Teaching Children the Bible

A MOTHER from South Africa who is one of Jehovah’s witnesses relates this experience:

“My husband is not one of Jehovah’s witnesses and he takes no part in spiritual matters. It has, therefore, been my privilege to conduct a home Bible study with our son and daughter, doing what I can to inculcate God’s law into their minds and hearts. We have always tried to have our weekly Bible study regularly, even when on vacation.

“It has not always been easy. Often the children were tired from school and homework. And they made it obvious that they would rather be outdoors playing. Sometimes it was hard to hold their attention. They would dream, and gaze around the room, thinking of anything but what we were supposed to be studying. On many occasions I thought that it would be the last study that I would hold with my unappreciative children. But, with Jehovah’s help, I kept on trying to hold their attention and interest, never letting the study be a nag session.

“I found that one of the most important things to make our Bible studies enjoyable was good preparation on my part. Also we used the maps in the Bible. I explained the Bible accounts in such a way as to appeal to the children’s imagination, and I tried always to apply what we learned to our everyday life. We learned together to appreciate Jehovah’s great loving-kindness, his wonderful counsel and principles for living.

“Our home Bible study became a time to reason with the children on obedience, respect and morals. It was a time for them to learn how to praise our great God and glorify his name. After our regular study we would use items from the Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, shorter articles from the Watchtower magazine or subjects in Sermon Outlines for about fifteen minutes. We considered various aspects of how God’s work is being done today. And we prepared short sermons that we could use when preaching to others.

“I can truly thank Jehovah for this great privilege of conducting a home Bible study with my children. Now my daughter has gone into the full-time preaching work and my son has been regularly declaring God’s good news for the past few years. What a blessing it is if we persevere in our home Bible studies with our children, no matter what age they may be!”