The most recent educational video sermon, "Passing on Our Faith to Our Children," was given in all congregations last year. That message explained the importance of us parents imparting God's truth to our children through Bible study, prayer and conversation. This article addresses the specifics of reading the Bible to our children.

At what age should we start reading the Scriptures to our children? God's Word should be an important and natural part of life from very early childhood on.

We expect small children to grow up learning songs, stories, the names of colors and the sounds animals make. Why not take advantage of the incredible, spongelike learning capacity of a small child and start planting the most important information of all—God's instructions—within them?

Following are some ideas for effectively reading Scripture to your children:

1. Make it an important, daily activity.

Children are highly adaptive to new routines and habits, but repetition and consistency are the key. A regularly scheduled, daily activity becomes part of their normal, comfortable routine of life.

How much time should we spend per session? A wise parent will find the balance in setting a time period that is neither unreasonably long, nor so short that it gives the impression God's Word is a low priority in our day. For comparison, how long can a preschooler sit to watch a television show or hear a story read to them? How long can an elementary-age child sit to listen to a teacher in a classroom or read a book?

2. Read from the Bible.

There are many good materials to read, but ultimately there is no substitute for the Bible itself. You cannot go wrong by starting in Genesis and reading on through the Bible. Alternate methods are also fine, such as alternating books from the Old Testament and New Testament (Genesis, Matthew, Exodus, Mark, etc.).

For young children, consider skipping over long lists such as genealogies, or briefly summarizing them. You may also want to paraphrase some passages, putting them into your own words in simple language your child can understand, instead of reading the text as written.

Proverbs can be read through multiple times, since it was written specifically for youth. Reading from this book could be interspersed through the year. Perhaps every Monday's reading session could be a chapter or two in Proverbs. In that way you'll review the book over and over through the months and years. Or you could take two weeks to go through Proverbs, twice a year.

Another idea is to read one chapter of Proverbs each day before continuing your ongoing chapters of Bible reading. (Since there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, you could even read the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month).

3. Have children join in reading when they learn to read.

Everyone who can read could read a few verses each, taking turns throughout the reading session. Beginning readers might be given just a verse or two each turn. Better readers can read more verses per turn.

Whenever your child learns to read, consider presenting him or her with a Bible of his or her own. In order for our children to learn the Bible and become familiar and comfortable with handling it, studying it and using it, they need to have one. It should be a true Bible, not a pseudo-Bible or children's storybook-type volume. It should contain all the same scriptures a regular Bible has.

An example of a good starter Bible would be the International Children's Bible, New Century Version. Each verse is reworded (paraphrased) in short sentences with a third-grade vocabulary, easy for younger children to comprehend. It is a good choice for children just starting to read, through about third or fourth grade.

As they become more proficient readers, it is time to advance to a Bible such as the New King James Version, which is an excellent choice for a study Bible. Thumb tabs are also very helpful for children to find books faster.

4. Plan ahead to add interest.

Do a few minutes of "homework" of your own before each reading session. Some ideas to bring into the reading session of the day include:

• Comment on the scriptures. Your reading will become much more effective as you add your own comments to the passages you read. Ask questions to make them think (this is important). Make up a little story that gets a point across. Act out the scenario. Anything you add along these lines is well worth the effort.
• Pictures. As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Some Bible resource books (Bible dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, etc.) contain some good diagrams or pictures. A word of caution regarding pictures, however: A child's mind is very impressionable and a picture can stick in the mind for a long time. With this in mind, we should avoid using certain pictures such as those that depict Christ with long hair, for example.
• Props. Props are a great teaching aid. For Proverbs 11:1, you could bring a balance scale (even a homemade model) and some weights (such as checkers or clay pieces) and illustrate the lesson God is giving in this verse. For Genesis, you could construct a model of Noah's ark; and for Exodus 25 through 31, a model of the tabernacle.
• Make a time line. Starting with the beginning of the Bible have your child start a time line of the sequence of the major events you are reading about through the Bible. You could provide a short roll of fax paper or sheets of graph paper taped together to make a continuous time line that can be rolled up or folded.
• Have your child memorize important scriptures. "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children" (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

The word translated here as "teach" is the Hebrew word shanan, which means to sharpen, whet, teach (incisively), pierce or inculcate. The intent of the word shanan includes reading, repeating and reviewing the scriptures in order to etch them deeply in the mind.

Memorizing is a normal part of life for a child—from the alphabet to nursery rhymes to state capitals. It should be a normal part of life to memorize the most important information of all—God's words.

Important Themes to Reinforce While Reading

There are many important concepts we need to impart to our children from the Bible. But because of our understanding of our calling, there are some we need to especially emphasize as we read through the Scriptures.

1. Our children have an invitation from God.

They have a special invitation to be part of God's coming Kingdom (Acts 2:39; 1 Corinthians 7:14). This is a great honor; others will not receive this invitation until after Christ returns. God revealed to us His truth and plan, which most others cannot yet understand.

We are expected to live differently than the rest of the world lives and set a good example to them. It is only natural that in many ways we will be different from our peers in school and society. Reinforcing this concept will greatly help our children in resisting negative peer pressure as they grow older, and will help them embrace convictions as their own.

2. "Fear God and keep His commandments" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The world around us is becoming irreverent and opposed to the God of the Bible. Many don't even believe God exists. We should review often that God is the Creator of everything, and talk often about the marvels of His creative genius. The time to start impressing the reality of our Creator God and the fallacies of evolution is before your child is bombarded with evolutionary ideas in the world and public school system.

We owe our Creator great respect, and we must carefully do whatever He tells us to do. God's laws should become as familiar as the ABCs and names of colors to our children. Knowing the Ten Commandments and annual Holy Days in order is fundamental. As with learning any important subject, repetition and review are key to imbedding it deeply into long-term memory.

3. The Kingdom of God.

We all need vision to stay focused in our calling and living God's laws. The perpetual question on a child's mind is, "Why?" "Why should we try so hard to keep God's laws?" "Why should we resist peer pressure?" "Why do we have trials?" As parents, we need to continually keep the bright future painted before our child's eyes (similar to the proverbial carrot held before the donkey's eyes that kept him going forward).

Talk about every aspect of God's Kingdom—often! Spend time on prophecies about the Millennium, and go into vivid detail in any way possible. Talk about the animals being changed, what life might be like in a town in the Millennium, how they will be teaching others, how everyone will go to church on the Sabbath, how there will be no more wars, hunger, crime, pollution, etc.

4. End-time prophecies.

As our children grow older, they also need to learn what God says will be happening in the end time. End-time prophecies should not outweigh Kingdom of God prophecies in our emphasis, but we must include them and discuss them in detail as our children become old enough to grasp the concepts. We don't want our children to become deceived in the future, as the rest of the world will be. They need to know what is coming to be forewarned and further convicted to commit their life to God rather than be part of the world.

As the Twig Is Bent, So Grows the Tree

One thing that any of us parents will agree on is that our children grow up too fast! Before we know it, the little sapling has become a tree. People train trees with anchors and wire or other such means to nudge the young tree to grow in the right direction. But for this to work, the training must be a daily force on the tree, not an occasional one. God has charged us as parents with the responsibility to train the growth of our children in the right direction—God's direction.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). Reading God's Word to our children is a vital part of shaping the minds and hearts of our children for the future—not only for the end-time events that already are on the horizon, but for taking their place in the Kingdom of God. UN