As I mentioned earlier this year, I have been attempting to read the Bible with my young children. It has been a great journey and my children continue to amaze me with the level of insight/curiosity they have concerning God's word. At times it has all felt a bit hard, but inevitably it is the kids who have kept us disciplined and continuing on our path! The approach that we have been taking has been very heavy on narrative/story, and we have sort of come to the end of our abbreviated voyage through the Bible (ending in the book of Acts).
It seems that we are now ready to try a different approach. I am really keen for my kids to see that these are not just stories that we read for their own sake - they are not just myths, fables or nice stories about the past. I want my kids to see that this grand story calls for response/action. I want them to find their part in the story.
So, this is what we are going to attempt now (I'll let you know how it goes). We are going to spend some months just reading the Gospels. As we read some big chunks of the Jesus story, we will ask ourselves these questions:-
'What is Jesus thinking/saying/doing?'
'What are the implications of this for today?'
'What are we going to do about it?'
We will brainstorm practical responses that we as a family can have to what we have read about Jesus - then we will seek to go and do it! Together we will celebrate our success/failure in this.
Hopefully we all will grow closer to the heart of Jesus through this action/reflection approach to family Bible reading!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
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2 comments:
Marty, I also have young children that I am attempting to do daily bible readings with. I guess my fear is making it a ritual, I don’t force them to sit and listen but I do strongly encourage them to participate, I want it to become a habit but not a ritual. We don’t do it every day but we do try do make it part of our morning routine, I have found that while they are sitting still eating their porridge is best to read a story then we have a question answer time with some kind of practical application of what this means to us today. My intention is also to make this different than reading a bedtime story or some fictional book, but more a time of real life stuff and inspiration, something to look forward to.
It is interesting that you wrote that you want the kids to see that they are not just nice stories. Sometimes I think about stories like Noah’s Ark (the all time great kids story), of fluffy, well behaved animals lining up to go into the boat. Where actually, I picture a scene like the Boxing Day tsunami, the mass murder of mankind, with people being washed away struggling for their last breath, clinging onto floating debris with one arm and onto their baby with the other. But we can’t tell kids that version can we? Or the part of the story of David and Goliath where David has killed Goliath and cuts his head off and stands over him holding this massive head with a hacked up neck with blood pouring out of it. You wouldn’t let your young child watch a movie like that would you? Then there is the cross, and the details of His death! Should we be translating the word of God by leaving things out of the story for the kids? I guess they just become bedtime stories like the others then.
Having said all that, I like where you are going with your next approach in looking at Jesus and working out with the kids how we can live out his values in our day to day lives.
Have you also considered using Godly Play wondering questions to get beyond the purely cognitive level of fact finding? i.e.
-- I wonder what you liked best in that story.
-- I wonder what the most important part of that story is.
-- I wonder where you are in this story or if there is anything in this story about you.
-- I wonder if we can leave out anything from this story and still have all the story we need.
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