3 Great Reasons for Bible Time with Daddy

It was always our hope to have a time every day from "day one" where Jonathan could read the Bible to our children. Once we actually had a baby, we realized the idea of having a routine from "day one" was a little far-fetched, but somewhere around the 3 or 4 month mark we were able to start the routine of reading The Beginner's Bible to our daughter in the evenings before bed time. Occasionally she falls asleep before we get to Bible time, and that's okay, we put her in her crib and let it be. But I love the sight of my husband sitting with my little girl, reading her Bible stories while she reaches for the pages and tries to get them in her mouth.

Here are just a few of the reasons why we decided to make this "Bible Time" a priority from the beginning: 

1. Faith Comes by Hearing.
   
   "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ... So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:14, 17
   
   Nothing is more important than passing on the Gospel message to our children. Nothing is more wonderful than witnessing the Holy Spirit working faith in our little girl's heart. We have the sure promise of salvation through baptism, but the Bible also assures us that faith comes by hearing the word of God. So what could be more valuable than reading the Bible to her, and what could be more valuable than telling her about what Christ has done for her?
   
   Note that Paul does not say in Romans that "faith comes by hearing and understanding the word of Christ." Yes, we know that she is only 5 months old, and probably has no understanding (yet) of what she is hearing, but we believe that the Holy Spirit works faith in her heart, as He does in ours, without requiring any act of understanding on our part. Faith and salvation is a free gift from God, and is just as much for our little daughter as it is for us.
   
   
2. What Dad Does Makes an Impression.
   
   I read in several books while studying Lutheran Education at Concordia Wisconsin about the vital importance of fathers modeling church attendance and Bible study for their children. Whether or not children saw their fathers attend church regularly growing up appears to be one of the single most significant factors in predicting if a child will continue to attend church as an adult. Naturally it is great for moms to take their kids to church as well, but there appears to be something about the head of the household making the statement that this is important that makes in impact on kids. Jonathan is going to be a pastor, so as a "PK" I am sure it will be different for our daughter. When she sees her dad at church, it may just look like he is "doing his job." So we both have talked about how important it will be for Jonathan to do things outside of "work" that model his relationship with Christ for our kids.
   
   My dad always read Bible stories to me and my siblings growing up, and I remember those evenings together very fondly. I remember that Dad didn't really read for pleasure when I was growing up. In fact, I remember that he once told me he didn't like reading. But every single day he would read the Bible to me. That demonstrated to me so powerfully how important he thought that was. I never doubted for a minute that my parents placed a high value on the Word of God, and so naturally, I grew up to place that same value on Bible time.
   
   
3. You can't go wrong with reading and quality time.
   
   I try to read to my daughter at some point during the day every day if possible. The more we read to her from the beginning, the better, right? So why should I get to do all of it? I know that as she gets older she will love having Daddy read to her too. And whenever we can build habits that involve regular quality time, we are going to do that! Jonathan loves reading to her, and she seems to like it too, and it gives me a chance to have some time to myself in the evening and get ready for bed or finally do some little thing that I've probably been trying to get to all day. So everybody wins!

I also want to throw in a note about The Beginner's Bible. We looked at a number of different Bibles, but this one is great in that it does not make the hard accounts, or the hard-to-understand accounts, or the unpopular accounts politically correct. I flipped through some Bibles for children that had completely omitted Christ's crucifixion, the resurrection, or both! They basically said, "Jesus was a nice person that God sent to earth to teach us how to be nice." That's not going to cut it. I need a children's bible that teaches, "Jesus was God, and he came to earth to die for you because you were sinful, so that he could pay the price for your sins, and then he rose from the dead, and now when you die you too will rise from the dead and live with God forever because Jesus loved you enough to do that for you." That's not too complicated for kids, plus it's the truth.

And this Bible is also the only one I've seen so far that accounts the creation story using the biblical language about creation occurring in 7 days. Some children's Bibles gloss over that entirely.  Of course, no children's Bible is going to be a complete Bible, but this one doesn't leave Christ out, and it doesn't change language to make stories sound like fairy tales or like they never happened. There may be a better children's Bible out there, but so far, this is my favorite. There is also a Beginner's Bible for Toddlers, but after reading some of the stories, they fell into the trap of glossing over some things that I think are important, even from a young age. So we just jumped right to The Beginner's Bible, even though we realize that she's still really young.

If you know of any better children's Bibles, I would love to hear about them!