How do you prepare for Christmas?
Josh Newton | Dec 4, 2009
How does your family prepare for the Christmas season? What kind of Bible studies do you do as a family? I would love to get some feedback from you to hear what strategies you have for entering into God’s word. What has been effective and what have your kids have enjoyed? I believe this feedback would be helpful for both me (as someone who will one day want to teach my kids) and other parents who struggle to know how to get started with a family Bible study.
When I was young, my family would read the Bible together every morning after breakfast and I cherished that time. Our morning devotions were never very long, maybe 5 minutes a day, but I remember it being a priority (even when we had friends spend the night, we included our friends in it). One of us would read a section of scripture (usually just one passage indicated by the bold headings in the Bible), one of us would pray and afterwards the floor would be open to talk about what was read or to ask any questions. This time together has had a lasting effect on my life.
I know other families read through the same bits of scripture on an individual basis and bring some reflections to the dinner table. This type of family Bible study can be very effective and, if encouraged, can create great quiet time habits that can stick with some people for a lifetime.
Maybe your family is too busy to do these types of Bible studies every day, maybe something scheduled for couple of days a week would work better. Any time you spend in God’s word will produce fruit.
If you do not read the Bible together as a family, it is not too late to start. Christmas is a natural time of year to start new traditions and reading scripture as a family is a great way to help you and your children to connect and grow spiritually. The book of Luke would be a great place to start.
Also, one of the most helpful tools to use as an aid in the process of leading a Bible study with your family is a study Bible. Study Bibles have notes under the Biblical texts and are very helpful for answering questions you may have about scripture by including some background information, definitions of terms, maps, ECT. If you do not have one I would encourage you to buy one (I prefer the NIV study Bible, ESV study Bible, or John MacArthur NASB study Bible – you can usually find these at discounted prices at amazon.com or cbd.com). If you want to take a look at one, feel free to ask me or Bing and we would be more than happy to let you see what they are like.
Please feel free to post some things that have been helpful to you, things that may encourage others or to let us know that you are starting a bible study.
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