Can My Children Handle the Real Bible?

As a homeschooling mama, I’ve spent a bit of time perusing homeschool groups, learning from moms who’ve gone before, listening, and following along to see what types of questions arise. But there’s been one question that I’ve seen over and over and over.

“What Bible curriculum do you use?”

I saw the question asked so often, that I eventually wrote out why our family doesn’t use a curriculum. But often, on these forums, I’d share what we did instead. We read the Bible as a family. We gather around the kitchen table. We have discussions. We draw out verses in our journals. We save questions to ask Dad at dinner time. Always, people were fascinated. (I know some families have done this for years, but I also discovered that for many, it was a brand-new concept.) And they had questions:

“Do your kids understand?”
“Do they sit still?”
“Are little kids able to handle the David-and-Bathsheba details?”
“What if they ask a difficult question I don’t know the answer to?”
Isn’t the Bible like … just for bigger kids? Adults?
Isn’t it enough if I just hand my child a Bible when they get a little older?

Over and over, I’ve had these conversations with Moms, sharing my experiences, encouraging them to get in the word. Even now, I run an Instagram account, Write the Word on my Heart, dedicated to encouraging others to begin this, and sharing snippets from our journals.

So how do we do this? What have I learned in the process? Why do I feel this is possibly the most valuable thing we’ve done as a family in the last 5 years? You can find the full article below. (If you’re into podcasts, I also read a podcast essay that can be found here:)

Can My Children Handle the Real Bible

Tattered pages and missing covers told the story of our special relationship with storybook Bibles. But after reading numerous versions, some multiple times, I wondered: were my children ready for the real Bible? Would they sit still without pictures—or make it through the loooong genealogies? And what about those David and Bathsheba types-of-details often left out of storybook versions?

That was three years ago. Today, we’ve read the New Testament as a family. We made it through the lists of names in Ezra and Nehemiah and rediscovered oft-forgotten details in Esther, Daniel, Ruth, and Jonah. If you question whether your family can handle the real Bible, here are three discoveries we made—and a few lessons learned along the way.

That was three years ago. Today, we’ve read the New Testament as a family. We made it through the lists of names in Ezra and Nehemiah and rediscovered oft-forgotten details in Esther, Daniel, Ruth, and Jonah. If you question whether your family can handle the real Bible, here are three discoveries we made—and a few lessons learned along the way.

If you missed morning quiet time, you have another opportunity to hear the word.

Many of us begin our day with the Lord, tiptoeing past sleeping children, trying to grab a few precious moments before the craziness starts. But sometimes, a late night or an early-rising child causes that sweet time to vanish. Spiritual habits help us stay close to the Lord—but are often hard to keep alone. When we began reading as a family, I realized the Lord didn’t limit his speaking to 30-minute blocks while our children are still asleep. Morning after morning, as the tears flowed, or the conviction came, the Lord proved he shows up around kitchen tables, too.

When you explain something, you understand it better.

“But mom, how come God allowed them to kill the babies? Did that guy marry his mom??!? Why did God ask the kings to destroy the high places? How come Nehemiah listed so many families?” Children ask the best questions. Details we gloss over and quickly dismiss, their tender hearts get stuck on and ponder. In the book of Acts, God commends the Bereans who “diligently searched the scriptures to see if this was so.” When those attentive, curious minds ask questions (and my children asked all the above), it forces us to dig deeper like the Bereans. It encourages us to stop and look at the context. It may even open the door for fellowship with another believer. Some of my favorite Bible study moments have come when my children asked a question that pushed me to consider the word a little more deeply.

Reading the Bible together gives a safe place for difficult conversations.

When we read about Noah’s incident in the vineyards, we explained drunkenness and how it makes you do crazy things. When we studied David and Bathsheba, we discussed pornography and how God calls us to turn away at the first sight of nakedness. Solomon’s alliance with foreign wives led us to examine marriage and why God wants us to be equally yoked. Genesis’ creation account allowed us to introduce various world views and what we believe the Bible teaches. Friends, these are challenging subjects, but the word of God doesn’t shy away from difficult issues like many storybook Bibles do.

The world will expose our children to these conversations soon enough, but when Bible reading becomes a family event, discussions happen first at home, with a foundation in the word of God. As we fellowship around these stories, our children learn not only the rules (Don’t get drunk, don’t be unequally yoked, etc.), but the why behind the rules. It’s one thing to tell a 12-year-old not to follow the way of the world; it’s another to shape their conscience with stories of kings who brought ruin to God’s people by befriending foreign rulers.

But do they really understand?

My 10-year-old shocks us regularly with connections, “That’s the same thing it said when the disciples were in the storm.” (We were reading through Jonah). The 5-year-old keeps an illustrated version nearby, copying pictures into a journal and piping in every time weapons are mentioned, “Mommy, did you hear them say sword?” “No, sweet kid, I didn’t.”…but I notice now. My daughter fills her Bible journal with beautiful, intricate drawings. Her devotion to accuracy has caused us to read and reread until each tiny detail is perfectly recorded. (Thanks to her journal, we now have illustrations of Job’s stinky breath, Revelation’s crazy beasts, and the two baskets of heads outside Israel’s gates, to name a few.)

Friends, I affectionately remember the days we squished together on the couch, pouring through children’s Bibles. But as our children grow older, it’s equally important to help them discover the beauty of God’s word. Sure, we can hand them a Bible and encourage them to read on their own. But when we read together, we teach them how to read God’s word. As we navigate difficult questions side-by-side, we teach them not to stop seeking when things get hard. When we make discoveries in the genealogies—“Wow, Boaz was Rehab’s son! No wonder he cared so much for Ruth!”—we teach them to value every word of God. Day after day, as they watch us respond to the word—whether in joy or tears or an overdue apology—our children discover the Bible is not merely a storybook, but the living word of God that influences every aspect of our lives.

History tells us of Susanna Wesley, who taught her children to read using the book of Genesis, and William Tyndale, who labored tirelessly to make the scriptures understandable for “even a simple plowboy.” The apostle John leaves us with a similar sentiment at the beginning of Revelation, “Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear,” he writes. Yes, there may be things our children don’t understand or days we walk away from our Bible reading a little confused. But as we hold the light of God’s word before them, the Lord says, “just in the hearing,” they are blessed.

May the Lord recover this practice of reading the word in our homes, together, as a family.