Overcoming The First Four Excuses

You may be able to come up with additional methods for overcoming the excuses we make for not reading the Bible with our children. If you have any other ideas, I’d love for you to share them. Just click on the comment link below the post. Here are some ways of beating the first four excuses in our list.

I’m not much of a reader.

• Enlist the help of someone in your family who does like to read; you can lead the discussion.
• Set a time limit to your reading.
• Set a paragraph or chapter limit to your reading.
• Consider using the Bible on CD.
  
  I’m/My family’s so busy, we wouldn’t have the time to squeeze it in.
• Find ten or fifteen minutes at dinner or the end of the day to read.
• Evaluate, as a family and individually, whether your busy-ness has eternal significance, and act accordingly.
• Start the evening television marathon one half hour later.
• Schedule it into your day-timer, calendar, weekly planner, etc., and then follow through.
  
  Others are better equipped than I to do this.
• Acknowledge that while you may feel others are more creative or knowledgeable, they don’t know your child as well as you.
• You have the advantage and benefit of a warm, supportive environment and a relationship that others don’t share.
• Embrace the Lord’s command to “fear not,” which appears in the Bible dozens of times in a variety of contexts.
• Do not abdicate your role as parent because others have deceived you into thinking it should be left to the “experts.”
• Evaluate why you think this way. Are your fears/concerns at all reasonable or appropriate or is this justification for what really amounts to laziness?
  
  My child knows where I stand on salvation; I’m letting him come to his own decision.
• Do not risk your child’s salvation on assumptions. They’re oftentimes wrong.
• Your child cannot be forced to make a decision for Christ. However, do not confuse hands-off parenting techniques with your God-given responsibility to train and disciple your child.

We’ll look at the last four excuses tomorrow. Be prepared to deal with some convicting statements.

Related Articles:
8 Excuses Christian Parents Make
Overcoming The Last Four Excuses
Step By Step To Family Devotions - The Series