted to kill him? What if we looked at the story – and its aftermath – from a different perspective … What kind of friend was David to Jonathan?

This is an important family devotional. Parents and ministries often spend a lot of time discussing how young people should choose friends who help them be more godly rather than encouraging them to disobey God. We may mention that they should have some of these same qualities to benefit their friends, but most of the focus is still on choosing “good” friends and not on becoming a great friend for others.

Call your children together and ask them what they remember about the story of Jonathan and David. If they don’t remember the details, go back and read over it again. Ask them how they know Jonathan was a good friend to David. Then ask them what kind of friend David was to Jonathan based on the story.

Read to them 2 Samuel 4:4 and 9:6-13. If you have teenagers and the time to dig a little deeper, you may also want to share the story in 2 Samuel 19:9-30 and 21:1-14. These two passages are more complex (and a bit gruesome), but show that David still respected the promises he had made to Jonathan, even after Jonathan’s death. Discuss how David show he valued his friendship with Jonathan in the way that he treated Mephibosheth. Remind them that the customs of the day would have demanded that David kill Mephibosheth as a possible threat to his kingship. Yet he and Mephibosheth both appeared to value the relationship between Jonathan and David more than money or power.

Ask your kids to list all of the qualities of a great friend. Have them draw a picture of a great friend. Encourage them to write descriptive words on their artwork to illustrate their definition of a great friend. Write down a master list of all of the words so everyone can see the complete list. If they miss some you believe are important, feel free to add your ideas to the list. Then ask them which of those qualities they believe they exhibit in their friendships. Are there any with which they struggle? What are some ways they could be a better friend?

If time allows, think of something nice your kids can do for their friends. Perhaps you can all work together to bake some cookies for their friends or make something they would appreciate. Encourage your children to put as much focus on being a good friend as they do in searching for good friends.

Using Fun Family Devotionals to Reduce Family Screen Time

I am normally not the type of parent who panics easily about the latest trends harming children and teens. Many times the articles are click bait about fads impacting a handful of children and teens – usually with parents who don’t pay attention to their children. However, screen time, and the impact it has on all of us, is something that should greatly concern every parent.

While I was researching our newest parenting seminar, Parenting Children In a Tech Obsessed World, I discovered so much disturbing research about the negative impact of screens on young people that I think it would be difficult to over react. Part of the problem about weaning ourselves and our children off screens is that we have become lazy about finding alternative, healthier activities to amuse ourselves and our children.

Hands-on family devotionals are a great way to engage the entire family while providing a fun alternative to using screens. They take a little more effort than a more traditional devotional, but provide more time for bonding, talking and teaching while you work on the activity together. We have lots of them you can search for in this blog, but here’s a great one to get you started.

Share Jeremiah 18 with your children. For younger children, you may not want to use the entire chapter. Older children and teens may benefit from a deeper discussion of what can happen if God finds us rigidly against Him. There are also other verses in scripture about God as the potter and us as His clay with other concepts like, Isaiah 29:16, Isaiah 45:9 and others.

Give each family member a lump of clay. The lesson works better with “real” potter’s clay, but you can use other types if you choose. Encourage each person to make something useful or decorative. As you are working, discuss how the clay must yield to the potter. Point out that we can refuse to yield to God’s instructions, commands and plans for our lives, but the results will not be as wonderful as if we had just yielded.

After everyone has finished their creation, take another piece of clay and work as a family to mold a simple pot. (Note: It will end up destroyed, so don’t let anyone get too attached and don’t tell them about the future destruction.) If it is not air dry clay, go back in a few hours and change or add something to your work. Several hours or perhaps a day later in certain climates, you will be able to etch a design on it, but changing major things will be destructive. After a time – especially if you dry it in the oven (look online for correct temps and procedure), attempting to make any changes will require destroying the vessel and reconstituting the clay with water and other intensive processes.

Point out that if our hearts remain pliable, God doesn’t have to do much to mold us. The more stubborn and resistant our hearts become to His will, the more likely He may use some painful method in order to try and save us from complete destruction. Discuss ways your family can be more responsive to God’s hand as your potter.

Taking the time to find fun, healthy, productive ways to engage your children offline is one of the best ways to convince them the “real world” – even with all of its flaws – is more rewarding than any virtual world.

Fun Beach Family Devotional

Does your family go to the beach in the summer or some other time of the year? Don’t leave God at home. Have a fun family devotional as you watch the waves crash onto shore.

Read your kids Matthew 7:24-26. Ask them why they think a house built on sand is more vulnerable to a storm than a house built on a rock. Explain that though the story seems like it is about building houses, it has a deeper meaning. Tell them that the house represents our faith in God. If our faith is based on something shallow, it is like the house built on the sand. If they build their faith on rock, then they will have a faith in God that won’t collapse when troubles happen in life.

Discuss ways they can make their faith stronger. Make sure that Bible study, prayer, memorizing and reflecting on scripture, community with other Christians, and serving and sharing their faith with others are mentioned along with any other ideas they may have.

Encourage your children to try and build a sand castle near the water’s edge that can withstand the waves. If you prefer, you can add a conversation about the connection between having a strong faith and spending eternity in Heaven with God. Then have them build sand versions of what they think Heaven is like. They can build these a little farther back from the waves, so they won’t be easily destroyed. When they are finished, have them explain their structures to you.

Fun Fruit of the Spirit Family Devotional

Did you know there are eight (or nine, depending upon the list) fruits mentioned in the Bible? Some of them are unfamiliar to many children – at least in their natural fruit form. You can have fun as a family trying new foods, learning about them in the Bible and even extending it to discuss a different kind of fruit – the fruit of the Spirit – in this fun family devotional.

Before the devotional, gather grapes, raisins, dates, figs, olives (Yes, olives are fruit.), apples, pomegranates and melons for your family to sample. Depending on the time of year, you may only be able to find dried dates and figs, but there are times of the year when those in the Bible only had access to them dried as well. If you really want to go all out, search for a recipe – authentic or modern – your family would like making with one or more of the ingredients to cook together at the end of the devotional.

Bring together your children. Explain that the people in the Bible ate some of the same foods we do, but they ate some additional ones your family may not normally eat as well. As you let them sample the various fruits, share with them some verses where they are mentioned in the Bible:

  • Apples – Song of Songs 2:5
  • Dates – 2 Samuel 2:19
  • Figs – Nehemiah 13:15
  • Grapes – Deuteronomy 23:24
  • Melons – Numbers 11:5
  • Olives – Isaiah 17:6
  • Pomegranates- Numbers 20:5
  • Raisins – Numbers 6:3

(Note: There are additional scriptures for many of these, if you wish to dive a little deeper.) Spend a few minutes talking about why God may have chosen to pick each particular fruit for that passage.

Explain to your children that the Bible mentions a different kind of fruit in the Bible. It is not one we can eat, but fruit that Christians should bear in their character. Read Galatians 5:22-25. Have your children define each fruit in their own words and give examples of what it looks like in “real life”. Have them share which fruit is the easiest for them and which is the most difficult. (Note: Although ”fruit of the Spirit” implies that these things are perhaps easier with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that occurs at baptism, even younger children can begin working on them before they become a Christian.)

Brainstorm ways your family can be a light in the world by exhibiting more fruit of the Spirit in your lives. If you would like, you can have this discussion while making and eating your fruit recipe. End by each choosing one concrete action to take because of this study of fruit.

Top Tips for Raising Bible Readers

Your children are going to have a tough time living the life God wants for them if they don’t know what’s in the Bible. Even if they attend church and Bible class every Sunday until adulthood, they will only be exposed to a small fraction of scripture. The Apostle John wrote that if they had written down everything Jesus said and did while on Earth, it would fill volumes. It would seem then that the scripture we have is what God felt was important for us to know. Think of it as a complete spiritual education in one book.

Reading scripture daily does more than just give your children instructions for living the Christian life. It can provide comfort and wisdom. It gives them the history they need to make sense of the world. It tells them how to communicate with God and how to get help from Him. The Bible has everything they need to know to lead a rich, full, godly life. In fact, if all the books in the world, except the Bible, suddenly disappeared, your kids would be okay.

Even if your family has been great about having family devotionals and spiritual conversations, you aren’t going to be with your children every moment of every day for the rest of their lives. They have to know what is in scripture and how to find in it what they need. The best way to insure your children turn to scripture as the source of wisdom in their lives is to help them develop the habit of daily Bible reading.

Often, adults make some key mistakes when attempting to help children develop the habit of independent Bible reading and study. These mistakes can cause children to believe the Bible is an extremely difficult and boring book to read. Thankfully, a few simple changes can teach them to enjoy and value daily time in scripture.

So what do you need to know to raise independent Bible readers? Here are some of our favorite tips.

  • Get your children an NIrV Bible. There are a lot of different reasons to choose various versions of the Bible and everyone has a favorite. For children and teens, the NIrV (Note the “r” is critical in buying the correct version.) is the easiest to read. Written on a third grade level, the actual process of reading the Bible will be easy – even for struggling readers. To the best of my knowledge, the other versions are anywhere from two to ten reading grade levels higher. Those versions make reading the Bible a frustration text for many young people. Which means the process of reading is so frustrating, the don’t want to even attempt to read it anymore – even when their reading level progresses to that point.
  • Buy them paper Bibles. Absolutely, encourage those with phones to put the Bible app on them. Those who want can choose various reading plans in their preferred versions. Educators have found though that what people read from a paper book is remembered better than would the same material if read in ebook form. The NIrV was initially only sold in covers for children, but now you can find it in a variety of adult covers as well.
  • Teach them to think of the Bible, not as one huge, overwhelming book, but as a library of books. This will not only make reading the Bible seem less intimidating, but it gives them the opportunity to feel a sense of accomplishment every time they finish reading a book of the Bible.
  • Don’t force them to read the Bible sequentially. If they start in Genesis and attempt to read the Bible straight through, most will get bogged down and quit somewhere in Leviticus or Numbers. Instead, encourage them to skip around – focusing on story heavy books at first, like the Gospels, Acts, Ruth, Esther, Kings, Judges, Genesis, etc. Older children and teens often prefer the practicality of books like Proverbs or James. If they are having a tough time emotionally, Psalms can be a great book to read. As they become more comfortable reading and studying scripture independently, you can encourage them to read all of the books they missed.
  • Talk about what they read (and what you are reading) in the Bible. This gives you an opportunity to check for comprehension and correct any misunderstandings they may have. This is especially important for young readers who are still concrete thinkers. It also gives you an opportunity to discuss with them how to apply what they have read to their daily lives.
  • Consider a chronological Bible (for those with enough experience) who want to read through the entire Bible. You may have noticed some stories in the Bible are repeated with different details or from a different person’s point of view. The books of prophecy aren’t next to the stories of the kings to whom the prophecy was given. A chronological Bible can help young readers because it takes everything from the Bible from one time period and places it all together. There is a little guess work involved for books like Job, but in general, it makes the overarching story of the Bible clearer.
  • Encourage them to switch up the amount they read each day occasionally. For children trying to start a new habit of daily Bible reading, a verse or a chapter a day is often the easiest to maintain. In fact remind them regularly, that reading even a verse of scripture a day is better than none at all. Over time though, encourage them to read a book of the Bible the way they might a regular book. Some of the shorter books can be read in one sitting. You can purchase various books of the Bible in book format now, with the chapter and verse numbers missing, so they read more like a regular book. Or help them find a Bible reading plan that is built around a theme of interest to them. Just make sure the daily readings required aren’t too ambitious to be maintained by them.
  • Provide study helps and teach them how to use them. Whether you purchase a study Bible, study aids like concordances or show them online resources, it is good for them to know ways they can get help understanding some of the more confusing passages in the Bible. By teaching them about resources you trust, you also minimize the chance they stumble across false teachings in a Google search and believe they are valid.
  • Set a good example. I knew if I woke up early at my grandparents’ house, I would catch them reading the Bible. That made an impression on me as a child. Your children will be more likely to develop a habit you have yourself. If you struggle, be honest. Find ways to encourage each other in reading scripture every day.

Giving your children the gift of independent Bible reading will make it easier for them to grow and remain healthy spiritually. It is worth taking the time and effort to help them develop those great habits while they are still young.