By Gladys Hunt
My grandfather was a Dutch immigrant with ten children. He and Grandmother took seriously the instructions God gave Moses for the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:6–7, believing this to be a parent’s responsibility:
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
As the family gathered around the table for meals, one of my grandparents read from the Bible. It was a kind of spiritual dessert. They had enjoyed physical food from the hand of God; now they would enjoy spiritual food.
My father was one of these children. Later, when his four offspring sat around his table, he initiated the same practice. (As far as I know, his brothers and sisters have done similarly in their homes.) We never discussed whether or not we wanted to do this; it was just always done and never, to my knowledge, questioned. Reading material was chosen according to our ages. Often at the evening meal we read from a Bible storybook, but at least once a day we read short selections from the Bible. For some reason we read Proverbs more than any other single book; my parents must have believed that book contained an extraordinary amount of wisdom for everyday living.
To the children in our family this was a logical thing for a family to do. No one left the table, unless for special reasons, until we read the Scriptures together. This was no legalistic ritual; it was family habit. Thinking back, I remember numerous instances when our friends called for us and we asked them to wait until we had finished dinner. Dessert may have been served, but none of us considered the meal finished until we had read together.
As I recounted this to a group of young couples recently, one father asked me, “Didn’t you all grow up resenting your father and Christianity?” I felt an aching kind of amusement at his question.
It was quite the other way around! In all honesty, I could say that our parents and memories of family life are extra dear because of this. Four new families have come out of our parental home, involving 14 more children. Each family follows the pattern we learned at home. Our expectations are that each of these 14 will pursue a similar practice in their homes in years to come.
I smile when I visit my brothers’ homes and hear them stop in the middle of the reading to ask a child they suspect is not listening, “David, what was the last word?” That’s what my father used to do. It will be fun to see if the grandsons use the same device on their children.
The Goal
The goal of family Bible reading is to teach children to think biblically.
That’s a large goal: to think biblically. It means a good bit more than quoting certain Scripture verses or participating in quizzes. It involves squaring up our thinking with what the Bible says about God, about man, about sin, about redemption, about human need, and about righteousness. Thinking biblically insists on an understanding of the vast sweep of what Scripture reveals to us. It is the gauge against which we measure our ideas and our lives.
How has God worked in human history? What is his goal? What is his essential nature, his character? What is the nature of human beings? What are their basic needs? How does the death of Jesus Christ fit into the picture? How do we know what is true? These are only some of the questions we answer in learning to think biblically.
The ability to quote salvation or assurance verses is inadequate unless the verses fit into a larger concept of the character of God and an understanding of his righteousness. Knowing favorite biblical heroes and specific stories becomes most meaningful when fit into a larger view of what their lives demonstrate about people or about God’s character.
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Parents, not uncommonly, invest time with small children, reading them favorite Bible stories and speaking of salvation. The failure comes in teaching children through their teens how this information fits together to form a true basis for life. Our goal is a valid world/life view. This cannot be scolded into a person; we can only expose young minds to great truth and discuss it with them. Whether a child adopts a Christian world/life view is not our responsibility. Our job is to expose the child to what we believe is true. (See Honey for a Teen’s Heart for a larger treatment of reading the Bible with teens.)
Our need for a word from God is never finished. He speaks to our situation, ministers to our problem areas. We receive fresh insights, daily reminders, and new promises because the Bible is indeed profitable “for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
We demonstrate our confidence in the authority of the Bible as the Word of God by the way we use it in our homes and by our personal obedience to it. No amount of emotional, cozy feeling will stand the rigorous test of exposure to secular culture. Our faith has intellectual content; we must know what we believe. Emotional warmth flows out of the application and obedience of these great truths.
Attaining the Goal
Begin early to teach your children about God and his Son by reading together from Bible storybooks that fit your child’s age. Stories that relate biblical teaching to real life give opportunity for in-depth discovery as children grow. Often questions at the end of the story give children the fun of remembering and taking turns. Never before have publishers offered such creative full-color books, good writing, and excellent graphics. You’ll find yourself learning afresh as you teach your children.
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I’d like to share the idea that has worked best toward attaining the goal in our family life. We have given this simple method years of trial and are pleased with its effectiveness in making the Bible meaningful.
We began with four-year-old Mark to read aloud from the Gospel of Mark. We chose this Gospel because of its short narrative passages and incidentally because it was called Mark. Father had a plan: Everyone at the table (and this included our numerous guests) had to ask a question and answer one.
We made a game out of it: sometimes the question was directed to the person on our left, other times to the person on our right. We’d have to listen carefully, because sometimes the question we had thought to ask was usurped by someone whose turn came first, and we would have to think of another.
At first our questions were simple. Where did Jesus go? What did Jesus do? Who went with Jesus? Children pick up the idea rapidly.
Then we began to interject another kind of question. Why did Jesus say that? What does he mean?
And then, What can we learn from Jesus about the way we ought to act?
In these questions are the three elements which open up any text:
- fact—what does it say?
- interpretation—what does it mean?
- application—what does it mean to me?
Children’s questions invariably center on facts, but before long you will find them asking deeply penetrating ones. If Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead, why did he let his dear friend John the Baptist stay dead? Why did the Jews say Jesus had an evil spirit? Increasingly we delved into the meat of what the text was saying.
Mark was delighted when his father introduced a two-part question, and thereupon set out to explore the possibility of a three-part question. Together, as a family, we dug amazing truths out of the text—and no one in our family would say this was either dull or painful.
This method requires that everyone think through what the passage is saying. Ideas go through the thought processes and come out of the mouth. We experience a great thing: the joy of discovery. What is discovered for one’s self is always more meaningful than what is told to us by someone else.
It is exciting to see how the use of this method can become ingrained in a child’s thought pattern and how this can enable him to take apart a piece of literature and comprehend what it is really saying. Children learn to listen, to isolate key ideas, to contrast and compare, and to come up with the heart of the text with the delight of a scuba diver seeking a treasure on the ocean floor. Over the years and with a variety of ages, we have found the benefits for our family have gone far beyond what we envisaged when we began this simple plan for Bible reading.
We have tried to handle the Bible honestly, letting it say what it says, not overly spiritualizing facts (which I believe turns children off because it lacks integrity to make a sermon out of what isn’t there). The Bible is superb literature. It carries its own truth if we dig out the facts and apply them. We don’t have to force its contents.
No need to attempt to protect truth, to explain away seeming inconsistencies either. Truth will turn out to be truth. Sometimes we came up with questions we couldn’t answer. We’ve tried to relate the Bible to everyday happenings, school studies, and new findings. When we’ve come upon words like fornication, circumcision, etc., we’ve talked openly about what these mean. If you have trouble explaining, look them up together in the dictionary. The Bible’s teaching about morality and sex is still appropriate today.
No other tongue in the world has the advantage of so many modern translations of the Bible as English does! By all means, use contemporary English translations in your family Bible readings. The other day a woman said to me, “I like to stick with the original Bible.” I didn’t bother to tell her she would have to learn Greek and Hebrew to do that! The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible was translated in 1611, and while its language flow is beautiful, particularly in the Psalms, young people deserve the privilege of hearing God speak their own language in a contemporary translation.
For those who are adventuresome, buy each member of your family an interlinear Greek New Testament to read together as your family matures. The English words appear above the Greek words, and one family we know has taught themselves the basics of Greek in this fashion.
All of us want the Bible to be a living book for our children. One truth seems overwhelmingly obvious, however. No matter what technique we use, our own attitude is the key. We must be genuine. Our blatant inconsistencies linked with outward piety will battle the authority of the Bible in our children’s lives.
If we approach the Bible with a stained glass window voice and emotional tremors that make the book seem “religious” in the most frightening sense of that word, chances are our children will escape at the first opportunity. Our prayers, too, must reflect that we are speaking with Someone who is real, not that we are making a speech and using prayer as a way to scold someone.
The kind of family Bible reading I have been discussing is no rigid ritual that makes rules more important than people. On the contrary, it is because people—people God has given to us—are so very important that we are compelled to personal discipline in this matter. When we, as families, treat the Bible as our necessary food, obviously respecting its authority by our own personal obedience, our children will find in this Book what they will never find in any other way: the way of eternal life—without which there can be no lasting enjoyment of God’s gifts.
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Adapted from Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life, now updated and expanded, by Gladys Hunt with Mark Hunt. Click here to learn more about this wonderful book.
A modern classic with over 250,000 copies sold, Honey for a Child’s Heart is a compelling, essential guide for parents who want to find the best books for their children ages 0-12. This updated and expanded edition includes a new preface, an updated list of recommended reads for each age group, and audiobook suggestions.
A good book is a gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure. But children don’t stumble onto the best books by themselves. They need a parent’s help. Author Gladys Hunt, along with her son, Mark, discusses everything from how to choose good books for your children to encouraging them to be avid readers.
Illustrated with drawings from dozens of children’s favorites, Honey for a Child’s Heart Updated and Expanded includes completely updated book lists geared to your child’s age and filled with nearly one thousand longtime favorites, classics, wonderful new books, and audiobooks that will enrich your child’s life. It will also show you how to:
- Understand the importance of being a read-aloud family, enjoying books together by reading aloud
- Give your children a large view of the world, of truth, and of goodness
- Encourage each child’s imagination and good use of language
- Find the best books for your children
Thousands of parents have used this guide to furnish their children’s inner spirit with the wonder and delight of good reading. Updated and expanded to keep pace with the ever-changing world of children’s literature, it is sure to enrich the cultural and spiritual life of your home.
Gladys Hunt was a well-known author and speaker. Her books include Honey for a Woman’s Heart, Honey for a Teen’s Heart, and Honey for a Child’s Heart. She also wrote numerous Bible study guides for the Fisherman and LifeGuide series. She lived with her husband, Keith, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Mark Hunt grew up surrounded by books and reading books aloud. He has read more books than he can count with his children and continues adding to the list with his grandchildren (and anyone else who will listen). Mark worked in publishing for thirty years, as an editor and publisher. More recently he served as international executive director for Langham Partnership. Mark lives with his wife, Marian, outside of Lowell, Michigan.
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