Cultivating a Gospel-Inspired Life in the Home through Family Bible Study and Worship
By Anne Butler
AS
Christian parents , we long to experience with our loved ones the revealing of God ’ s truths through His Spirit and Word , yet often , we are immobilized by inexperience or lack of training in family Bible study . My husband and I faced this challenge as we endeavored to cultivate a lifestyle of discipleship in our home .
Though we have been raising and home-educating our children for the past 30-plus years , we started this parenting journey with zero experience in family discipleship . Neither of us personally read the Bible until well into our college years when God called us to Himself . As young parents , we sought help sharing God ’ s truth and beauty with our children . As our family eventually came to include preteens and teenagers — able to think , discuss , and apply the Scriptures more deeply — and as we grew into a full house of nine children , this role became even more daunting .
We noticed a trend with parents of teenagers . Many began backing away from faith-forming involvement with their maturing youth . Parents felt inexperienced because family Bible study was not modeled in their own childhood homes . They often relinquished the task of spiritual development of their youth to church youth leaders . We found those leaders to be supportive , but we also wanted to take our parental role as the primary spiritual educators of our children seriously . We saw clearly in Scripture from places like Proverbs 1 , Deuteronomy 6 , and Psalm 78 that this was a call from God on our lives as parents . Besides , we thoroughly enjoyed conversations about spiritual truths with our children .
RENEWANATION . ORG 13