Do you ever struggle with how to study the Bible at home with your family?
I mean, should you even do it? What if you get it wrong? What if you really don’t know how to study the Bible at home with your kids?
What if you haven’t even read the Bible yourself? Isn’t that what church and Sunday school are for–so they can tell you what the Bible means?
Study the Bible?
According to a fall 2016 study by Lifeway with a sample size of 1000 Americans, 11% of Americans have read the Bible once and 9% of Americans have read the Bible more than once.
Not quite 1 out of 10 Americans have read the Bible all the way through two times.
The Barna Group conducted an American Bible Society survey of American adults (The State of the Bible, 2013). The findings? 100% of Protestant adults say there’s a Bible in their home. Two thirds of Protestant adults report reading the Bible several times a week. Yet, one third of those couldn’t identify the first five books of the Bible, half identified John the Baptist as an apostle, and a quarter didn’t know Paul’s original name.
Most of us don’t really know God’s Word.
It’s OK if you haven’t read through the Bible, either on your own or as a family. You can do it. You should do it. If you’re a disciple of Jesus Christ, you’re commanded to do it. Let’s talk about how.
How to Study the Bible at Home
When I really came to understand that I was not only supposed to study the Bible at home, but also teach it to my kids, I had a minor panic attack. I mean, I’d never read the Bible all the way through. How was I supposed to teach it? What if I got it wrong? I had read portions of the Bible a number of times. But the prophetic books? Not really.
That was over 15 years ago. I didn’t go to school for a Master’s degree in theology (though I sure considered it!), but I did take the call to disciple seriously. First, I had to educate myself. Today I write about the Bible for hundreds of thousands of kids. Isn’t life funny?
I’m going to give you three steps that will allow you to study the Bible at home with your family. Listen to this video–or read below.
Grab your FREE Bible Study Tool Kit–over 130 pages of Bible resources for your family!
Study the Bible at Home
1) Read the Bible. The Whole Bible.
Nothing beats knowing Scripture yourself. Did you know that if you read 12 pages a day from a non-study Bible you can read from Genesis to Revelation in 90 days?
You can read the whole Bible through in 90 days by reading roughly 45 minutes a day if you’re a slower reader like me. What can you give up for a half-hour or so a day? Do you watch television? Can you go to bed a little later or get up a little earlier?
As you read, look for the major themes of the story and pay attention to what the Bible tells you about God’s nature.
Done reading? Read it again. The only way to really study something is to go through it.
Need a little help approaching the Bible with your kids? Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible is your crash course to teaching the Bible to your kids!
The Word of Promise Audio Bible: New King James Version
The NIV Listener’s Audio Bible: Vocal Performance by Max McLeanNIV LIVE, Audio CD: A New Bible ExperienceHoly Bible (King James Version)NIV, Audio Bible, Dramatized, Audio CD
2) Study the Bible.
We parents are pretty busy people. But most of us have some time in the day we can listen to a sermon or lecture.
Do you commute to the kids’ school, to work, or to run errands? Do you make dinner? What about the time you spend getting showered and dressed, or your exercise time?
I use those times to listen. I started out listening to our local sermon station on the radio. Not every city has a sermon station, but you can find great resources on the internet. There are great resources available, too, to help you learn more about the Bible systematically, and as you have questions.
- Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible will help you understand the overall structure and message of the Bible–and how to stay on track as you study the Bible with your kids!
- Sermon Audio is an incredible resource. It has over 800,000 free sermons available. You can search by topic, speaker, Bible reference, or date. Alistair Begg, RC Sproul, Paul Washer, Voddie Baucham, CH Spurgeon, and John MacArthur are some of my favorite preachers to listen to.
- GotQuestions.org can be a great place to look for answers to your questions about the Bible.
- Ligonier Ministries is another great place to look for guidance. They have daily resources available for a donation of any amount, $5 Fridays, and free resources as well. In fact, Ligonier’s Crucial Questions series is free in ebook format. There are 20 books available covering basic topics. These are great to share with your older students, and a terrific way to educate yourself.
- I suggest you get yourself a great study Bible as well, and maybe some commentaries. Look up referenced verses from the category you’re reading. Check out what the notes say about the passage you’re stuck on. Look up the geography and history of the place and period you’re reading about. Slow down and really understand what you’re reading.
Help Your Kids Learn and Love the BibleESV Study BibleNIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of ScriptureThe KJV Study Bible (Bonded Leather) (King James Bible)Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies)Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian Survey (Encountering Biblical Studies)Crossway ESV Bible Atlas
3) Teach the Bible.
One of the best ways to learn is to teach. I suggest using a curriculum and being systematic about your study.
In our family, we study using Bible Road Trip™ in the mornings and my husband reads a chapter (usually Proverbs or the Psalms) to us at dinner every night. Easy, right? My kids have been through the Bible several time, and through Proverbs about a gajillion times.
Teaching will help you learn as you go. You’ll be solidifying what you learned in your study, and digging deeper to be certain you get it right!
Need an overall game plan? Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible will give you a solid plan to study the Bible as a family.
Studying the Bible is a lifetime pursuit, and there’s no better time to start than today. Knowing God’s Word well will help you feel confidant as you teach your own children what Scripture says — and what it means.
Bible Curriculum for Your Kids
Bible Road Trip™ CurriculumLearn More HereBible Road Trip™ Memory Verse CardsBuy HereBible Road Trip™ Notebooking JournalsBuy Here
Teach Your Kids the Bible with Bible Road Trip™
Bible Road Trip™ is a three-year Bible survey curriculum. Take your family through the Bible five times from preschool to high school.
To help you get the most out of your studies, Bible Road Trip™ has an array of coordinating weekly activities:
- Researching the section of the Bible you’re studying
- Reading and discussing the Bible
- Memorizing Scripture
- Notebooking about your studies
- Praying for the nations
- Suggestions for further study
- Crafting about what you’ve learned
- For your older students: A project to share what they’ve learned
- Bible Road Trip™ also has some great tools you can use along with it, such as:
- Notebooking Journals for grades 1-9. Want a structured notebooking journal for high school? Don’t hesitate to use the Dialectic journal (grades 7-9).
- Bible Memory Card Sets for all five levels of study, preschool to high school. These are available in both ESV and KJV.
Grab your Bible Road Trip™ Year One Sample Pack. You’ll get:
- The Bible Road Trip™ Parent / Teacher Guide.
- The first three weeks of the curriculum for all five learning levels. Week Three is where we really dive into the Bible and begin to our systematic study. Week Three will give you a good feel for the rest of the curriculum.
- The first three weeks of the Bible Memory Card sets for all five levels, in ESV and KJV.
- The first three weeks of each of the three leveled Notebooking Journals.
Grab the Sample Pack for FREE:
Disciple your kids by taking your family through the Bible together in a meaningful way!
Grab the Spiritual Disciplines Calendar to go with your Daily Devotions for Kids Calendar!
Your kids will develop a habit of daily Bible reading, Scripture memorization, and prayer in a fun, hands–on way!
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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Thank you, Danika, for providing resources and encouragement to take in our spiritual food in order to grow, just like we take in our physical food to grow! I’m excited to try Bible Road Trip with my high school age children!