It Is Worth the Effort!
FAMILY WORSHIP and Bible study are essential if children are to be brought up “in the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.” (Eph. 6:4) If you are a parent, though, you know that young ones can easily become bored. How can you keep their attention? Consider what some parents have done.
“When the children were younger,” says George, in California, U.S.A., “my wife and I tried to keep the family Bible study fresh. Sometimes we all would dress up as Bible characters and act out an account as we read from My Book of Bible Stories. We even made props—swords, scepters, baskets, and the like. We also played ‘guess who I am’ Bible games and created a Bible board game with questions of varying difficulty. Then there were projects, such as building a model of Noah’s ark or creating a time line of Bible events. Sometimes we used drawing sessions in which we depicted Bible characters or stories. Currently, we are planning a drawing project on the spiritual armor described at Ephesians 6:11-17, with each of us explaining what a certain piece represents. These methods have helped us to enjoy our family study.”
Debi, a mother in Michigan, U.S.A., relates: “My husband and I had trouble reaching our daughter when she was about three years old. Then, one day while reading aloud the story of Isaac and Rebekah from My Book of Bible Stories, I scooped up two dolls and began to ad-lib. Now she held on to every word! In the months that followed, those two dolls became many different Bible characters. After we read an account, our daughter would search the house for toys or other items that could be used to act out the story. It was like a treasure hunt! A shoe box and a red ribbon became Rahab’s house with a scarlet cord. A five-foot-long [1.5 m] stuffed toy snake wrapped around a broomstick worked well as the copper serpent of Numbers 21:4-9. We kept the props in a large canvas bag. To our delight, our girl would often sit in the living room and rummage through her ‘Bible story bag.’ What a joy to see her dramatize the stories in her own little way!”
Raising children is not easy, and it takes more than weekly sessions to instill in them a desire to serve Jehovah. But family worship and Bible study can be a base for other spiritual instruction. Without question, it is worth the effort!