After being pregnant for nine months with my first child, I went into labor, made it to the hospital, experienced a safe delivery, and felt very satisfied. I had run the race. I had finished the task. I had birthed 6 lbs, 3ozs of perfection in less than three hours. 

After the delivery, my husband and I moved from the labor and delivery room into our regular hospital room, situated ourselves, brushed our teeth.  We arranged his little sleeping nest in the reclining chair and mine in the Craftmatic, and we settled in for the night.

A few minutes later a nurse poked her head in, “Are you planning to leave the baby out in the hall?”

“Oops.We have baby now.” The oversight was very possibly due the post-labor overwhelm, but nonetheless.

At 25 years old, on night #1 of motherhood, I was thoroughly and blissfully unaware of all of the work that lay ahead of me as a parent.  After nine months, I felt like I had done the hard part.  I had no idea what lay ahead.

I stumbled into diapering. I thumbed my way through books on feeding schedules.  I Googled our family into a decent sleep routine. 

And this was just the survival part of childrearing, not the “shaping your child into a productive citizen” part.  In addition to all the other facets I never considered before parenthood, I’m not sure I ever seriously considered the moral and spiritual education of my children.  Spiritual education was just an osmotic process that would naturally occur by taking them to church … right?  My husband and I were in full time ministry, so our children would grow up mysteriously understanding spiritual truths, right? (Spoiler alert … wrong.)

Parenting is a massive undertaking, and part of that undertaking involves training our children spiritually.  Understand this: your child is being trained spiritually by someone.   They are absorbing truths, half-truths, and untruths all around them.  Would you be willing to invest five minutes a day to help the absorb truths about God?

I bet the answer is yes.

We can underestimate the impact of just a few minutes a day of systematic, Biblical instruction.  We can also overestimate the workload and become paralyzed by phrases like “systematic biblical instruction.” 

It’s both harder than it seems and easier than it seems.

A great, easy place to start teaching our children about God is to read the Bible, in chronological order to them, five minutes every day (or most days — you’ll miss some). Of course, reading the Bible in and of itself is not a sufficient Christian upbringing, and it in no way guarantees a particular spiritual outcome, but it’s the fulcrum from which the other aspects of spiritual life can fan.  Here is the “why”:

1. God reveals himself through the Bible.  God wrote 66 letters about himself to us.  This is God speaking to us directly.  This is the Bible.

2. The Bible is God’s story, and especially when it is read chronologically and covenentally (I just made up that word, but more explanation in the next post) it reveals God’s unfolding love for His people.  Trust me on this one: by the time your children are teenagers, you will want them to be connected to the heart of God, not just the moral standards of God.

3.  Once your children have absorbed God’s story, they will have a framework for absorbing more truths about God, people and life. They will be able to file away spiritual insights because categories have been created.

4.  Parenting is hard work, but reading the Bible a few minutes every day requires very little work.  No special equipment, no crafting, no cleanup (no borax, no Elmer’s glue…).  Done and done.

5. Reading the Bible to your children is a great way to teach them about God, but it is also a great way for you to connect with God’s story more. Truths are internalized on a special level when you have to teach to them to another person — especially a young person.  I dare you to read the Bible to your children and remain unchanged. Children whose parents are changed by the word of God will be likely to thrive.

Caveat: unless your child is an itty bitty seminary prodigy, you can’t just pull out your big NIV, KJV, or ESV study Bible.  As brilliant as junior is sure to be, he or she won’t have the vocabulary and abstract cognitive abilities to handle these translations. (Standard Bible translations can be challenging for adults, and even the most precocious toddlers and preschoolers have limits).

In my next post, I will give a rundown of my favorite children’s Bibles and my personal opinion on some resources I consider overrated. 

My smart little cherub on her first birthday. But she still wasn’t smart enough for the ESV.