Teaching Scripture To Kids, Yours And Mine

Helping our kids learn, memorize, and apply God’s word is one of the most important things godly mothers and fathers can do. Teaching our kids scripture is a vital part of being a godly parent, and showing them the value we place on the Bible and a relationship with God will reap an eternal reward. My goal is to inspire and equip you to teach scripture to your kids in practical and simple ways.

We do so many things for our kids. We help them learn to read, write, add and subtract, play ball, cook, clean, and the list could go on, maybe even forever. Many of these things are very important, but very few of these things are truly eternal. As a children’s minister, I strive to empower my parents to lead their kids closer to Jesus. I ask myself, “What things do we teach our kids that are of eternal importance?” My answers may be similar to yours. My list below highlights things like teaching our kids to learn scripture, to love God and other people, to be respectful, and more.

While these things are the most essential in life and eternal life, sometimes we get busy, forget, “don’t have time,” or simply get distracted. Life happens laundry, ball practice, homework, getting dinner on the table, and arguing over simple things.

Often times the important gets pushed aside for the urgent

So how do we not lose focus?

You’ve tried devotional programs, and you’ve tried teaching your kids the Bible. You take your kids to church. You’ve started and got busy, and it never feels like it works. You feel worse every time you realize you had good intentions but didn’t follow through. So why start again? What makes this time any different? Teaching your kids scripture is hard, and you may not always realize its importance.

Don’t let yourself get distracted or discouraged.

As a parent, so much in this world wants your focus: school, sports, clubs, and friends. Church and God sometimes seem to easily fall to the bottom of the list.

So how do we not loose focus? By continually refocusing our eyes on God ourselves. When we keep our eyes on Him and His word thats how we stay focused on keeping our kids eyes on Him also.

One of my favorite songs (yes, I have a lot) says,

“When I get too busy, I lose priority
I do not find the time to get down on my knees
When my Bible goes untouched, I find a compromise
Let me go to Calvary as you open up my eyes…” (find full lyrics here)

I love this song because it hits so close to my reality. I get too busy. And my priorities get all out of wack. Then I need to reset, and only God can do that for me. Time with Him is my reset.

Keeping God first means I have to make choices that align with my priorities. Sometimes I must say no, even to good things, so that I can keep God first in my life. I can not let myself get too busy! And when I notice that I have, I have to cut something out!

Because God is more important than anything, even the good things, spending time with God is more important than doing things for God. My relationship with Him is what is most important, and it’s the thing that will teach my kids scripture the most because it’s then that I begin to live scripture out in my life.

We must remember the importance of the eternal.

There is nothing more important to teach our kids than the Word of God. When we hide it in their hearts, we know that the Holy Spirit will bring it back to their minds at just the right time. Through memory verses, through songs, and through teaching the stories of scripture, we plant seeds of faith, knowledge, and wisdom into the hearts of our kids. God will make those seeds grow into strong trees of faith.

He has promised that “Just as rain and snowfall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth,

making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, (11) so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it. (Isaiah 55: 10 -11)

Teaching our kids to memorize scripture, and to have a relationship with God, is the most important thing we can teach them.

In Deuteronomy 6, God instructs his people, saying,

(4) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. (5)And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (6)These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. (7)And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (8)Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. (9)Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

Consider the importance noted in this, directly after God says, “Keep me first,” he says, “be diligent in teaching your children my word.” Then He goes on to tell us how! How do we do this? We teach our kids scripture when we are at home and when we are out and about. We speak God’s Word to them when we lie down – at night and when we get up – in the morning. Place reminders everywhere (on your hands and on your forehead), surround yourself with the word of God, and include it in your home decor’ (on your doorpost and your gates); never be without it.

This doesn’t mean we teach our kids scripture by having a Bible app on our phones. We teach by making sure it is the most important thing in our lives.

BUT DON’T MISS THE BEAUTY IN THIS; TEACHING SCRIPTURE TO OUR KIDS GOD’S WAY KEEPS HIM AS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR LIVES.

How can you talk about God when you wake up in the morning, and when you get in your car to go to work or school, carry scripture in your pockets, place scripture around your house, read your Bible daily, and recite it as you go to sleep at night and not keep God first. You could, it may be possible, but you won’t. You won’t keep doing those things if God isn’t truly first. Teaching your kids God’s word: scripture is really about teaching ourselves to keep God as the most important thing in our lives.

IT’S NOT ABOUT PERFECTION; IT’S ABOUT GROWTH. – REMEMBER GRACE

That’s when you remember grace. Grace is not having to do it perfectly. Grace is knowing that every seed you sow in faith will reap a harvest.

There have been so many times when we have sowed seeds of faith that I feel like it didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. I’ve loved on kids, taking them into my home, and then they go back seemingly to exactly what they left. But I’m reminded, time and time again, that any seed we sow in eternal soil is good seed, and it will grow. We might not see it right now, but it will not return void if we sow good seed. Scripture is always good seed.

Keep sowing scripture.

IT’S IMPORTANT

Learn scripture together with your kids as you teach!

Learning scripture isn’t only something the kids need. It’s something we all need! Don’t let it become one more thing you are asking them to do. Do it together! Teach the whole family scripture, you and the kids. Choose a verse, and work to learn it yourself. As you learn it invite them to join you. See who can memorize it first, or who can remember it the longest. Do a family activity together to help remember the verse. Find memory verse activities here!

Identify one verse each week for the whole family to learn. Put up a whiteboard, or chalkboard, or even an easily changeable picture frame, and every Sunday after lunch (or whenever works for your family), change out the verse.

However you do it, do it together!

Make teaching scripture a part of your routine with your kids.

Make it a part of your routine. Creating any new routine can be hard, and it takes a lot of intentionality. But you can do it. Find natural times that work in your day and week. Look at your lifestyle and see when works best. Maybe you need to keep your verse in the car, and after everyone is buckled, recite the verse together and pray before going to ball practice or school or the grocery store. Put it by the TV, and before you turn it (or a gaming system) on reading and review the verse. Create a dry erase placemat, and have everyone in the family write the verse on theirs and make it beautiful. Write cards to a friend, neighbor, or shut-in and include the verse.

The point is to find what works for you. What fits in my life may not fit in your life. Be creative; there is no right or wrong. Just find a way to make it a regular part of your days.

When you lose track, start over.

We all lose track. We all get distracted. We get focused on teaching our kids multiplication instead of scripture. We get focused on simply getting from point A to point B. And somehow trying to make sure everything gets done. We will slip. But don’t stay down. When life starts to take over, notice, pause and remember the call of God to keep Him First! Then start again. Acknowledge to your kids that we’ve let it slide and haven’t been as good with it as we should. Remind them about the importance and ask them to help remind you! Let your kids teach you scripture, or pick out the next verse. Just because you didn’t do it yesterday, last week, last month, or even last year doesn’t mean that you can’t teach your kids and yourself scripture today.

How we do teach scripture (our routine) to our kids

(School day)

Get up, get ready, get breakfast, get in the car

On the way to school, we discuss the day ahead and read our memory verse and say it together (everyone), and then pray over their day with them.

After school, (again in the car) we check-in, how did the day go?

At home, during snack time we review the verse again, and do a worksheet of some kind with it on it (coloring sheet crossword, etc.) and we take some time together to practice saying what we can of the verse without looking. This is when we spend the most time on it. This is also a good opportunity to work with your kids one on one – while one kid is coloring or doing their worksheet the other is working with you to memorize the verse. If you have more kids they could work together. Having this repetition makes teaching and learning scripture easier for kids, and relieves the pressure of having to get it right the first time. let it be okay if they forget and don’t memorize it all at one time.

Then we have play/outside time and homework before dinner.

At the dinner table, we review old verses we have learned. and then this week’s verse.

Finally after bath and anything else we get to bedtime.

As the kids are in bed and we have spent some time recapping the day, we review the verse again, everyone together.

With kids who are home or on weekends, I would suggest also practicing your verse at lunchtime, and maybe during reading or art time to do something with the verse for the week.

THE THREAD THAT WEAVES THE DAY TOGETHER

All throughout the day, our Scripture verse is the thread that weaves everything together. We learn, talk about what it means and hide His word in our hearts. So that our heart beats for him.

Teaching scripture to our kids isn’t supposed to be hard or start arguments, it should be a natural part of all of our days. We include it in every conversation, it becomes the answer to most of the “why” questions we get. and they see us learning it with them and this empowers us to work together to draw near to Jesus.

What is your scripture memory schedule like? How do you incorporate it into your days?

Dont know where to start? Check out this post on Powerful Bible Verses for Kids To Memorise

---