Does your teen read her Bible? Does he even know where his Bible is? If you are like many parents of teens, the subject of independent Bible study is rarely mentioned. There seems to be an unwritten fear that if a parent mentions reading the Bible, the teen in question will never open a Bible again. Yet, it doesn’t have to be that way.
There are several ways parents can encourage their teen to read her Bible. Which method or methods you choose depend a lot on your current relationship with your child. If you have a healthy relationship with lots of wonderful conversations, you can probably do these things yourself with a great degree of success.
If your relationship with your teen is characterized with disagreements and strife, you should identify some other adult whom your child respects to help. It may be a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a teacher or even a youth minister. Don’t be afraid to ask for their help. Anyone who loves your child and God should be an enthusiastic member of your team.
So what are some ways to get your teen to read his Bible independently?
My daughter has always been very confident sharing her faith. She easily shares her beliefs with people many Christians would consider “difficult to convert”. She started this at an extremely young age by just having natural conversations with her peers.
Have you ever thought about how often sheep appear in the Bible? From Jacob and Laban and the spotted/not spotted sheep to the first Passover meal to David as a shepherd boy, sheep play an important role in many Bible stories. Sheep are great animals. They can provide milk, cheese and clothing while still remaining alive to provide again another day. Of course when they were someone’s dinner or used for sacrifices, they needed to be replaced. So soon sheep also became a vital part of the local economy.
Electric fences amaze me. You can’t see the lines, but even very large animals soon learn to avoid them. I like to think those fences are to protect me when I walk by the animals. Actually, the owners install those fences to protect their animals. They know if the animals leave the safety of the yard or field, bad things can happen. If the animal stays far from the fence, it enjoys easily found food and water in abundance. It is protected from cars and hunters. Even though life on the other side of the fence may look more interesting, in reality it is fraught with dangers the animal is unprepared to handle.
People greatly underestimate what kids are capable of learning and understanding. Even very young children can begin learning basic ideas and concepts about complex things. Unfortunately, many parents want to wait until children are older to begin exposing them to God and the Bible. Oh, they may take them to church, but often the child just ends up playing in a nursery classroom or running up and down the halls.