Joshua Thompson | Kids Pastor, FBC Loganville
Introduction:
Going on a trip by yourself can be difficult. Going on a trip with kids can be nearly impossible. You must make sure that both you and your children have what’s needed. You have to accommodate your pace and attitude to help deal with the one thousand and one things that kids will throw at you from unexpected games of twenty (million annoying) questions to emotional outbursts. These difficulties can make any trip that was supposed to be filled with pleasant memories into one that you cannot wait to forget. Unfortunately, this experience can describe what parents and leaders go through as they seek to lead kids through the Bible.
As glorious of a book that the Bible is, there are times when parents find it near impossible to use it to disciple their kids to come to the knowledge and love of Jesus. Yet, this does not have to be the case as you seek to navigate the Bible with your kids. In fact, there are at least three steps you can take to start using the Bible to disciple your kids today.
Step 1: Use Your Bible as the Guide
There is a temptation to think that because the Bible can be such an intimidating book, what’s best for our child is to use a children’s book or Bible story to teach our kids about Jesus. Admittedly, there are many great resources for kids that do a wonderful job at exposing kids to the message of the gospel and explaining who God is. These are resources that every family should have in their home. However, even the best of these resources fall short in comparison to the Bible, because inspiring resources can never replace inspired Scripture.
Both 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20–21 make it clear that every part of Scripture, even the difficult parts, were brought about supernaturally by God Himself. This means that He, not man, is the primary author responsible for producing the Scriptures. This is a significant claim, because this means that the holy, triune God intentionally revealed Himself to sinful man in a way that allows them to know Him! When Scripture speaks, God Himself speaks. Therefore, if we truly desire for our kids to learn about the God of the Bible, we must make a point to expose them to the actual revelation of God in the Bible and not just settle for resources.
Step 2: Take the Simple Route
The Bible contains many fascinating and perplexing parts. This wonderful variety creates opportunities for kids to ask you hard questions. As you attempt to explain the answers to these questions, it’s easy to feel lost, overwhelmed, frustrated, and defeated. When these feelings set in, it is tempting to give up and either outsource the problem to your pastor(s), just use biblical resources that give limited exposure to Scripture, or simply avoid using the Bible altogether and just depend on prayer and good sayings to lead your kids to Jesus. When strategies like these are used to avoid the Bible instead of using the Bible, kids will miss out on what is best for them.
To help avoid these feelings and settling for these actions, there are some simple routes and strategies that you can use to lead your kids to grow in their understanding and love for God through the Bible.
1. Prepare yourself by reading ahead of your kids. By reading ahead of your kids, you will have the opportunity to wrestle with any difficulties that might present themselves. Also, you know best what will and will not draw the attention of your kids. When you see those things in the text you are reading, you will be able to think with better clarity ahead of time than in the moment on how to best explain the passage to your kids.
2. Seek to use simple explanations for difficult things. It’s become popular to see videos on social media of experts in difficult fields of study explaining difficult concepts to people who are fifty-five, fifteen, and even five years old. This is a strategy that parents should adopt when explaining Scripture to their kids.
Take for example the account of 2 Samuel 11, infamously known for King David’s sinful actions with Bathsheba. In this passage, David sins in many ways: he lusts after another man’s wife, he engages in sinful sexual activity with her, he engages in sinful deception, and ultimately commits mass murder in an attempt to cover up his sin.
When explaining this to an adult and even teens, you can use language that is direct and clear. However, it can be a daunting task trying to guide kids through this passage. Yet, using the strategy of simplicity, even kids can learn about these things and walk away learning more about God.
Here are some ways to explain what happened in 2 Samuel 11 to kids:
3. Pay attention to the terms you use in your descriptions. There is a difference in saying that “A group of Coccinellidae (Coc·ci·nel·li·dae) swarmed around me” versus “A group of ladybugs swarmed around me.” One term is the accurate scientific name and the other the more common name.
This method can be used when teaching kids the Bible. There is a difference in saying “Rahab the prostitute” verses saying “Rahab, a gentle sinner.” Both terms are true of Rahab, both give an accurate depiction of her, and both allow her to be presented in the way God intended for her to be seen in His Word.
Step 3: Set the Course to Jesus
Though our Bible comes packaged in one single volume, it is a book that contains sixty-six separate books written by over forty inspired human authors over a time of fifteen hundred years. By its nature, the Bible can be difficult to navigate by oneself, let alone lead our kids through it. However, because God knows what we need to properly handle His Word and lead our kids through it, He has given us a clear destination that we should head toward in interpreting Scripture with our kids: the Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke 24:21 and Acts 10:43 make it clear that the Bible’s main focus is to reveal the glorious nature of the triune God by focusing on the person, life, and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. This does not mean that every single verse in the Bible oozes revelation about Jesus. However, what is does mean is that every one of the sixty-six books in some way reveals Jesus to us so that we who believe become more like Him.
This means that as we navigate the Bible with our kids, our goal should be teaching them how all of Scripture, from the genealogies of Genesis to the radical imagery of Revelation, is able to teach us more about who Jesus is and what He has done for the world. When we have this mindset, it changes how we approach the Bible for the better. Work with your kids on memorizing the books of the Bible, marvel at the miracles God performed with your kids, and teach them about the important moral truths found in Scripture. However, in all these things, never forget to keep knowing and loving Christ as the aim for why you use the Bible with your kids.
Conclusion:
There is no denying that the Bible can be difficult to use with our kids. However, we must remember that there are no accidents or mistakes with God. He purposefully intended for the Bible to be written knowing that it would be impossible to understand it on our own. Instead, what He has always intended is that we would, by faith, rely on His grace and Spirit to make the truth of Scripture a vital source of growth for not only ourselves but also our kids.
Therefore, we should not view the Bible as something we occasionally visit with our kids as if it were a vacation spot. Instead, God intended for us to see the Bible as an environment that we are constantly exploring with our kids. Through this process of exploration of the Bible, a miraculous transformation occurs because through exposure to the voice of God and thoughtful explanation of His Word, we grow in our exaltation of Jesus Christ.
Going on a trip by yourself can be difficult. Going on a trip with kids can be nearly impossible. You must make sure that both you and your children have what’s needed. You have to accommodate your pace and attitude to help deal with the one thousand and one things that kids will throw at you from unexpected games of twenty (million annoying) questions to emotional outbursts. These difficulties can make any trip that was supposed to be filled with pleasant memories into one that you cannot wait to forget. Unfortunately, this experience can describe what parents and leaders go through as they seek to lead kids through the Bible.
As glorious of a book that the Bible is, there are times when parents find it near impossible to use it to disciple their kids to come to the knowledge and love of Jesus. Yet, this does not have to be the case as you seek to navigate the Bible with your kids. In fact, there are at least three steps you can take to start using the Bible to disciple your kids today.
Step 1: Use Your Bible as the Guide
There is a temptation to think that because the Bible can be such an intimidating book, what’s best for our child is to use a children’s book or Bible story to teach our kids about Jesus. Admittedly, there are many great resources for kids that do a wonderful job at exposing kids to the message of the gospel and explaining who God is. These are resources that every family should have in their home. However, even the best of these resources fall short in comparison to the Bible, because inspiring resources can never replace inspired Scripture.
Both 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20–21 make it clear that every part of Scripture, even the difficult parts, were brought about supernaturally by God Himself. This means that He, not man, is the primary author responsible for producing the Scriptures. This is a significant claim, because this means that the holy, triune God intentionally revealed Himself to sinful man in a way that allows them to know Him! When Scripture speaks, God Himself speaks. Therefore, if we truly desire for our kids to learn about the God of the Bible, we must make a point to expose them to the actual revelation of God in the Bible and not just settle for resources.
Step 2: Take the Simple Route
The Bible contains many fascinating and perplexing parts. This wonderful variety creates opportunities for kids to ask you hard questions. As you attempt to explain the answers to these questions, it’s easy to feel lost, overwhelmed, frustrated, and defeated. When these feelings set in, it is tempting to give up and either outsource the problem to your pastor(s), just use biblical resources that give limited exposure to Scripture, or simply avoid using the Bible altogether and just depend on prayer and good sayings to lead your kids to Jesus. When strategies like these are used to avoid the Bible instead of using the Bible, kids will miss out on what is best for them.
To help avoid these feelings and settling for these actions, there are some simple routes and strategies that you can use to lead your kids to grow in their understanding and love for God through the Bible.
1. Prepare yourself by reading ahead of your kids. By reading ahead of your kids, you will have the opportunity to wrestle with any difficulties that might present themselves. Also, you know best what will and will not draw the attention of your kids. When you see those things in the text you are reading, you will be able to think with better clarity ahead of time than in the moment on how to best explain the passage to your kids.
2. Seek to use simple explanations for difficult things. It’s become popular to see videos on social media of experts in difficult fields of study explaining difficult concepts to people who are fifty-five, fifteen, and even five years old. This is a strategy that parents should adopt when explaining Scripture to their kids.
Take for example the account of 2 Samuel 11, infamously known for King David’s sinful actions with Bathsheba. In this passage, David sins in many ways: he lusts after another man’s wife, he engages in sinful sexual activity with her, he engages in sinful deception, and ultimately commits mass murder in an attempt to cover up his sin.
When explaining this to an adult and even teens, you can use language that is direct and clear. However, it can be a daunting task trying to guide kids through this passage. Yet, using the strategy of simplicity, even kids can learn about these things and walk away learning more about God.
Here are some ways to explain what happened in 2 Samuel 11 to kids:
- Instead of saying David engaged in sexual activity with Bathsheba, explain that David sinned by acting with Bathsheba as if she was his wife even though she was not.
- Instead of saying that David and Bathsheba had an unplanned pregnancy that is a consequence of their sin, explain to your kids that even though babies are a blessing, David and Bathsheba’s actions to bring about that blessing were sinful.
- Instead of getting caught up on David’s lying and murderous actions, put the focus on how covering up sin negatively impacts the sinner and those sinned against, and it displeases the Lord.
3. Pay attention to the terms you use in your descriptions. There is a difference in saying that “A group of Coccinellidae (Coc·ci·nel·li·dae) swarmed around me” versus “A group of ladybugs swarmed around me.” One term is the accurate scientific name and the other the more common name.
This method can be used when teaching kids the Bible. There is a difference in saying “Rahab the prostitute” verses saying “Rahab, a gentle sinner.” Both terms are true of Rahab, both give an accurate depiction of her, and both allow her to be presented in the way God intended for her to be seen in His Word.
Step 3: Set the Course to Jesus
Though our Bible comes packaged in one single volume, it is a book that contains sixty-six separate books written by over forty inspired human authors over a time of fifteen hundred years. By its nature, the Bible can be difficult to navigate by oneself, let alone lead our kids through it. However, because God knows what we need to properly handle His Word and lead our kids through it, He has given us a clear destination that we should head toward in interpreting Scripture with our kids: the Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke 24:21 and Acts 10:43 make it clear that the Bible’s main focus is to reveal the glorious nature of the triune God by focusing on the person, life, and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. This does not mean that every single verse in the Bible oozes revelation about Jesus. However, what is does mean is that every one of the sixty-six books in some way reveals Jesus to us so that we who believe become more like Him.
This means that as we navigate the Bible with our kids, our goal should be teaching them how all of Scripture, from the genealogies of Genesis to the radical imagery of Revelation, is able to teach us more about who Jesus is and what He has done for the world. When we have this mindset, it changes how we approach the Bible for the better. Work with your kids on memorizing the books of the Bible, marvel at the miracles God performed with your kids, and teach them about the important moral truths found in Scripture. However, in all these things, never forget to keep knowing and loving Christ as the aim for why you use the Bible with your kids.
Conclusion:
There is no denying that the Bible can be difficult to use with our kids. However, we must remember that there are no accidents or mistakes with God. He purposefully intended for the Bible to be written knowing that it would be impossible to understand it on our own. Instead, what He has always intended is that we would, by faith, rely on His grace and Spirit to make the truth of Scripture a vital source of growth for not only ourselves but also our kids.
Therefore, we should not view the Bible as something we occasionally visit with our kids as if it were a vacation spot. Instead, God intended for us to see the Bible as an environment that we are constantly exploring with our kids. Through this process of exploration of the Bible, a miraculous transformation occurs because through exposure to the voice of God and thoughtful explanation of His Word, we grow in our exaltation of Jesus Christ.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joshua Thompson
Joshua serves as the kids pastor at FBC Loganville. He, his wife Meagan, and their four children have been at FBC Loganville since 2021. He is passionate about leading kids and their parents by teaching them how to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ as faithful followers. Joshua enjoys spending time with his family, playing ultimate frisbee, learning, and playing piano.