Determining What To Read In The Bible

All of the Bible is God-breathed and useful for raising our children, but if we're just starting out with family devotions it is not necessary to read those areas that are beyond their maturity or understanding. What is necessary is determining what our goals are for reading, and then focusing on those areas of the Bible that will bring those goals to fruition.

If your child is young and just starting out in the Bible, you may decide to initially introduce him to some of the main characters or popular stories, thus laying a foundation of interest in the book and establishing God’s hand in the lives of certain important people. This approach does not require a sequential reading, but rather picking and choosing the stories you want to read. Many Bibles have a list of the better known stories in the front or back pages.

If your child has a basic familiarity with the popular stories, your goal may be to teach him the life of Jesus in order to develop a knowledge of who it is that saves us from our sins. Focusing on one of the Gospels is what you need here.

If your child knows and loves Jesus but needs to know more about what salvation is all about, following up the reading from one of the Gospels with some of the letters from the apostles would make sense. Again, sequentially reading through the letters, or epistles, starting with the Book of Acts isn’t necessary.

Finally, for the child who has accepted salvation from Jesus and whom you are now discipling, the whole Bible is fair game. Whether you’re training your child in godly character, building his knowledge about obedience or studying God’s Word in order to deepen and enrich his spiritual relationship, you can skip around from book to book, or even sections of books, to accomplish whatever goal you have set.

Think of the Bible as the ultimate life reference book. Use it as if it were an encyclopedia. If you were looking up something on Thailand, you wouldn’t start reading about aardvarks and work your way forward. Likewise, for example, if you wanted to teach your teenager the definition of love, you wouldn’t start with Genesis in order to eventually work your way to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

Discuss with your spouse what your goals are for your children. Then determine where in the Bible to find truths relevant to the task at hand. Seek counsel from your pastor or a trusted Christian elder who knows his way around the Word for help in where to start.