Bible Reading With Style

Can you imagine reading the story of Jesus overturning the moneychangers’ tables in the temple in a dry, monotone voice? “It-is-written-he-said-to-them-my-house-will-be-called-a-house-of-prayer-but-you-are-making-it-a-den-of-robbers.” Snooze city. Good luck instilling a thirst for more with that kind of delivery.

While we all can’t have smooth, velvety voices, there is a lot to be said for reading with some sense of who your audience is and consistent with the emotion of the passage. Children enjoy having stories read to them, but they love it more when the reader makes the words come to life. Jesus was at least a little miffed at what the Jews were allowing in His Father’s house. Practice reading through clenched teeth, emphasizing the words “prayer” and “den of robbers.”

I try to read a little ahead of my children so I can kind of plan out how I want to present the passage. I don’t usually read it out loud to myself, although I have on occasion. I get a feel for the context of the story, who may be saying what and how, and decide how I might handle some of the more complex names of people and places as I come across them. This doesn’t take long (I usually do it right before we read) and I usually don’t have to do it more than once.

The Bible can certainly stand by itself in terms of excitement, courage, tragedy and even humor. It is filled with beautiful prose and poetry and the truths of God are awesome by any definition. Nonetheless, reading with style and passion is a useful tool for drawing your children in and making the words resonate in their hearts. Integrate this approach into your family devotions.