Family Bible Time: Reloaded

You have probably heard it a thousand times, over and over again, "You need to read your Bible, you need to pray, make sure your kids are doing the same thing". In our fast paced world it's hard to find the time to sit down and read anything let alone give out time anything extra! Family time, for some families, has become something that just means more business and running around. In some families, family bible study and prayer is just non-existent. When I was growing up I never really had a time that was set aside for the study of scripture. My dad made sure he prayer with us every night before bed, but as my brother and I got older this became less and less frequent especially after my parents divorced. My mom and dad both did their best to have time for us and be together as a family but I never got to experience the family bible time that I so often heard our preacher or even our youth minister talk about. This is not a slight on my family, just some honest discussion because I believe my parents did the best with what they had at the time with the tools they were given. So when it comes to a family bible and prayer time the number one question that is asked is, "How often do we do this?" The second question that is asked is, "How do we find time to do this?" A third question that is normally asked is, "Ok, how do we do this?" All are good questions so let's look at all of them. First, how often should a family sit down and make time for the reading of scripture and prayer? We pray before meals (sometimes when we aren't that busy) we might even pray before bed, maybe read our bibles on Sundays and once or twice throughout the week. If we are serious about our families coming together and studying scripture and praying we first have to make time and a commitment to that time. There is no set formula for mapping our a time or even a correct frequency for this either. Some families do this every night, others 2-3 times a night, some just do it once a week. The key is to make the time for it, then you can decide frequency. If your lives are so busy that you can only give a half hour to an hour a week at first then that's great! Secondly, How do we even find time to do this? Again the question that is asked implies that there isn't time for anything else, this is false. Some families fill all their time with "stuff" then there isn't room to navigate or include anything else, but when somethings else comes up we usually find a way to include that thing also. A question that has to be asked from every believer is how much of my time is truly important and spent focused on God? Is there something in my life, in my kids lives that we are giving our time to that really is important or is it just something to keep us busy for the sake of being busy? If we are indeed concerned about making sure our kid's lives are positively affected for God are they seeing that faith and time for God are apparent in our own lives? This is not meant to jab or rebuke anyone but we really have to ask ourselves as parents what we are giving our time to and what are we allowing our kids to give their time to. If God is the only thing that is talked about for an hour or two on Sunday mornings but the rest of the week not mentioned or barely discussed then we have to realize that the world and its message is having a greater influence and impact on our kids than Christ is. So if we are going to make time for our families to sit down and take 30 minutes to an hour a week or a few times a week we have to make sure that it is a priority to us. Turn the TV off, video games, social media, put toys away, and uh-oh even the phone too! If we are serious about our faith, serious about our families and their nurturing and growing faith then we have to be serious and carve time out no matter what. Thirdly, how do we even do this? "I'm not a bible scholar, I never went to school for this, I don't even really know a lot about certain subjects in the bible, how can you make me do this or how am I even able to do this?" The good news about reading your bible is that in a lot of places you can just read it and it makes sense. God also has given us His Holy Spirit to help us discern different things in scripture and also help put people in our lives that might know the answers to things that we might not. Your Minister and Youth Minister are always available to help with questions you might have, or with questions your family might have on a certain subject. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to read the bible and it's ok if you don't know the answers to some things. Questions are actually good because it creates a longing for discovery in that which we study. If we are putting a priority on reading scripture then it will trickle down to our kids, but we must make sure we are setting the standard and guiding them along the way through a family bible reading time. Again, you don't need to have a deep knowledge of theology or know what certain big theology terms mean, just show our families that the bible is important enough to read with them and by yourself. Lastly, praying as a family. Prayer doesn't have to just be done with a meal, or at bedtime, prayer can happen anywhere and anytime! The act of praying together as a family not only shows our kids that we are willing to talk to God but also that we want a relationship with Him. Relationship with God is the one thing our kids can truly see and if they see that the only time God is mentioned is on Sunday or before a meal that really doesn't give them an accurate picture of our relationship with Him. Prayer with our families during a set bible time not only shows a relationship with God but also shows our kids how important they are to us. How awesome is it for a child to see that a parent is taking the time to not only read the bible with them but also take the time to talk to God with them! Prayers don't have to include big words or phrases or even be elaborate. It's a conversation with our Father who loves us and there is nothing greater than to see a child communicate with their Heavenly Father. Now all that has been mentioned here is really up to you and myself. I fully admit to being too busy to lead my family in times of prayer and scripture reading. You come home exhausted from work, sports practice, kids are not feeling well, super isn't done, got to clean the house, it all piles up fast. What we have to do, this is myself included, is to make sure we set aside that time every week and say "This time is for family and this time is for the family to be focused on God, nothing else". It really is all about priorities and helping set the example for our families to see that God is head of our lives, not our jobs, not our schools, not our sports, not our phones, not our video games. It's my prayer that we can make this more of a priority in our families and show that God truly is over everything and not just our Sunday mornings. God Bless!