Isaac, Anna, and I read through the Bible together for the first time in 2015. Isaac was eight when we began; Anna was six. I was amazed that they had the patience for such a long project! It was great dad-and-kids time: we snuggled together on my bed and I read aloud to them, editing the adult-content portions for young ears.
We actually started more simply. My wife, Jenny, had already read through the Bible several times herself and was now teaching herself Hebrew in the hope of reading through the entire Old Testament in its original language (which she has now accomplished). I, after a few failed attempts to read the whole bible (just in English) in my 20s, had finally succeeded three or four times; the kids often saw me reading alone for twenty minutes in the evening or, on warm weekends, in the afternoon sun. In December 2014, I decided to read through the Gospel of Luke in preparation for preaching from it in January. On a whim, I asked the kids whether they would like to read it with me. Naomi, our oldest (ten at the time), as I expected, declined: group reading is not her style. But Isaac and Anna surprised me. Not only did they listen as I read the entire book of Luke, four chapters a night, but when we finished, they wanted to keep going—so we read the Gospel of Mark. We enjoyed that reading so much that I asked whether they might like to read the whole Bible with me in 2015. The rest is history. We read it chronologically that year and in 2016 and 2017, then Genesis-to-Revelation in 2018. This year we're back to reading chronologically. Each year we've changed something. The first year, I read to them. Since then, we've taken turns reading together. In 2015, I read from the NIV. In 2016 and 2017, we all read from the NIV's rephrasing for kids, the New International Readers Version (NIrV). That was a good fit for my kids' reading level. By last year, though, their reading level had advanced enough that we decided to read from the NIV together; we came across a few words that I had to explain, but overall the kids understood it well. As we read, we generally took turns reading a story at a time; when we came to a new section heading, we would trade off. Last year, though, we tried reading by "voices": in Genesis, for example, one person would read the narrator's part, one of us would be Abraham, one would be the angels, etc. Anna took all the girls' parts for herself, and we divided up the rest among the three of us. We enjoyed that style of reading so much that, coming into 2019, I charted out all the "voices" in the entire Bible, and we divided them up among ourselves so that, throughout the Bible, God's voice will always be read by Isaac, I will read for Paul, Anna again gets all the girls, etc. So far, it's been a fun way to read! So, what about Naomi? I never was able to persuade her to read with us, but not to worry—she read through the entire Bible on her own this year...in four months! As for Jenny, she continues to read the Bible in English, Spanish, Hebrew, and Greek. And I'm working through the New Testament in Greek, in addition to reading with Isaac and Anna. In all of this, we've learned a lot of lessons, from how to introduce kids to reading straight from the Bible to how to keep up our reading even on vacation to when not to push the kids to read. Much of what we've learned is (or will be soon) posted on this site for the benefit of other families who want to read the Bible together. I hope our adventures in Bible-reading will be an inspiration and that the tools and tips we offer will be useful. God has blessed us richly through this whole process, growing our kids in biblical knowledge and its goal, spiritual maturity. Now that I've shared our story, share yours! Comment below, and tell us where you're at in reading the Bible with your kids: the joys, the struggles, and the adventures.
0 Comments
|
AuthorKevin Jensen is husband to Jenny, father of three, preaching minister, avid baseball fan, amateur writer, hiker, gardener, and aspiring Jedi. He loves reading and teaching from the Bible. ArchivesCategories |