5 Tips For Effective Family Bible Time Each Day
Do you ever get to the end of the day and wonder, what did I teach my child about God today??
Between wrestling them to get their shoes on, eat their dinner, and cleaned up form playing outside, it may not have even been a thought in your brain!
Trust me, I have been there too!
I want to let you in on these 5 helpful tips that will help you have effective family Bible time every day – even with little kids!
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I’m not going to lie, there are times when we would go days without even opening God’s Word or teaching our daughter about the Bible. And I am no exception to the guilt that comes with that!
Then there are the times when you do try and sit down to have an effective family Bible time, but keeping a toddler still is like trying to reign in a wild stallion!
You have your Bibles, videos, books, papers, all that you need to have this time learning about God together.
So why is it not working??
First, let’s look at why it’s SO important to have a daily family Bible time…
Why You NEED Daily Family Bible Time
First, I want you to know… daily family Bible time CAN be done!!
And more importantly, there isn’t an excuse not to do this! God has called us to be the primary “teachers” in our children’s lives. We can’t depend solely on their Sunday School teachers or even the Pastor to minister to their hearts.
It is our job as their parents to raise them in the Lord!
“Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
proverbs 22:6 NIV
And back to that whole mom-guilt thing; God offers us grace the same as we offer our children grace! He doesn’t want us to stay stuck in that place, but simply learn and do better next time.
5 Tips To Help With Family Bible Time
Before getting into these 5 tips, make sure you schedule family Bible time into your daily routines! When you start scheduling it into your everyday routine, it’ll become a habit for you & your kiddos.
I’ve also got a great sample family Bible time guide with 3 story summaries, questions, key points, and a simple prayer to pray!
With these things in mind, here are 5 tips to help you have effective family Bible time!
1. Have Bible Time Close To Bed Time
When we started scheduling family Bible time into our everyday routine, we had to make sure we did it at the right time. This was in the evenings right before the bedtime routine, or during!
Wait until after they’ve cleaned up, brushed their teeth, finished their bath, and let them “get out all their wiggles” while drying off! Dance, sing, run in circles… let them know this is their time to be silly and after that, it’s time to sit still and listen.
This is what I like to call the sweet spot. Your kids are wound up from playing all day, and having Bible time then helps them to relax and wind down before bed.
We tried doing Bible time right after dinner, and it was SO hard for our daughter to focus. We noticed a HUGE difference in how G slept each night when this became a part of our bedtime routine. It helped calm her down after playing all day and get her mind relaxed and ready for bed!
2. Keep Bible Stories Short
One reason family Bible time can seem impossible is because we try to read stories that are waaaaaay too long!
I’m not saying it isn’t important to dig deeper in God’s word with your child, and that is GREAT to do! But, I’ve learned that kids retain a lot more information in shorter spurts, rather than a long span of time in one sitting.
Keep the stories shorter, hitting key points that they will remember. Which leads me to tip number 3…
3. Have One Key Point To Remember
Something my husband and I do every Sunday, even before we had our daughter, was talk about our one takeaway from our Pastor’s sermon. One thought that stuck out to us the most, and that’s what we grabbed onto and remembered.
Think about it… when someone tells you a long story, do you remember every single detail? Not really! Usually, you remember one key point from what they said.
This is an excellent tool to use with your kids too, especially toddlers!
Come up with one sentence to summarize what they just learned and repeat that to them each time you talk about the story. They will learn to associate that with that story and then be able to understand and learn more as you dig deeper in the future!
4. Read The Same Story For 2-3 Days
This builds on my last point, but read the same story multiple days in a row.
Kids THRIVE on repetition!
They will remember a lot more with multiple days of learning the same take away/story/verse, and once they memorize that, move onto the next story!
In a few weeks, if you decide to revisit the original Bible story you talked about, you won’t be surprised that they will ACTUALLY remember. Repeating it a few times will help them retain that information. 🙂
One of my FAVORITE kid’s Bibles to read from is the Laugh & Grow Bible For Kids. It flows easily and sums up 52 different Bible stories when you want to dig a little deeper.
It’s also written by the creators of GoMinno, a FANTASIC kids’ Christian resource we have used for years!
5. Always Ask Questions/Encourage Them To Pray
Lastly and MOST importantly, ask your child story-related and non-story-related questions, and encourage them to pray to God!
Ask your child a couple of simple questions to help them remember key points in the story. For example, ask 1 or 2 specific to the Bible story and then a personal question, such as what they are thankful for, or what their favorite part was. Get them talking about what God has laid on their heart!
Then finally, let them pray. Have them repeat the key point/takeaway that they learned and then pray whatever is on their heart.
Kids receive the same Holy Spirit we do when they come to know Him! God speaks even to the littlest ones. 😉
When you take these 5 tips and apply them to your daily family Bible time, I can almost guarantee that you will see a difference!
I’ve even got a little something to help you get started… my FREE Family Bible Time Mini-Guide will help guide you and allow you to dig into the Bible together as a family!
You’ll get THREE done-for-you stories each with a summary, key point, questions, and simple prayer! Save time and stress trying to come up with a Bible Time routine to follow with this done-for-you guide!!
Feel free to go through the Bible story included and use the questions with it or any other Bible reading you do as well. 🙂
Print as many as you need or use it digitally on the go!
Simply CLICK HERE to grab your free Family Bible Time Mini-Guide!
It really is so important to schedule our spiritual commitments into our day, otherwise they get pushed aside. I love the printables too, so cute for kids!
Definitely! When we have it written down it helps keep us more accountable to it! Aww thank you, I’m so glad you love them! 🙂
I love this post! And it’s right in time for my family. My son is 2 and it’s time to teach him about God, but I’m at a loss on how since we’re not going to church with social distancing and he isn’t the type that will sit and watch a virtual session. I’ll check out your Bible Time Guide, thank for sharing!
I am so glad this post was helpful! It is super hard to get kids to sit and watch something, and I feel like they learn more from talking and interacting with us! Let me know how you all like the guide 🙂 Thank you for your comment!!
Love these ideas!! Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you love them! Thank you for your kind words! 🙂
My daughter is only two right now but I love the thought of incorporating it into bedtime routine to help wind her down while teaching her about God!
Oh yes! That is the perfect age to start! It helps my daughter calm down and she looks forward to it now. 🙂 The family Bible time guide is a great beginning point too! Thanks for your comment!!