SPIRITUAL DISCUSSIONS: HOW TO START A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE BIBLE
EMAIL 1
Dear Parents,
As you begin your spiritual conversations with your child, we have 3 simple tips to help you start those discussions. From the “big picture” to practical resources, in less than five minutes, you receive a basic starter kit for a spiritual dialogue with your child.
Click the link below to view.
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/433835008/45cd823342
We believe in you and your family. If you ever need anything, please let us know.
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EMAIL 2
Dear Parents,
Have you ever wanted to start a conversation with your child, but don’t know where to start? Do you wonder what you need to know?
We have a brief parent video that gives 3 simple tips on a basic understanding of the Bible. With these foundations in place, step into those spiritual conversations with God-confidence. Just click the link to get started.
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/433835008/45cd823342
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
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VIDEO
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VIDEO SCRIPT
Have you ever wanted to talk to your kids about the Bible, but you don’t know where to start? Do you look at your Bible and think I’m so confused, or I am so overwhelmed and you know what, I’ll just leave this to the professionals, or I need a degree to understand this. And if you think that way, I want you to know you’re not alone. The majority of parents struggle in knowing how to read and study the Bible and then how to pass that down to their children. And one of the things in God’s love story, the scriptures in the book of Deuteronomy chapter six, he asked parents to pass it down to their children. And so many parents long and want to know how to do that, but they just don’t know how to get started. So today, I’m going to give you three simple steps to get you started in understanding the Bible.
And think about it like kindling, my husband and I, the other day, we’re trying to start a fire. And as we were trying to get the fire going in our fire pit, one of the things that occurred was we needed a lot of kindling to get going, to get the fire set and so that we could begin to start our smores process. Well, think about it like this. These three tips will help you get started, very basic.
So number one, the whole Scripture is a love story. It is God’s love story of how he is pursuing mankind. Started in the Garden of Eden, he created human beings, and he wanted to build a relationship with them. Then when the fall occurred, and they began to choose what they thought was the better way, a separation occurred. And then God began to put a love story, a rescue story in place. He said, “I’m going to send my son Jesus to save them so that we can come back into a relationship together.” And the scriptures tell of this story, and that is the overview. There’s a lot of other sub-themes to it, but the main theme is that it’s a love story. It is a love story of how God loves you about how God loves your children.
Number two, it’s important to know the context of the verses that you study. Here’s what I mean by that. Have you ever had someone repeat what you said, and they took it out of context? There’s nothing more annoying in the whole world, right? Because you’re like, “Come on. That is not what I meant to say.” Well, that’s a lot like the scriptures. It is said within the context of a love story. So it’s important to know the context of when it was written, how it was written, who wrote it and why they wrote it. And that’s why you see people engaging Bible study tools. It’s one of the reasons why people engage paraphrases, like The Message or the Jesus Storybook Bible. And another reason why it’s important to know the context is because sometimes there are others who can bring in what I call spiritual misrepresentation, and they can begin to use the scriptures out of context. And so for you to be equipped, to know when that is occurring when you study the context of the scriptures, you can also teach your children this. They can recognize when someone is misusing those scriptures.
And third, the first was, know that it’s a love story. Two, know that it’s important to understand the context, and three, know that it’s written from a different time period and in a different language other than English. So because of that, if you feel like it’s like trying to understand Shakespeare, you’re okay. That is a normal thought- that sometimes the “thee’s” and “thou’s” and the words that have five syllables- can feel so overwhelming.
And you got to think; I want you to be kind to yourself for a little bit, because if I plop down a poetry book, which much of the Bible’s in poetry, Book of Psalms especially. If I pop down a poetry book in front of you, it might help if you had a poetry teacher come and teach you about poetry. This is why it’s important to help find someone who can maybe teach you a little bit about the Bible, to teach you about the context, to teach you about the time period, and to teach you about the language in which it was written. It doesn’t mean that you don’t know and that something’s wrong with you; it actually just is you taking a step of faith into studying the love story. You’re pursuing this love story that God wrote for you.
So I hope that today, in this brief little time together, that you are encouraged because you’re not alone if you feel that passing down God’s scripture can be frustrating. But I want to encourage you for a second. If you’re watching this video, that means you have the heart behind it. That means you want to do it, and that’s half the battle. And so I just want to say, Good Job”. And so these are your first three steps to get you started. Know it’s a love story, know that it’s important to understand the context and spend some time with someone that they can help you understand the language and the time period in which it’s written. And I hope and encourage you as you seek to pass down God’s love story to your children.