Reading the Bible with your children

I recently posted a picture on Facebook of Joshua and I (with Leoni joining in) reading the Bible together one Friday afternoon after work. A few days later, I was speaking with a friend who commented to me how they loved the idea of reading the Bible with their children but wouldn’t know how to do it or where on earth to begin.

I am convinced that reading the Bible with our children is not only the main way of bringing our children up to know and follow Jesus, but is also really easy and straightforward (certainly once you have done it a couple of times and overcome the initial uncertainty of what you are doing). And so I’ve written down some brief thoughts on why we should read the Bible with our children and how to go about actually doing it.

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Faith and Family

Why honouring and obeying parents is a good idea

We live in a cultural context where children are increasingly being allowed not to honour and obey their parents (or anyone else for that matter). For instance, I know of only one or two secondary schools where good behaviour is to be expected and not rewarded. In the majority of secondary schools nowadays it is the opposite. Good behaviour is not expected and so it is rewarded. The distinction is subtle yet has massive implications.

In the fifth week of our sermon series on Faith and Family, we looked at the role of children in our families and saw that Children are to live in the image of Jesus, who loves and obeys his heavenly father (and showed this by loving and obeying his earthly mum and adopted dad). Ephesians 6:1-3 is a key text in setting out the expectation to honour and obey parents, and it gives us three reasons to do this… 

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Family Bible time

5 top tips: pastoring your family

Most Christian parents know that they have a unique role in pastoring their children. The majority of these parents also know that they are the primary pastors of their children. How do you pastor your family, though? This is the question that most parents struggle with. What do we actually do to bring our children up to know and love Jesus?

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