As a father I have no greater responsibility or ambition than to help my children get to heaven. God blessed us with children who are pure, innocence, and undefiled and He expects us to deliver them back to Him in that same condition one day. No, that doesn’t mean I have the responsibility to teach them to be perfect, but I do have the responsibility of connecting them with message that can. Paul said that the only message capable of perfecting an imperfect man is the Gospel – “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If I want my children to love God and go to heaven one day then I’ve got to teach them to love the Bible that can help them get there.
It doesn’t matter how young or how old they may be, it’s never too early or too late to teach our children just how very special of a book the Bible is. It could be as simple as teaching a baby to “pat the Bible” or as complex as spending time in in-depth study with a hardened teenager to soften their hearts to the gospel’s message – there is always something we can do. Here are just a few suggestions:
Read the Bible. In short, we will never be in a position to teach our children to love anything that we don’t love or know. Paul commended Timothy for the fact that from his childhood he had known the scriptures and had been blessed by that knowledge (2 Timothy 3:15). But why did he know them? Because he had been taught those scriptures by his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5). They put themselves in a position to teach Timothy to love the scriptures because they prepared their hearts to do it. So we need to read the Bible so we can love and know the Bible ourselves. But our children also need to see us reading our Bibles. Imagine the impact it can leave on a child to actually see their father or mother spending time with an open Bible. That visual will do more to help them love the Bible than anything. So if we are going to teach our children to love the Bible, for many reasons we need to read the Bible ourselves.
Talk about the Bible. How much or how little your children know about the Bible is going to be a direct reflection of how much time you’ve spent talking to them about it. Fear and confusion often encompass humanity’s reaction to the Bible, but we typically only fear and are confused by what we do not know. Familiarity lends itself to affection, so if we want our children to love the Bible we need to actively familiarize them with it. That means breaking out of our comfort zones and spending some time talking about the people, places, things, and events we read about in the Bible. We can use those subjects to illustrate life-changing truths and while we are preparing them for life we can at the same time illustrate to them just how relevant the Bible is. Israelite parents were expected to teach their children God’s law throughout the day (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). How much more should we be doing it for ours’?
Live the Bible. There is absolutely no more powerful teaching tool than a visual of what exactly the message of the Gospel is capable of doing in a person’s life. We can talk to our children about the Bible and the power of the Gospel all we want, but unless they actually see it displayed in our lives it will never make any impact in their lives. If we allow the Bible to govern our marriages our children will love it. If we allow the Bible to govern our child rearing our children will grow to love it. If we allow the Bible to guide our relationships, business dealings, civil submission, etc. and our children will see the noticeable and productive difference it makes in our lives they will come to love it. Christianity gets a bad name from the number of people who claim to be Christians who simply don’t practice Biblical Christianity. But when Christians let the Bible govern their lives it typically leaves a positive impact in a person’s life. The same will be true with our children. Live the Bible and they will come to love it.
I know these are more generic suggestions, not to mention things like family Bible times, active and productive Bible class programs in our churches, the positive impact church camp can have on them, etc. At the end of the day, though, we shouldn’t be satisfied to have children to grow up into pew warming, cold hearted, spiritually indifferent Christians. We should want them to grow into energetic, life filled, service oriented, God fearing Christians; and among many things that will begin with teaching them to love the Bible.
-Andy