I don’t know about you, but after Chris and I both work all day, take care of babies, cook supper, give baths, and *attempt* to clean up, we are basically just ready to lay down on the floor and fall asleep!! When you have little kids, adding one more thing to your to-to list at the end of the day can feel impossible! If you don’t already read the Bible with them, it might feel like adding another thing to your long list of to-dos…or just getting them to sit still and listen… won’t work. That’s why I want to share these three simple and practical ideas with you guys today about how to start talking to your kids about Jesus every day!
One thing we have always done with our girls since Jubilee was born is pray with them every night. It is one of those things that as a family, we always want to make a priority. When they were tiny babies, it was pretty easy! It wasn’t until Jubilee was about three that it became a little more challenging. Three year olds usually don’t want to hear you read from Genesis chapter 5. They get bored! (How do I have a kid that is old enough to actually be bored?!) One night at story time, Jubilee said, “Mommy, please not a Bible story” and after that we started thinking of ways to make our daily family devotion time more kid friendly and fun. We wanted her to see that the Bible was full of adventures and incredible stories! Here’s what we came up with:
- Let them pray. Instead of praying a long prayer, I just start with Dear Jesus, and then I let Jubilee finish. Needless to say, we pray for goats, chickens, a bunny that died two years ago, every single person she can think of in our family, the flowers in the yard, etc. Whenever she figured out that the longer she prays, the longer it is until she has to actually go to sleep, she became the world’s longest pray-er. The thing is, I don’t mind if she prays about everything that she can think of for as long as she possibly can. I think that it teaches her that Jesus is a friend. She can be comfortable with him and talk to him about her dog and her best friend. It teaches her that he is there and that she can talk to him about anything!
- Act out the Bible stories instead of reading them. This has been the BEST thing ever for our wild-child Jubilee. Instead of reading the story and making her sit still and listen, we let her actually act it out. She gets to choose who she wants to be in the story, and then she says her lines! My favorite one is when she acts out the story of Jesus calming the storm. First she is on the boat, which we make out of pillows and blankets in the living room. Then, the storm comes and we pretend like the boat is about to sink! Jubilee always chooses to be Jesus in the story and she loves to say, “Peace, be still!” so that the wind and the waves will calm down! Acting out the Bible stories is our favorite!
- Get a devotion book! This has been so much fun for all of us! We bought Our Daily Bread for Preschoolers this past summer since Jubilee was going into Preschool this year. We made a huge deal about how big girls get to read devotions every night and that this book wasn’t for babies… it was for PRESCHOOLERS! Needless to say, she loves it! I would definitely recommend it to anyone with 3 or 4 year old kids! We have been reading it every night before bed, and it really helps to have it on those days when you don’t feel like transforming your living room into a Bible story and doing a lot of theatrics!
Those are the three ways we teach our girls about the Bible every day! I hope these ideas encourage you to spend time teaching God’s word to your children every day. Bible time has really become something special in our house (especially when we do idea number 2) and we have made so many special memories!
With messy hair and wild grace,
Ellyn
