{"id":94,"date":"2023-08-31T17:51:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T17:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/2023\/08\/31\/permeating-your-childs-heart-with-scripture\/"},"modified":"2024-01-08T03:33:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T03:33:21","slug":"permeating-your-childs-heart-with-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/blog\/permeating-your-childs-heart-with-scripture\/","title":{"rendered":"Permeating Your Child\u2019s Heart With Scripture: The Salvation Series (Part 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you missed the earlier posts included in the Salvation Series, find them here: Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a>, Part 3<\/a>, and Part 4<\/a>. Also, find the free gospel for children printable here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As we saw last time, the word of God is POWERFUL! The only answer I could get to the question, \u201cHow can she get saved Lord? She believes on you, but she\u2019s lacking the repentant heart change. How Lord?\u201d And my answer from Him…fill her life with the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so that\u2019s what we started doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know there are many different ways families do this, but what is so key is giving the children STRAIGHT BIBLE. Bible storybooks are great! They are so important! But Bible storybooks are not God\u2019s inspired words. I hope you understand what I\u2019m saying. Don\u2019t throw out the Bible storybooks, but make sure you are giving children scripture straight from the God\u2019s Word as well. HIS WORD is what is going to change their hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PERMEATE THEIR HEARTS WITH SCRIPTURE! Here are some different ideas that have worked well for us. Maybe you\u2019ll find something helpful for your family as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training Children to Have Personal Devotions<\/h3>

Personal devotions is the single most basic and necessary habits of the Christian life. Children must be taught early on the necessity and the benefits of a relationship with Christ. They should be taught how to read and reflect, how to actually get something from their reading, and how to pray.

When our daughter was just a toddler, we started her in this exercise of a quiet time in the morning by putting a stack of Bible story board books next her crib to look at when she woke up. Of course, this is doing nothing for her spiritually, but it was putting the habit in place of just sitting still and being QUIET for that first portion of the day.

When she grew out of the board books around age 4, we moved her on to listening to the Bible.is app. Bible.is is awesome because it\u2019s dramatized, so there is background music and a different voice for every character. It brings to life what could be confusing language for even a very young child. And you know what is incredible?! She memorized so much scripture just from listening to her favorite passages over and over again! It\u2019s just an amazing way to get a lot of scripture into a young child in a very short amount of time. And the parent doesn\u2019t have to do any work except for turning the Bible app on for them! This is just perfect for children who can\u2019t read on their own yet. But when they are first learning to read, they can follow along in their own Bible.

Once they are fluent readers, they can transition to reading the Bible for themselves. Concentrate on \u201ceasy\u201d Bible passages. Things like their favorite Old Testament Bible Stories, the Psalms, the Proverbs, the Gospels and Acts.

At this point, it\u2019s time to start training them how to read to get something from God\u2019s Word. Provide them with highlighters, pens and a journal so that can write things down that convicted them. Teach them to start their devotions praying Psalm 119:18. \u201c Lord, please open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law!\u201d

Then teach them how to pray. First teach how to pray about what they are reading. (The 24 Family Ways<\/em> is good for this to teach during Family Devotion time.) And also teach them how to have a basic prayer time separate from what they\u2019ve read. I love teaching children the ACTS model because it is so simple. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Prayer is hard. The earlier they can learn how, the better.<\/p> <\/div> <\/section>\n\n\n\n

Having Family Bible Time<\/h3>

Another thing we started becoming very focused on was to have Family Bible Time. It\u2019s so easy to let this slip if it\u2019s not a priority. In the first few years of parenting, we unfortunately did let this slip, but once God convicted our hearts about getting God\u2019s Word into our daughter, we really had no other choice but to make it a priority.

And when I say Family Bible time, don\u2019t get stuck on the fact that the whole family has to be there in order to make it happen. As a new, and well meaning mother, this is what I got so hung up on in those early years. I was so adament that my husband be the spiritual leader of my home and felt that HE should be the one to lead family devotions. But he\u2019d often be gone or busy, and in the back of my mind, I\u2019d think, \u201cWell, that\u2019s his responsibility, so he needs to do it.\u201d And I\u2019d let that become a wedge in our marriage because I put \u201cspritual leadership\u201d expectations on him, and then be ticked when he didn\u2019t follow through with what I FELT was spiritual leadership of our home. I don\u2019t know where we got the idea that spiritual leadership of a man means he HAS to be the one to lead family devotions, but it is a common thought process that can cause serious rifts in the marriage. My husband is an amazing spiritual leader, but he doesn\u2019t run a family devotions every single day. The Lord really convicted me to stop trying to force my husband into a mold. It was only hurting my marriage. (I\u2019m not saying a husband SHOULDN\u2019T lead family devotions. If he does, that is AWESOME! I\u2019m just saying if\/when he doesn\u2019t, don\u2019t get it into your head that your family is ruined forever spiritually.)

B leads family devotions when he can, but more often than not, he\u2019s not able to do it. And if he\u2019s not able to do it, then that responsibility falls on me. And if I\u2019m not doing it when I\u2019m fully capable, then I\u2019M the one that\u2019s wrong. A wise friend with several children (whose husband works crazy hours like mine) once told me that she would have family devotions every morning with her children so it was happening daily, and then if her husband was able, he\u2019d have them at night with everyone. But with mama doing it every morning, it was happening on a regular basis and not just sporadically. We\u2019ve adopted this same routine and it\u2019s worked beautifully. We\u2019ll have family Bible time every morning; if Dad\u2019s here, he joins us, and if not, we still have it. And sometimes he\u2019ll do his own in the evening.

Let me encourage you mama, if you\u2019re in the same situation, don\u2019t cast blame or put a burden on your husband and cause a rift in your marriage. YOU get your Bible out, and make it a priority to teach your children the scriptures YOURSELF. The bottom line is that our children need to be taught scripture whether it\u2019s our husbands or ourselves teaching it.

Running a Family Bible Time does not need to be hard. You can literally Read, Discuss, Sing and Pray. That\u2019s it!

We love using different books for a guide, but you can just read straight out of the Bible. I love the book For Instruction in Righteousness<\/em><\/a> <\/em>specifically for conviction about sin. The book takes basically all the childhood sins you could possibly think of and gives verses for each sin. It was just so easy to go, \u201cOk, she really struggled with disobedience today, so tomorrow we are going to read verses about disobedience.\u201d I was amazed to see how God\u2019s Word convicted her heart, and really helped her to see her sin as God sees it. You can literally do entire word or subject studies with this book. It\u2019s so good! Proverbs for Practical Parenting<\/em><\/a> is another book that is similar, but is just focused on the Proverbs. The Child Training Bible<\/em><\/a> is another resource that is a similar idea. I also love <\/em>Our 24 Family Ways<\/em><\/a> by Clay Clarkson. While it is not KJV, it is a great setup for family devotions. Another favorite thing to do is read a Proverb a day\u2026read the Proverb that corresponds to whatever day of the month it is, so on the 1st I\u2019ll read Proverbs 1 and on the 2nd, Proverbs 2 and so on. The Proverbs are so very convicting.

The key is to just do it. It\u2019s overwhelming to think of the lifetime of Bible training we need to do with our children, but JUST START and take it one day at a time.<\/p> <\/div> <\/section>\n\n\n\n

Memorizing Scripture Together<\/h3>

Another thing we do is to memorize scripture, especially about specific sins a child might be having a problem with. And this is where the previous books referenced really come in handy because you can easily find a passage on a certain topic, and they are easy to review. The awesome thing about learning verses according to topic or according to sin, is that you can really see the full effect of what God thinks about this sin. So, for example when we\u2019re dealing with arguing, we have learned from this verse\u2014 \u201cA fool\u2019s lips enter into contention,\u201d \u2014that fools are the ones who argue. And from this verse\u2014 \u201cOnly by pride cometh contention,\u201d \u2014that the proud argue. And then of course that comes around to asking, \u201cDo you want to be a fool and proud? That is what God thinks about you when you argue.\u201d And again, just letting God\u2019s Word do the work. I just cannot get over how powerful it is.<\/p> <\/div> <\/section>\n\n\n\n

Pointing Conversation and Correction back to the Bible<\/h3>

Children have a lot of questions. We can often use everyday conversations as Biblical training. When they hear the news and see that a hurricane killed hundreds of people, they might ask, \u201cMom, why does God allow that to happen when he knows most of those people are unsaved.\u201d Umph! That\u2019s a hard one. Let\u2019s go to Scripture.

Or you over hear children arguing or see a child push another child and call him an idiot. Wow! We have some work to do. Let\u2019s see what the Bible says about that!

Rather than getting frustrated at all the question or even more, the manifestations of sin in that child\u2019s life, we should instead view each of these moments as OPPORTUNITIES to point our little ones to Christ\u2014to train them in the way that they should go. We don\u2019t need to be weird Bible-thumpers. We just need to live a sincere life. Do we truly believe we should live like the Bible tells us to? We need to show that to our children.

As we pour scripture into their hearts and lives, and they see how God has transformed our own lives because of our salvation, He will work on their little hearts. He will bring them to Him in His time.

Praying that this is helpful to you as you navigate leading your little ones to Christ. I\u2019m looking forward to sharing more again next week.

Sarah<\/p> <\/div> <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we saw last time, the word of God is POWERFUL! The only answer I could get to the question, \u201cHow can she get saved Lord? She believes on you, but she\u2019s lacking the repentant heart change. How Lord?\u201d And my answer from Him…fill her life with the Bible. <\/p>\n

And so that\u2019s what we started doing. <\/p>\n

I know there are many different ways families do this, but what is so key is giving the children STRAIGHT BIBLE. Bible storybooks are great! They are so important! But Bible storybooks are not God\u2019s inspired words. I hope you understand what I\u2019m saying. Don\u2019t throw out the Bible storybooks, but make sure you are giving children scripture straight from the God\u2019s Word as well. HIS WORD is what is going to change their hearts. <\/p>\n

PERMEATE THEIR HEARTS WITH SCRIPTURE! Here are some different ideas that have worked well for us. Maybe you\u2019ll find something helpful for your family as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[152,274,275,276,272,273],"tags":[171,30,172,267,269,265,266,50,37,31,264,270,262,263,174,271,268],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-gospel","category-motherhood","category-parenting","category-salvation","category-salvation-series","tag-devotions","tag-family-bible-time","tag-family-devotions","tag-gospel","tag-gospel-centered-parenting","tag-leading-children-to-christ","tag-leading-little-ones-to-christ","tag-motherhood","tag-mothering","tag-parenting","tag-plan-of-salvation","tag-repentance","tag-salvation","tag-salvation-series","tag-scripture","tag-the-bible","tag-the-gospel"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/iStock-176826938.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}