Kids and the Bible

Orginally published February 9, 2009
Recently, I have been getting reminded how young children can learn about the Bible, God, and how to learn to have Biblical Disciplines in their lives. It is so important to teach children about the Lord while they are young! I am so excited about my children being able to be involved in Word of Life Clubs. This is making a huge difference in our family's life. When Calvin goes to Gopher Buddies Club, he learns so much about the Word of God, memorizes verses, learns songs, and he remembers it! He comes home and tells me what he has learned. It is just so exciting. I am starting to think that it is not possible to have a child that is too young to do a Quiet Time. At this time Calvin has been doing the Word of Life Quiet Time since he was two. He knows how to think of his own prayer requests. Yes, he does sometimes pray for cats, toys, and his favorite foods, but he also knows how to pray for people in his family and for his friends. He likes to try to "read" his own Bible. When we do this, I let him hold his own Bible, and then tell him the words and he says them after me. HE now reminds US to do his Quiet Time with him before bed. There have been times when he has gotten sick, or we had an extremely busy day where he skipped a nap, and he would accidentally fall asleep before bedtime, missing his Quiet Time. When that has happened the first thing he says when he wakes up is, "You didn't do my Quiet Time with me last night! We have to do it RIGHT NOW!" Not only that, but he watches out for others, he tells me, "I saw Andrew, Mommy, he didn't do his Quiet Time before bed.... Did you do your Quiet Time today, Mommy?" (Of course, Andrew doesn't really see this as "watching out" for him, more like Andrew sees it as tattling.) I am just SO excited that I have a 3 year old that knows that it's important to read his Bible everyday. I wonder what kind of difference it will make in his future, that at the age of 3 he was already learning to make Bible reading a habit! Today, Calvin told me that he wanted to do his Quiet Time all by himself. So he got out his Bible, his Quiet Time, and his crayons. I saw him open up his Bible and "read" it. Next he turned to a page in his Quiet Time. It wasn't like the one we were on or anything, and he actually ended up coloring over a page he had already done. But he did his page. Next I saw him open to his prayer page. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. I heard him pray for Daddy, and the Cat, and for his cousin, Tabby, and I heard him ask Jesus to help him learn to tell other people about Jesus ...."like Uncle Johnny, Aunt Sarah, and Tabby". (John & Sarah, not really sure why he thought you were the ones who didn't know about Jesus, but at least he cares enough to tell you, right? ) Maybe Calvin will grow up and be a preacher just like his Grandpa that he was named after! That would so exciting!

I recommend to all my friends with young children to check out the Word of Life Quiet Times. Or really to all my friends, they have one for every age group! Every member of our family has one, and it makes a very big difference in our lives!
www.wol.org