How To Study The Bible As A Family

Aaron Smith: Hey we’re Aaron and Jennifer Smith, with Marriage After God.

Jennifer Smith: Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

Aaron Smith: And today, we’re going to be talking about How To Study The Bible As A Family.
Hey thanks for joining us today, as always want to invite you to subscribe to our channel by hitting the little red button, and also next to the red button is a bell, you can click that and that will give you notifications every time we upload a new episode.

Jennifer Smith: Also, throughout this episode we’re going to be talking about How To Study The Bible As A Family, and if you have any resources, books, family devotional that you have found to be very impactful in your family, please share them in the comments so that other people can find those resources.
So today, we’re going to be talking about How To Study The Bible As A Family and I love letting you guys know that this was a question that you guys had. So we hear you and we hope to answer this question with some of our own personal experience with studying the Bible as a family. And we’re going to start with scripture. So Aaron, why don’t you start with that?

Aaron Smith: Yeah, so we’re going to start in Deuteronomy, chapter 6 verse 4-9. And it says this, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind sign on your hand and they shall be as a frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
So we just wanted to start off with this scripture because it’s a kind of a …

Jennifer Smith: Foundational.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, foundational verse for us in just the understanding of what the Bible, what the Word of God, what His commandments, His precepts, His laws are in our home. And all the way back in Deuteronomy, when God has given all the laws and He’s continually giving the laws throughout the Old Testament.
God tells them, “Hey, teach your children the things I tell you to teach them.” Teach your children the commandments and so this is a pretty good verse to just wrap your mind around. Instead of it being like, once a day or we have five minutes a day here or we do it on Sunday’s we do this. It’s a daily, moment by moment, lifestyle that we get to live.
So the first thing we want to talk about when it comes to this verse and how we can look at studying the Bible as a family and what it means is this word, diligent. It says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children and so …”

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, I looked up the definition and it says, “Careful and persistent work or effort.”

Aaron Smith: Yeah, so when you think of diligent in our home, what does that look like? Is it like every so often or when the needs comes up? Or like, “Oh we need to get back into it?” Or what does that look like?

Jennifer Smith: I feel like it’s more of a being mindful and being an intentional thing so it’s finding those opportunities all throughout the day to be in the Word. To share different biblical concepts or principles with the kids. It’s just like this says, “Being careful and persistent work or effort.” It’s actually putting forth that work to find those opportunities and to share and meditate on the Word with your children and with your spouse.

Aaron Smith: So instead of it being a whimsical, like well sometimes we get it or when we have inspiration, we open up the Bible.

Jennifer Smith: Or holidays, only special holidays.

Aaron Smith: Or on special occasions. It’s more of a, it’s an intentional, consistent …

Jennifer Smith: Daily pursuit.

Aaron Smith: Pursuit. And diligent, you know when you think about anything you want to get good at in life, diligence is the first word I think of. Like if you want to get good at your position at your work, or a certain sport or if you’re trying to learn a new skill.

Jennifer Smith: You have to become familiar with it, you have to try and understand it. You have to try and teach it.

Aaron Smith: Which, all of those things fall under diligence. It’s a continuing … whether I’m today I’m struggling. Ah man, I’m going to do it anyway.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: Oh, I don’t have all the time I need today, we’re going to make it work. So the diligent part of this is a really important, it’s one of the reasons why when you read through the Old Testament and you see Israel, the children of Israel they’re following God and then the next generation it says, “They turned their hearts from God.” And then the next generation’s following God, and then the next generation’s … A lot of the reasons that happened throughout the Old Testament, the relationship the children of God had with Him, was because the parents were not diligent, in teaching their children the Word of God.

Jennifer Smith: And we can’t deceive ourselves in thinking that we’re being faithful by following God in the wee hours of the morning before our kids wake up and not ever talking about with our children, right?

Aaron Smith: Yeah.

Jennifer Smith: Because we can think we’re in the right with God because we’re reading His Word and we’re praying and we’re actively pursuing that relationship with Him, but we’re not teaching our children.

Aaron Smith: That was actually something that I got convicted on, last year, or middle of last year. I realized that all the times I was opening the Word of God …

Jennifer Smith: It was without the kids.

Aaron Smith: Was when the kids weren’t around watching me do it.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, yeah.

Aaron Smith: They couldn’t see me visually open up my Bible and then when I was reading the Word of God in front of them, guess where it was? It was on my phone.

Jennifer Smith: Oh.

Aaron Smith: So all they see is me on my phone, they don’t know I’m reading the Bible.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: So I’m not saying reading the Bible on phone is a bad thing, but I think it’s not as effective or powerful in this whole idea of diligence with our children because they’re not actually seeing me open this.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: The physical Word of God, the Bible.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: All they’re seeing is me be addicted to my phone. And so instead of encouraging them to open the Bible, I’m encouraging them to hold a phone.

Jennifer Smith: Or doing it away from them.

Aaron Smith: Or doing it away from them, so we definitely need time away from them …

Jennifer Smith: Sure.

Aaron Smith: In the Word of God, but the diligence part is I’m diligently making sure that they see the Word of God open.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: They see us reading it and that we’re reading it to them and we’re explaining to them and teaching them it with diligence. Not whimsically, not haphazardly, not when the timing’s right. It’s something that we try and do daily, to the best of our abilities and I feel like that’s what diligence means.
So I just want to encourage you, listening if you aren’t diligent in the Word of God, in your own walk. If you’re not opening this up daily, if you’re not just reading it and trying to figure out what the Spirit has for you to learn from it, and what God has from it. This is the Word of God, this is what we base our entire life and faith on, is this.
If you’re not diligent in it yourself, you can’t possibly hope to be diligent with your children. Would you agree?

Jennifer Smith: Yeah

Aaron Smith: This is something that I struggle with, being daily in the Word of God. So I just want to encourage you to be diligent for yourself, getting in the Word of God.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, I also want to encourage those listening who may not have a family, but it’s just you and your spouse. All that we’re going to talk about today still applies to you, so don’t think you’re getting out of this.

Aaron Smith: Yeah. The practice starts before children.

Jennifer Smith: The practice actually starts before the children come and you can easily, your family right now is your spouse and so you can easily jump into studying the Bible together as a couple and that should be happening and so we’re going to talk about that a little bit later but I just want to encourage those listening. This message is still for those of you who are without children too.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, so we just talked about being diligent. It’s an intentional, and continual pursuit. That you’re just trying …

Jennifer Smith: You’re putting effort in.

Aaron Smith: I have a few minutes here, I have a few minutes there. I’m going to show the kids, I’m going to open it up. I’m going to read it, I’m going to read it out loud. And then on my own, I’m going to diligently be in the Word of God and teach it to myself.
But that leads right into this next part of this scripture. And it says, “And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.”
So we go from the diligence of just that continual and persistent and intentional pursuit of getting into the Word of God, as a family. We get this picture in Deuteronomy, it’s a command actually for the fathers, for the families to be okay, you need to do this. It’s not just like you said, it’s not just Sundays. Like oh on Sundays, we got in the Word of God. That doesn’t really fall under, talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way.

Jennifer Smith: Or when you lie down, and when you rise.

Aaron Smith: And when you lie down, and when you rise.

Jennifer Smith: That’s like a constant, yeah continual-

Aaron Smith: That’s a daily … that’s saying, so what’s an example of when you talk in your house? It says talk with it in your house.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, I think that, I feel like you’re really good at when we’re talking or having conversations with the kids or something comes up, there’s an event that happens between the kids. You bring in God’s Word, and you teach them from that.
I remember, we may have shared this already but when Elliott was having a hard time with his sister, you made them memorize Luke 6:31. Do unto others as you would have them do to you, and so being able to remind the kids and again going back to finding those opportunities, just throughout the day, to remind them of what God’s Word says so that it’s not just, you’re doing what daddy tells you. Or you’re doing what mommy tells you, you’re actually encouraging them to do what God tells them to do.

Aaron Smith: Right because my words are not as powerful as God’s Words. And here’s the other thing, is when I taught them Luke 6:31 I actually, I’ve always known the golden rule, you know. Do unto others …

Jennifer Smith: Yep.

Aaron Smith: … as you would have them do unto you. I didn’t know it was Luke 6:31, and it actually says it in other Gospels too in different ways but because I had my children memorize it.

Jennifer Smith: It helps you.

Aaron Smith: I memorized it, so forever I will know Luke 6:31 is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The golden rule.

Jennifer Smith: There’s also other opportunities, you know when you’re playing outside and the kids are rolling around in the grass, just being able to tell them, “Do you know who made that?” You talk about the sky. Kids are always being observant to things around you. Oh look at that bird, look at that dog, whatever.

Aaron Smith: Yeah.

Jennifer Smith: You could talk to them about who created that.

Aaron Smith: Yeah.

Jennifer Smith: And bring in God to every aspect of your life and I feel like that’s what Deuteronomy’s saying.

Aaron Smith: A good verse for that is in Romans, when it says that God’s invisible attributes …

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: … are made known in visible nature.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: You might feel like, well I don’t know all those scriptures but here’s the thing, when you’re diligent, and when you do it …

Jennifer Smith: When you become familiar with it.

Aaron Smith: You’ll slowly start becoming more and more familiar with the Word of God.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: And guess what? Our children will as well. Now it may be on a different level, maybe on a different scale and a different timeline but they will start to absorb the things that you are constantly reading as you play them out in real life and that one moment when you have a perfect, physical application, like they’re playing with something and you’re like, “Hey you know actually, that reminds me of that thing we read the other day.” And then boom, it’s in their mind forever because they’ve just associated this tangible illustration with a spiritual thing.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, there’s other ways that we also bring in scripture and that’s through small Bible studies. I have an older book, called Little Visits With God, that sometimes when we’re at the table, I’ll bring it out it walks you through a story but then also walks you through some scripture and some questions that you can ask the kids. So just finding other supplements to that will encourage their faith and encourage them to look back to what God tells them through scripture.

Aaron Smith: And it goes into the, talk when you’re sitting in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. Having not just the Bible but other things that all reference the Bible and talk about children’s books and little prayer books.

Jennifer Smith: We have a rhyming Bible and I was joking with Aaron the other day that it’s not very scriptural because it’s not word for word, for the Bible but it tell the same story just through rhymes and its actually really beautiful. It’s just another way for the kids to be familiar with what God’s Word says.

Aaron Smith: Which is essentially the idea of meditation.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: The Bible’s version of meditation, not New Age meditation but where we’re constantly filling our minds …

Jennifer Smith: With the Word of God.

Aaron Smith: And mulling over the Word of God.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: So there’s all different ways that you can do it in every aspect. When you’re in the home, when you’re walking during the day, when you’re laying down, when you’re rising up.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: The laying down portion is like, we pray with our kids before bed …

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: … and oftentimes we remind them of things that we learned in the Bible.

Jennifer Smith: Throughout the day.

Aaron Smith: Or situations where discipline had to happen, we’re like, “Hey remember what God says in … what’s the fifth commandment?” We remind them of that all the time.

Jennifer Smith: Our little Olive, she’s almost three and she goes, “Honor your momma and dad.”

Aaron Smith: Yeah.

Jennifer Smith: So cute.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, so the next part of this verse.

Jennifer Smith: It’s a little weird.

Aaron Smith: It’s a little weird, we actually discussed whether we’re going to read it or not but our heart is that we actually just want to read stuff, even if it’s hard, and we’ll try and navigate it with you.
It says, “You shall bind them,” this is verse 8, in Deuteronomy chapter 6. It says, “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
In Jewish culture they actually, the rabbi’s take this very literally, and they have these boxes that they’ll wear on their foreheads, between their eyes and has little scriptures in it. And we’re not going to go there. I don’t think that’s exactly what God meant by this. I don’t know also but what this made me think of, this idea says, it says, “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
The picture I got from this and I could be totally wrong but I think it’s applicable is, this Bible, if it’s in my hand is a sign.

Jennifer Smith: It’s a visible, tangible sign.

Aaron Smith: It’s not over there, it’s not in a drawer.

Jennifer Smith: Tucked away on a shelf.

Aaron Smith: It’s a visible sign that this Word of God is important to me and that I have it, and that I’m willing to read it. So and the other idea that it’s frontlets between my eyes, that’s it’s always between my eyes.

Jennifer Smith: You’re actually reading it.

Aaron Smith: I’m actually reading it. It’s actually something that I focus on, it’s not just this ancillary thing that is sometimes a part of our life. It is a very important part of our life, it’s between my eyes. And so I thought a good way of illustrating this, my Bible, our Bibles are on our nightstands. They’re right here.

Jennifer Smith: Kitchen table.

Aaron Smith: They’re actually right where you see this, most of the time where it’s at.

Jennifer Smith: Usually where it’s at. Yeah.

Aaron Smith: It sits right here and either it’s open to the thing I’m reading or it’s closed, but it’s always visible. My kids know we have Bibles, and they’re always open. I feel like this scripture, the encouragement is, is your Bible on a shelf somewhere, hidden? And you actually forget about it?

Jennifer Smith: Do you know where your Bible is?

Aaron Smith: Yeah, do you know where your Bible’s at? Is it visible in the home? Is it a centerpiece in the home? Not as an ornament, a decoration but it’s actually a … it could get water on it. It could get messy. It can get dirty, the kids see it. They can touch it. It has to be moved when we want to use this area.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: So I thought that this was a great way to illustrate it. Again I can be wrong in the exact interpretation of this but I feel like the application of the principle is that it’s visible, it’s a sign in our homes. It’s in my hand.

Jennifer Smith: And you’re focused on it.

Aaron Smith: And it’s between my eyes.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: It’s between our eyes. It’s between my kids eyes, they always see it. When I’m sitting at the breakfast table, it’s there and we’re reading from it.

Jennifer Smith: And what’s great about that is they actually become familiar with it, even at a young age, Elliott was, you would say, “Okay we’re going to read Proverbs today.” And he would know to go right to the middle of the Bible and flip it open and sure enough, most of the time he would land in Proverbs …

Aaron Smith: Yeah.

Jennifer Smith: … and he was so excited about that but getting them familiar too with the way that it sounds, and the way that it feels and just becoming familiar with this is an important aspect of their learning.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, our pastor was encouraging us to get familiar with the geography of the Bible.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: And you know what, sadly? Many, many, many Christians are not familiar with the geography of the Bible. They don’t know what’s New Testament or Old Testament. They don’t know where Deuteronomy’s at, they don’t know where Jeremiah’s at, they don’t know where Psalms is at. Proverbs, Job, they don’t know what the minor prophets are. The New Testament the order of it. I still have a hard time memorizing the order of the books, but getting familiar with it as a family. So we’re going to get into some more practical things but as an example, when I read to the kids I ask them what book we’re reading in. And because they hear the name over and over and over again, they start to remember.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: Then I say, “What’s the first book in the Bible?” And then Olive says …

Jennifer Smith: Genesis.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, Genesis, it’s really funny. So getting familiar with it, so that’s kind of where I went with this, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, that it’s always at hand. And that it’s frontlets between your eyes, that it’s always in focus. It’s always visible in the home, and not just visible but used.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: So and that bring us to the next part of the scripture, and it says, “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.”

Jennifer Smith: So how we interpret this one is just that you put scripture up. Whether you go to Hobby Lobby and get a cool sign, or have, we shared this before but having a chalk wall in your house, which we’ve seen before. We have a chalkboard wall.

Aaron Smith: We have one right in the kitchen there.

Jennifer Smith: I had these old wooden, squares, they were pretty large, almost like pallet wood and I just painted them all and wrote the 10 commandments on them and I stuck them in the kid’s room and we go over them every day. It’s just a great way for verses, God’s Word to be visible, so that you can be reminded of it, so that your kids can be familiar with it.

Aaron Smith: So in Jewish culture they actually take this super literal and on their doorposts, they have this little metal gadget and it’s got inscriptions on it in Hebrew and it’s got…

Jennifer Smith: Scripture on the inside.

Aaron Smith: … rolled up scripture on the inside of it. But the idea is that it’s, it says on your gates too so that we have scripture visible and it’s in our faces constantly so we read it. It’s easy for us to memorize it.
Another example, we have a lot of friends that they put sticky notes on their mirrors. So that when they’re brushing their teeth they’re memorizing scripture. But the fact that, it’s walking us through diligence. It’s a moment by moment, hour by hour, minute by minute focus. It’s just a part of every aspect of our life and we’re talking about physical fruit. We’re mentioning the fruits of the Spirit.
Food we’re remembering what Jesus said that we don’t live by bread alone but every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. It’s a part of our life, it’s actually all of our life.

Jennifer Smith: Yep.

Aaron Smith: Not a part of our life, is what I meant to say and a way of doing this that we actually, we have the Word of God in our home.

Jennifer Smith: Yep.

Aaron Smith: On walls, and painted on boards and on our mirrors and on our doors and hanging on our walls.
So we walk through Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4-9 to give us kind of a biblical and scriptural foundation of what it might look like in our homes. And it’s not just a Bible study, a once a week, once a day type thing but it’s actually a lifestyle.
And so what we want to do now is we want to just transition and we want to talk about some actual practical things that we implement, that you guys might be able to implement as well.

Jennifer Smith: So for a specific Bible study if did want to walk your family through a very specific time, either during the day or during the week, this is an idea that you might be able to do.
So what we do is every morning, we try and do it every morning and there’s sometimes here and …

Aaron Smith: A couple days a week.

Jennifer Smith: … there that we don’t get to.

Aaron Smith: We miss.

Jennifer Smith: What we do is Aaron leads it, so dad leads it and we usually sit in the couch. The older two kids, who’s five and three sit in these little camping chairs that got for them.

Aaron Smith: Which we use at church also, so it’s practice for them.

Jennifer Smith: It is practice for that too. So Elliott has his Bible that he tries to follow along with. He’ll go to the same book and then just kind of, he doesn’t know how to read yet so just playing around with …

Aaron Smith: He does try and recognize words, now that he’s learning.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.

Aaron Smith: So he’s like, does this say God?

Jennifer Smith: Is this God? Yeah. So we would recommend that. Maybe ages three and up, have their own Bible that they can sit with during that time. But they even have other really cool resources out there, like little prayer books, or board book Bible books that even the younger kids can have but, so our youngest is a year old and he sits on a blanket with some toys. That way, they’re still quiet and the whole family can engage together, they just obviously aren’t probably paying attention.

Aaron Smith: He’s learning to participate in other ways.

Jennifer Smith: In other ways.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, he’s learning self-control. He’s learning to be still.

Jennifer Smith: Right. So currently we’re going through chronologically, so we started in Genesis and we’re just moving through the Bible together. How many chapters do you think? Once a day? One chapter a day?

Aaron Smith: Usually I’ll read one chapter. Sometimes it’s less, if it’s a super long chapter but and sometimes it’s more but for the most part it’s a chapter.

Jennifer Smith: Okay.

Aaron Smith: And then we-

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, so usually when we all sit down as a family, you will lead with some questions, referring back to the day before. So like you said earlier, “What chapter in the Bible are we in?”

Aaron Smith: Yep.

Jennifer Smith: Giving the kids an opportunity to engage right before we actually get into the Word. You know maybe you ask them, “Well, what happened yesterday? What did we read about?” And so that’s really cool and the kids usually are pretty good. We’ve been surprised by Olive, who’s almost three. We’ve been surprised by her answering …

Aaron Smith: She remembers a lot, yeah.

Jennifer Smith: Some of the questions and sometimes it seems like she’s not paying attention at all and then answers these questions …

Aaron Smith: I know.

Jennifer Smith: You’re like, wow, you knew that?

Aaron Smith: You’re like, how did you …
So just an encouragement, it’s not super complicated. I don’t have this list of super deep questions. I just make up questions as I go, and oftentimes they’re simple geographical. Like hey, “What did we read yesterday? Or what book did we read yesterday?” Genesis, Exodus. What’s the first book in the Bible? Things that, I like to recall it also and learn.
I ask them, “What’s the second book in the Bible?” And they’re learning because we’re in the second book, Exodus.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: I’ll say, “Who’s the main character of this book because we mention that name Moses, over and over and over … “

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: … in Exodus.

Jennifer Smith: Or when you’re talking about the Red Sea, “Who was chasing them?” The Egyptians. So really short.

Aaron Smith: They’re not super deep and theological but you know what it does? My kids know what Exodus is about.

Jennifer Smith: Yep.

Aaron Smith: They know that the main character is Moses. They understand that and Elliott will be like, “Oh it’s about the Israelites leaving Egypt, escaping Egypt.” And I ask him questions about Pharaoh. Did you think that was nice that he did that? Simple, simple questions. This is not over complicated and actually I learn the books better that way, just by reading and asking simple questions to my kids. I don’t know about you but I learn by teaching. And even though I’m not teaching deep theological stuff I’m learning a lot about the Bible.
And you know what? My kids are learning it.

Jennifer Smith: And sometimes they have questions that they get to ask and we get to answer them.

Aaron Smith: Stump us.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, sometimes stump us. So it’s just a really good time to engage with the family and then them learning self-control, to be quiet while dad’s reading out loud. Mom and dad following along in the Word, they get to see us in the Word.

Aaron Smith: Yep.

Jennifer Smith: They’re in the Word, it’s just a really great opportunity for us a family, that’s how we study the Bible and then we always try and end in prayer.
So as we read the Bible, I want you to share a little bit from your perspective when you are leading in that way because it’s new for you too. I mean this is, you’ve been doing it for a while now but it’s still new to you, so just encourage those who might be jumping with a Bible study like this.
Are there part of the Bible that you skip over for our kids being so young? Or is there an age appropriateness to it?

Aaron Smith: Yeah, we’re trying to be careful navigating as … because you can be reading through Exodus and Genesis and some of these Old Testament books and there’s tons of really adult content.

Jennifer Smith: Yep.

Aaron Smith: Things that you’re not going to necessarily want to mention to your kids, depending on their age range, so what we’ll try and do is I’ll skim quickly through, I won’t deeply read into it but I’ll be reading and if I feel like it’s getting … it’s about to mention something … I don’t know if my kids are ready to hear this, I’ll just skip right over it.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, and I’m sure as our kids get older, maybe taking those older ones aside and saying, “Hey I skipped over this earlier but I want to sit down and talk to you about it.” That could be an option.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, or when they get older, and we get back to that I might just read through it. And if they have questions about it they’ll be at a point where I can actually explain to them.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: And they’ll understand, but depending on their age I just, I don’t over think it. I don’t over complicate and say, “Oh I need to read every verse.”

Jennifer Smith: Right.

Aaron Smith: I’ll read, because here’s the thing, they’re getting used to me being in the Word of God.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: They’re being used to reading the Word of God, I’m reading things that are sometimes a little boring.

Jennifer Smith: Okay speaking of that, I got to ask, so just to help everyone understand, what do you feel about your inflection, your voice and how you present the Word?

Aaron Smith: So, I’m going to mention a book that I’ve been reading, it’s called, Spiritual Disciplines For A Christian Life, and he goes through spiritual disciplines. Prayer, reading the Word of God, things like that. And in the reading the Word of God section he gave this really awesome encouragement, and he said, “Practice reading the Word of God out loud, and also practice reading it with voice changes and inflections and making it sound exciting, because it actually helps you retain what you’re reading more, and it makes those listening enjoy it more.”

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, I feel like our kids, when they get older are going to have a positive perspective of the Bible and of the Word, it’s not going to be something that’s boring. They’re going to remember, well dad got really excited about that.

Aaron Smith: Yeah.

Jennifer Smith: So they’re going to be excited.

Aaron Smith: So, when Moses is going to the burning bush, and God says, “Remove your sandals.”

Jennifer Smith: You get all theatrical.

Aaron Smith: I try … whenever it comes to God speaking, I try and make it sound big. I’m not the greatest at it but I try.

Jennifer Smith: You’re good, you’re good.

Aaron Smith: But you know what, it’s crazy. It’s actually helping me be a better reader.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: Over all, I’m actually, I don’t know if you’ve noticed.

Jennifer Smith: I have.

Aaron Smith: I feel like I can read better because when you read silently, you can read fast but when you read out loud, it actually, it causes you to slow down and when you read with voice changes and inflections and tone changes and all that to make it sound more exciting, it makes you slow down even more and you get better at reading. So it’s a good practice. And it makes my kids enjoy it better.
So real quick, just going back to what you were mentioning about the reading everything.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: Some other things, this is a tip for you. Especially going through the Old Testament, there’s a lot of genealogies and it’s like so and so begot, so and so begot, so and so, I’ll skip over some of that stuff. Unless we’re going through genealogy study or if there’s something important that I want point out to my kids when they’re older, I might go back through that but really I want to get to the main chunks of scripture. I just want to read stuff that they going to remember the main stories. I’m not going to skip over everything but if it’s not super important to the flow of what we’ve been reading, I’ll just jump right over. I don’t want to make my kids hate me reading the Bible.

Jennifer Smith: Yep.

Aaron Smith: And when they get older, that stuff will get more and more interesting.

Jennifer Smith: Sure.

Aaron Smith: There’ll be times that it’s appropriate but that’s another way, just tip for you, if you’re wanting to just go chronologically.

Jennifer Smith: Awesome.

Aaron Smith: To think through the excitement of what you’re reading.

Jennifer Smith: Awesome. So we hope that by sharing a little bit of perspective and insight into how we study the Bible as a family, it would encourage and challenge you guys to also be pursuing diligently how to study the Bible as a family a just know that a marriage after God, is one that pursues this diligently.

Aaron Smith: And we just want to encourage you finally at the end of this because it can get daunting.

Jennifer Smith: Yep.

Aaron Smith: Like I don’t know where to start, I don’t know much about the Bible. How am I supposed to teach my kids well?
The first encouragement is by doing it, you’ll get more knowledgeable. Just opening it up and reading it.

Jennifer Smith: Yep. The other one is to simplify it.

Aaron Smith: Yeah.

Jennifer Smith: Don’t overwhelm yourself with the what if’s or the unknowns, just start doing it and let it be a simple process.

Aaron Smith: Yeah, and lastly we want to encourage you with a scripture.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, I’m going to read Hebrews 4, verse 12. It says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Aaron Smith: So we want to encourage you that the Word of God in itself is powerful. It doesn’t need me to make it sound more powerful. It doesn’t need me to know it so deeply that I can make it more powerful. That’s good that I learn that and that I can do that because the Bible tells me that I should be able to do that.
But the Word of God, just reading it in our homes, is powerful.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah.

Aaron Smith: That just by reading it, it could and will bring faith and knowledge and understanding to our kids.

Jennifer Smith: Yeah, in Romans 10:17 it says, “So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

Aaron Smith: Yeah, so just reading it is a powerful thing and being diligent to read it out loud, every day is huge. And then asking questions about it and so just know that the Bible, the Word of God is powerful.

Jennifer Smith: It’s active and it’s going to do the work for you. I mean it’s God, it’s Him, in His Word that is going to do the work.

Aaron Smith: And you’ll be surprised at how much it changes you and how you’ll start to learn more about it and you’ll start to get into it and you’ll be able to teach it to your children.
So we just pray that this encouraged you today and inspired you, in your own walks in your family and how you guys are going to navigate studying the Bible together, being diligent in teaching it to your kids when you sit down, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and rise up.

And we just thank you for joining us today and we’ll see you next week.