Something Christine and I have been thinking about for awhile now, but was solidified at that parenting seminar we went to last weekend centered around how to begin introducing our kids to the Word of God. We’ve wanted to start building some family traditions and be more intentional with some of our family and parenting values.Therefore, we have implemented “Family Bible Time” after dinner and thus far I think we have successfully pulled it off 3 different nights. We’ve found it’s a good way to keep Morgan sitting still in her chair a little bit longer during dinner and it does allow for some good, although basic, interaction over the Bible. Colin just sits there and drools and smiles.When you try to take these stories down to a 2 or 3 year old level it takes some of the variety out it though. So far there’s a definite theme to Biblical narrative as we have represented it to Morgan. It goes like this: God tells someone to listen and obey because he loves them and wants to protect and love them. They don’t listen and obey because they are selfish. God gives them a time out. OK, so maybe we can be accused of spreading parenting propaganda, but that’s pretty much what we have to work with in Genesis 1-6 which is what we’ve done thus far.Here are some of Morgan’s observations on the Holy Scriptures through her eyes:
- “But I eat apples!?” (upon her seeing that God gave Adam and Eve a timeout for eating an “apple” from the special tree in the garden)
- “There sure are a lot of feet in the Bible!” (upon flipping through the pages and seeing a large number of pictures that emphasized people’s feet, while cutting off the rest of their bodies)
- “What’s that guy doing underneath that big rock?” (upon seeing Abel’s feet protruding from a large boulder that Cain apparently dropped on him, Road Runner style)
Explaining Cain and Abel was a bit rough. I ended up explaining that Cain gave Abel a big “ouchie” because he was angry. This conversation had one of those 3 year old endless cycles of the “Why?” question. After trying to explain Cain’s murder of his brother without scarring my daughter forever, she shut it down saying, “I think that’s enough for tonight.” I told her I thought she was right.While I would never want to detract from the Scriptures, I’m really hoping this version of the Bible skips over those stories about Lot and the strangers in Sodom as well as that sordid affair of Lot and his 2 daughters boozing it up in a cave.
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