Category: Family Devotionals

Fun Ways to Introduce Your Kids to the Cultures in the Bible

Part of the challenge of teaching the Bible to children and teens is that it contains the stories of people who lived in cultures very different from our own. They had different technology, household items, clothing, food, music, languages and customs. The average child from today being told a Bible story about David, for example, might hear something like…”So David was out in the fields tending sheep, playing his lyre and practicing his slinging.”

As adults, we know what all of those things are and how they are important in later stories about David. Children, however, probably have no idea what is involved in tending sheep and may not have even seen a sheep in real life. They also don’t know what a lyre is or slinging. So what they hear from that original sentence is ”So David was out in the fields blah, blah, blah.” And that’s assuming they even know what a field is! Of course their brains aren’t satisfied with the ”blahs” in the sentence so they begin to try and figure out what those mystery words meant.

Meanwhile, you are three paragraphs further into the story….three paragraphs they haven’t heard because they are still trying to figure out the first sentence you said. Of course, once they realize you are so far ahead of them in the story, many will give up entirely and begin thinking of things totally unrelated to what you are trying to teach them.

Taking the time to explore some of these cultures with your kids fills in a lot of the “blahs” for them, making the Bible much easier to understand. Plus it is a lot of fun! Thankfully, there are a lot of resources both online and offline to help you and your kids explore the various cultures of the Bible. To start though, you need to know some of the cultures you may want to explore. We have left out some of the more obscure ones in our list of cultures to explore with your kids. (Note that the list contains the terms under which you are most likely to find resources.) Arabia, Assyrians, Amorites, Babylon, Crete, Cyprus, Edom, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece or Greek Empire, Hittites, Persia, Israel, Roman Empire, Jebusites, Kush, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malta, Medes, Mesopotamia, Samaria, Sheba (Yemen), Syria and Philistines. It is important to add the word ”ancient” when searching for any culture that has a modern equivalent, so you only get the information regarding the time periods covered in the Bible.

There are some great general resources that often cover more than one culture.

  • Museums. If you live near a museum with actual artifacts, that is a great way for them to see some of the items ”in real life”. Those memories often ”stick” better than looking at photos, although photos are preferable to nothing at all. This link has a great list of the museums in every state that contain artifacts related to cultures in the Bible. https://www.bibleplaces.com/us-museums-artifacts-biblical-world/
  • Online museum collections. Educators favorites are the Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org), the British Museum (britishmuseum.org) and the Louvre (louvre.fr/en). Search the collections to find not only artifacts, but artwork related to the Bible.
  • Lonely Curator videos. The Museum of the Bible has short 3-5 minute videos their curators made during the pandemic when the museum was closed. They cover a variety of topics. Some are better than others, but several have interesting information. (Like did you know that from the time you start making the dough for unleavened bread until the time it comes out of the oven has to be less than 18 minutes or it is considered leavened? Flour and water eventually create a leavening of their own even without yeast and evidently that process begins at the 18 minute mark!)
  • Recipes. Google ”ancient recipes of ________” to find authentic recipes. Some sites are better than others so fair warning about any content on these websites beyond the actual recipes. I found a website ancientrecipes.org that seems to have recipes from several cultures in the Bible.
  • Clothing. It is difficult to find a lot of high quality websites with clothing from ancient cultures, but google ”clothing in ancient _________” to find what is available.
  • Music. YouTube has videos of music from several ancient cultures featuring some instruments that are unfamiliar to us today. Search for ”music from ancient _______” to see what’s available.

When using unfamiliar websites, be careful to screen before allowing your children to use them without you. At times, they may contain information that is unbiblical, spurious or just too confusing for children to sift through. Have fun with it. Use a Bible story as a springboard for your exploration or explore a culture and then find all of the stories in the Bible related to it. Exploring these cultures will make your kids’ Bible reading comprehension much better, plus it is a fun way to explore God’s Word together.

Fun Way to Teach Your Kids About Moderation

I have to admit that there are a few stories in the Bible that are just funny. One of my favorites can be a great way to introduce your kids to the importance of moderation in living the Christian life. You can find the story in Numbers 11:4 and following.

This is one of those stories that is best read directly from the Bible. The exasperation of Moses at the whining of the people is classic! Then for God to basically tell them that if they want quail…He will give them quail. In fact, they will eat so much quail for a month that it will ”come out of their nostrils”! I don’t know about you, but it sounds like a conversation that could happen in any home with whining children!

There are a couple of ways to have fun with the idea of having ”too much of a good thing”. Before you read the Bible story to your kids, call them to a meal. Serve them ice cream or some other treat as their entire meal (One non-nutritious meal won’t be bad for most healthy children and having only dessert for a meal will make the experience very memorable – especially if you are normally really healthy eaters.)

After they have enjoyed their unusual treat of a meal, inform them that from now on that will be the only food they will be given for every meal and snack. Very young children may get excited at first. Remind them that if they only eat ice cream, they can’t eat any of their other favorite foods like macaroni and cheese.

Or you can do the same thing by finding a recipe for ”manna” cookies and giving that to them for their meal. Explain that although we don’t know exactly what manna tasted like, we have enough of a description to know a little bit about what it may have tasted like. Ask them how they would feel if that were the only food they ever got to eat – every meal – every day – every week – every month.

In both cases your kids will probably admit that while it is fun to have a dessert like meal, having only it for a long time would be difficult. It’s too much of a good thing. Then read them the story of the manna and the quail. Explain that the Israelites had the same reaction. Only instead of remembering that God had just rescued them from slavery (which was horribly difficult), they focused on the fact that they missed the variety in their diet. They whined and complained until God got so frustrated He gave them so much quail, they probably never wanted to eat quail again. It was too much of a ”good thing”.

Read them a few verses like 1 Corinthians 6:12, Proverbs 25:27 and Proverbs 25:16. Explain that there are some things God knows we need or want that in moderation aren’t bad for us, but that if we want too much of it we can have too much of a ”good thing”. Have your kids think of examples in addition to the ones in the verses you read. Suggest that sometimes wanting too much of something – like money – means we even stop worshipping God and make the thing we want our idol. How deeply you can go with this conversation will depend upon the age and maturity of your kids.

Explain the concept of moderation. Help your kids think of ways to enjoy good things with moderation so they don’t get too much of a good thing or start worshipping the good thing instead of God. Have them share the good things they like so much that they could have problems with later if they are not careful to keep God first. Encourage them to use strategies that help them remember to use that thing in moderation.

Does Your Bible Knowledge (Or Lack Thereof) Impact Your Child’s Faith?

One of the best things about mentoring parents today is that we have actual data about what works and what doesn’t work in the faith development of children and teens. Twenty years ago, I would have had to rely on my own experiences and observations. Now, I can be a little more confident I am giving advice that will truly help your kids build strong faith foundations and develop to their full God given potential.

When I was a child, reading the Bible daily was a top priority in many Christian homes. Props to our parents, because the NIrV Bible had yet to be published. Most of the versions were quite a few years ahead of the reading levels of even the best readers amongst us. As time has passed, however, I have begun hearing more and more Christians give the excuse that reading the Bible daily isn’t so important because they know the gist of it or are already struggling to do what they have read up to this point in their lives. Adult Bible class discussions have often morphed from ”What about such and such passage?” to ”I think” or ”I feel”. Daily Bible reading is now viewed by some Christians as legalistic and even toxic (because it can lead to legalism).

At the same time, the number of young people rejecting God and the Church as they enter adulthood have grown. Is there a connection? Intuitively, I believed there was, but had no proof. Studies have been done now, however, that make it easier to verify that connection. The important thing to note was that this particular study didn’t talk to all parents or parents who called themselves Christian. It was limited to parents who had behaviors the study defined as engaged Christian parents, meaning they regularly engaged with their children in prayer, biblical conversations, worship attendance, ministering to others and more. You might call these the ”best” Christian parents they could find based on behaviors.

The study asked these spiritually engaged Christian parents how equipped they felt to have conversations with their children about topics like basic doctrinal issues (baptism, etc.), how the Bible applies to life today, sin and forgiveness, Bible history, the authority of scripture, God’s mission for Christians, etc. The results were disappointing. The highest positive response was still under fifty percent and when broken down by topics, many topics had as many as a third of parents claiming to feel insecure about discussing them. And these are the spiritually engaged Christian parents! I would imagine those numbers would be much lower for Christian parents who rarely engage with their kids spiritually at all. (This also doesn’t measure whether or not the things parents are teaching their children are actually biblically accurate.)

Even worse, parental spiritual engagement begins dropping off right about the age of accountability. So the time period when our kids are making the most important decision of their lives and learning how to live out their commitment to God once they become a Christian is the same time period when their parents start leaving them to fend for themselves spiritually. And we wonder why young people are leaving the church!

If you, like the many Christian parents, feel uncomfortable having those spiritual conversations with your kids, it’s time to educate yourself. Ask an elder, minister or Bible class teacher for a Bible reading plan that will help you learn more about these topics. If you don’t understand what you are reading or how to communicate the information in ways your kids can understand, ask for help. Encourage your kids to read the Bible independently. Read it out loud to them. Make daily Bible reading a personal habit. Saving the next generation requires getting back to the basics. And it starts with everyone reading the Bible regularly.

Fun Family Stewardship Project

Stewardship is a concept your kids will probably only learn about at home or Church. In our society today, very few people employ stewards and those who do give them varying titles. In Bible times, a steward was quite possibly the best servant role one could have. Wealthy people often owned vast or even multiple estates – much like today. A steward was similar to a caretaker, but usually much more. He was basically the stand in for the owner for whatever he was the steward.

Stewards had a lot of authority and a lot of responsibility. They made decisions for the owner and were responsible not only for the upkeep, but also the improvement or growth of the property they managed. When an owner checked in with a steward, he expected only good news. Bad news or the decline in value of a property most likely ended with the steward losing his job.

Your kids may not know that when God created the Earth, He made all of mankind the stewards of everything on it. Christians should take good care of the environment, not for some political or social reason, but because it is one of the jobs God gave us. You can have fun teaching your kids how to be good stewards by having some fun with zero waste cooking.

Start by teaching them about Creation and God’s expectations for us as stewards of it. If your kids are older, you may want to look at other scriptures that mention stewardship. Tell them that one way to be a good steward is to reduce waste and use every part of the things we use to make food. Talk about different plants and animals that are used for food. How much of that plant or animal ends up being thrown away – either by producers or by those cooking it?

Explain that as good stewards, we should attempt to waste as little of anything as possible. There are lots of books and websites with ideas for zero waste cooking, but here are a few ideas to get you started.

  • Plant the parts of vegetables you usually throw away like roots and grow free food for your family.
  • Take the bones from meat, leftover parts of vegetables and simmer in water to make broth.
  • Use things like eggshells, used coffee grinds, and the parts of fruits and vegetables you normally throw away and create a compost pile to improve the soil.
  • Research to see if some of the parts of fruits and vegetables you normally throw away, like apple and cucumber peels, are actually edible and start eating them. (Bonus…peels are often where most of the vitamins are found.)
  • Research creative ways to use things you normally throw away in craft projects, to replace household products, etc.
  • Buy products with as little packaging as possible or make things like bread yourself instead of purchasing them. I’ve never been brave enough to try it, but some families buy the grain and grind their own flour.

What other ideas can your kids find? (Hint: There’s an idea not mentioned in the photo above.) Don’t worry if a particular activity doesn’t work well for your family. Ask around. You may find that a friend or neighbor would love to use your eggshells or coffee grinds for something!

Summer Family Fun Activities (That You Can Use to Teach Your Kids About God)

Summer break starts here in the next few days. Why not make plans to have some quality family fun time? There are quite a few fun summer activities you can do with your kids that can also give you opportunities to teach them about God in the process. While our website has hundreds of activity ideas for over 200 Bible lessons, here are a few of our favorite summer family fun ideas.

  • Star gazing. Light pollution can make it difficult to see more than a few stars in most suburbs and cities, but they are still visible. Want to make it a true adventure? Head to the nearest rural area to see more stars than you can count. While you are admiring God’s handiwork, talk about how God created the earth or His promise to Abram about having so many descendants, they would be as numerous as the stars. You can even tell them about one the dreams Joseph had about his brothers that involved stars.
  • Build a booth. The actual Jewish holiday of the booths isn’t until Fall, but the activity is a great summer one. Find branches and foliage and build a shelter. The holiday has very strict rules about the construction, but you can do whatever works best in your yard. Make sure you can see peeks of the sky through the roof of your structure. For extra fun, sleep or eat in your structure. During the Jewish holiday of booths, the parents tell their children all of the stories of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness and the ways God cared for them. They are great stories to share with your kids, too.
  • Grow or make food to share. There are lots of stories in the Bible when people shared their food with others – from Abraham feeding angels unaware to the widow feeding Elijah to Jesus feeding the five thousand – share stories about sharing food with others as you care for the plants that grow food to share or cook food for others. The story of Ruth and the stories in Acts about Christians helping those suffering in a famine, teach your kids that God wants them to help feed the hungry in our world.
  • Take family walks or hikes. Have you ever paid attention to how much teaching Jesus did while he was walking places with his disciples? Take a page from the ministry of Jesus. You can share everything he did on his walks or any Bible stories or passages of scripture you want your kids to know and understand.
  • Create some scripture art. Gather up some craft supplies. Spend time creating scripture art that is beautiful enough to display in your home or gift to others. You might even want to host an ”art exhibit” and invite others to view your scripture art while snacking on little snacks you provide.
  • Make your sidewalk a faith mural. We are supposed to have a dry summer in our area. Grab some colored chalk and create a faith mural on your driveway or sidewalk. Challenge your kids to create designs that would teach passerby about God. Help them execute their designs or if each child is decorating their own block, design one yourself. As you work, talk about what would make people more interested in learning about God and what are some important things for them to know about Him.

Have fun as a family this summer. You will create sweet memories and strengthen the faith foundations of your kids in the process.