Encouraging kids to read their bible daily

23/06/23

A fellow mum once shared a story about her  son who is in Year 3. She’d caught him reading his Bible under his blankets by torchlight after bedtime. She smiled as she told me. She was amused by his childlike reasoning that she might be angry, even if she had been reading the Bible to him regularly ever since he could remember. He’d been inspired by seeing other kids his age reading the bible on their own and by having a go himself during ‘Me & God time’ at Square One kids camp.

The story still makes me smile. For most leaders and parents, seeing a child start to take the initiative and demonstrate growing faith is a joy like no other. We want kids to be learning the spiritual discipline of daily bible reading and prayer, and forming these habits that will nurture their faith for a lifetime. The question is how do we help them get started?

1.      Show them what it looks like

Children often don’t actually see their parents or leaders making time to read the bible daily even if they’re growing up in a Christian home. Even where parents and leaders are reading the bible daily, with audio bible, phone apps, sermon podcasts and all manner of digital options, a child might never realise that a parent is regularly spending time in God’s Word. I suspect that personal devotion is rarely talked about either at home or in our ministry programs, so children get little opportunity to have any idea that regular bible reading is something that characterises the daily life of a disciple.

We need to give them a glimpse into what this could look like both now for them and as they get older. If you’re a leader, this could mean making time to talk about what you do, interview others (other regular leaders, parents, church staff, junior leaders or other mature Christians), tell stories and do ‘worked examples’ together. Show them several different ways that personal bible reading could happen. It could involve devotion books, bookmarks, prayer cards, journals, apps and more. Giving kids some idea of what personal bible reading looks like in practice opens their eyes to the possibilities.

2.      Keep it on the agenda with regular ministry rhythms

This means building into regular programs or gatherings a time for sharing, informing, updating and encouraging people. If it is part of what ‘normal’ looks like, then it takes less energy and effort. The structure could look different depending on what suits the context:

• a segment in a Sunday morning program where the leader reminds kids about how they can be reading the bible, why it’s great, hearing back from those who have during the past week and encouraging everyone to give it a go in the coming week;  

• five minutes in a Sunday service where the service leader asks everyone how they are going with bible reading and there is a minute to talk to the person next to you about how it’s going and what you were encouraged by; and

• time in small groups alongside prayer points where leaders follow up on bible reading, allow time for questions and share the new passages for the coming week (either printed or noting passages or in matching Scripture journals).

3.      Find resources that support a new habit

Having something to hold or look at like a bookmark or journal can be motivating. Good resources can provide a helpful method for bible reading, such as guiding them with appropriate questions. You can make these yourself, tailored to suit your ministry programs. Some ideas include:

• a ‘take home’ card with a bible passage and one or two brief questions given out to kids at the end of a program;

• a booklet with devotion content for five days of the week, or content for a longer period. Printing these yourself means you can make the bible font bigger and leave room for kids to highlight, colour or add questions in the margin. They are also easier to carry back and forth to church; and

• a poster in the kids church space where kids can tick off reading through something like the book of Mark each week, along with time to ask questions about it. Kids could be reading the passage ahead of what is being taught that week as a means of preparation and developing a bible reading habit.

There are also a range of ‘ready to go’ resources from Christian bookshops or websites. Some are free, lots are not but it’s worth considering what might work for your kids. Tip of the iceberg suggestions here…

• Kids Read and Kids Pray are free resources on the Youthworks website designed to support prayer and bible reading for a range of ages and reading levels.

• A bookmark from Youthworks Media available here that gives kids a way to shape their time in God’s Word.

• Best News Ever by Chris Morphew is a published book taking kids through Mark’s gospel over 100 days.

4.      Identify obstacles

There will always be plenty of reasons why it’s hard to read the bible regularly. Once people have an idea of what they are aiming for and how they can do it, the biggest obstacles usually center around motivation and time. It’s no different for kids. Leaders can help by acknowledging that it is hard and the difficulties are real. If kids realise that it’s hard for everyone at times, they are less likely to give up feeling like it’s just a problem with them.

Addressing the motivation issue is particularly important. Our hearts naturally tend to legalism and rule-making. Bible reading can become, ‘something I must do to be a good Christian’ or ‘so God will be happy with me’, and that is a terrible and faulty way of thinking. Our desire to read the Bible and spend time in prayer flows from our love and thankfulness to him, recognising we need him more and more and desiring to grow ever closer and more Christlike.

One way of talking about it is that time with God is like a hug. We don’t strictly need hugs to survive, but life is SO much better when we get hugs from those we love. Some hugs are short and routine, others are longer, some we savour more than others and all these different kinds of hugs are ok. I like the hug imagery because it is warm and relational, and bible reading and prayer is a big part of our relationship with God.

Another image is water. We can have water in lots of different contexts, just as we read the bible both alone and together, but having water regularly is a very good thing! Your whole body works better when you’ve had enough water. It keeps you going like nothing else.

5.      Encourage the habit

Lastly, we want to encourage kids to keep at it. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes we forget, sometimes things get in the way but we keep trying (just as we do as adults!). Encouragement looks like regular check-ins, celebrating the wins, acknowledging the challenges and regularly asking God for help (both together and in your prayers for the children).

What might work in your ministry context?