In our home, we each have our own quiet time in The Word and prayer when we get up in the morning. But we also have a time together in The Word in the evenings. I truly believe a daily family Bible time is so important. Today, I thought I would share with you how we have our daily family Bible time. It is really enjoyable to do, and I believe anyone can do this.
We all sit together in the living room where we are comfortable, each with our own Bibles (for the ones old enough to read). Sometimes I will allow the children who aren’t old enough to read yet to color or look at a Bible story book while we have our study.
Each person who is old enough to read has a different night in which they open up our study with prayer, asking for the Lord to teach us in His Word. Then this person whose turn it is reads the first two verses of the chapter we are on. (Right now we are studying Matthew). We continue clockwise around the room with the next person reading two verses, and so on. We do not rush, and pause sometimes for reflection, discussion, and/or questions. We continue around the room until we have completed the chapter. Sometimes, if the little ones want to, we will let them have a “turn” by saying a verse that they repeat after us. We like to use a study Bible to help if their are any verses we are struggling to understand. We use Matthew Henry Study Bibles
children share their thoughts on the answer. You might be surprised at
what they are already learning!
When we are done reading, the person whose night it is, shares with us their favorite verse from the chapter, reads it, and explains why it is their favorite. (Everyone is supposed to be looking for their favorite verse while we read). They then pick a person next to them, either to their right or their left, to share their favorite verse next. Then we continue around the room, sharing our favorite verse for the night.
After this, we have a time of confession. This part is something new we are implementing, but I sure think it has been helpful to us. If we remember that we have wronged another member of the family during the day, and have yet to apologize and ask for forgiveness, we do it at this time. Even the little ones (even my two year old!) realize things they did wrong and will say they are sorry.
After confession time, the person whose night it is picks a hymn or other worship song for us to sing. We would really like to get a hymnal, but for now we just have a couple of small Christian piano books that we can choose a song from. Then we all sing together and worship the Lord. This doesn’t have to be very long–we usually only sing a couple of verses.
Finally, we always strive to have a time of prayer after this. When we are short on time, I tell the children they can only have one turn for praying. Otherwise, they will go back and forth and pray many times, which we don’t have time for every night, but still do when we can.
I hope this gives you some ideas for your family Bible time. Remember, it doesn’t need to be perfect–it just needs to happen!
