The Bible is a story. Why teaching the Bible as a story is good news for parents–and how paying attention to the main themes is faithful.
That can be a little intimidating when we talk about teaching the Bible to our children. We’re supposed to read that great big book with our little people?
How will they understand it? How will we explain it?
Wait! The Bible is a story …and that’s really great news for parents!
The Bible is a Story
Our kids are built for story. It’s the way God designed us. Not only did God design us, he designed the Bible as well!
It’s no surprise, then, that God gave us His Word in a format we naturally understand and love, as a story.
Scripture is comprised of 66 books in one volume, written by around 40 authors, and yet all of Scripture tells God’s story of his great plan of salvation for us. That’s because the Holy Spirit inspired each author of the Bible as they wrote, creating one cohesive narrative! So, while the Bible has many individual stories, every narrative works together to tell one big overarching story, written by God for our benefit.
Your kids won’t get to see the overarching story of the Bible unless you read it with them. And you can!
Reading the Bible as a Story is Good News for Parents!
Let’s talk about what it means to read the Bible as a story with our kids!
(Find more videos on teaching the Bible to your kids over at my YouTube channel!)
Tips for Teaching the Bible as a Story
- A book’s genre matters a lot to the story.
- God uses hero stories to move the main plot of Scripture forward.
- There are several main themes we should look for when reading the Bible.
- It’s important to know the difference between prescriptive and descriptive.
Reading the Bible as a story with our family takes a lot of the pressure off us. We can be confident God is leading us through the narrative he, himself, designed!
Learn more about Help Your Kids Learn & Love the Bible and get your FREE Bible Study Resources here.
The Bible Story in Your Home
As you teach the Bible to your kids, you can be confident that the Bible is a story that God wrote for us.
Scripture isn’t a cryptic series of puzzles. It’s a real story, grounded in actual time and space–in real history with smaller stories of real people.
The doctrine of Scripture tells us that the Bible is sufficient, clear, authoritative, and necessary.
You can read the Bible with your kids, and they’ll love hearing the stories of the people in God’s great story of salvation!
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. – Romans 15:4, ESV
Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible
You want your kids to learn and love the Bible.
You want to teach the Bible…
As parents, we deeply desire the best for our kids. We look for the right schools, we make them eat right and exercise, and we get them involved in extracurricular activities. We take our job as parents seriously.
But are we also putting our time and energy into
teaching them the Bible? Giving them the life-changing, soul-nourishing words of Scripture is not only doable, it’s an essential part of parenting kids for Jesus. And the good news is, studying God’s Word as a family doesn’t have to be difficult!
2 Timothy 2:15, ESV, says:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Our job, as parents who love Jesus, is to help our kids become approved workers, unashamed and rightly handling the word of truth.
The good news? Teaching the Bible isn’t hard. Your family can learn the Bible together.
…and you can!
A Crash Course in Teaching the Bible to Your Kids
Danika Cooley’s book, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, will give you the tools and confidence to study the Bible as a family. It will help you identify and overcome your objections and fears, give you a crash course in what the Bible is all about and how to teach it, and provide the guidance you need to set up a family Bible study habit.
You will finish this book feeling encouraged and empowered to initiate and strengthen your child’s relationship with the Lord through His Word.
Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible will equip you with everything you need to know to teach the Bible to your kids!
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