Give your opinion on developing Bible quiet time habit

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I am really enjoying the dialogue on the Science opinion thread and will weigh in on much of it later. But, while you are in the brainstorming mode, I'd also like to discuss the topic of developing the habit (within your kiddos) of a daily quiet time with the Lord. We have made the beginning strides in that direction in our previous guides, through discussion and study of Bible passages, memory work, and prayer. In Preparing Hearts, we introduce a quiet time for the kiddos once each week.

Now, the goal in the new ancients guide is to help them form the daily habit of a quiet time. We are currently thinking that this will last about 20 minutes each day, be scheduled for the kiddos to do independently, will not consist of a formal Bible study (as that will be covered through Genesis: Finding Our Roots.. which will be done with the parent), but will consist of daily Bible reading, Scripture memorization, and prayer.

We are currently thinking that we will schedule the "Family Illustrated Bible" for daily Bible readings (but will include a schedule of Scripture reading for those who would prefer their kiddos to read directly from the Bible). The Family Illustrated Bible is written in the NIV style and is a paraphrase, but does include wonderful sidebars about historical facts and stays very true to the original text. There is a newly released version that we need to check to make sure it is as God-honoring as the previous version. You can view the link to it here: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Famil ... 486&sr=1-1

We also desire to have a Scripture memorization time and a prayer time. We are looking at having the kiddos pray one of the 4 parts of prayer each day of the week, to familiarize them with the various parts of prayer without overwhelming them. The 4 parts of prayer we are looking at including are adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. We would include a starter to help kiddos pray in that area for the day (i.e. I praise you Lord, for....).

So, my questions to you are:

1. What would you like to see within your child's daily quiet time?
2. What things have you enjoyed within your own quiet time, and how could that knowlege of what has worked for you transfer to helping develop a quiet time for your kiddos?
3. What would you like to see in the way of Scripture memorization? Would you prefer your kiddos to learn key verses or would you prefer for you kiddos to learn entire passages?
4. What would you like to see in the way of prayer?

Feel free to answer any or all of the questions. I post them to get you thinking, but I would love to have you weigh in with your responses on this VERY important area. I praise the Lord for ladies like each of you, who are seeking after Him. He blessed me with each of you.

Blessings,
Carrie

[AboveRubiesMama]

I think this sounds fantastic! One of the big reasons we decided to give HOD a shot was the introduction to the daily Bible study. We have daily devotions as a family but we've been trying to figure out how to foster that personal quiet time for our kids. My oldest is getting the hang of a daily prayer time but really struggles when it comes to Bible reading.

1. What would you like to see within your child's daily quiet time?
It may sound redundant, but some clear direction and specific things to study. We would love for the kids to learn how to lean on the Spirit to guide them but to teach them how to use something as a spring board of sorts.

2. What things have you enjoyed within your own quiet time, and how could that knowlege of what has worked for you transfer to helping develop a quiet time for your kiddos? For me it's the direction I receive from different Bible studies I've done. My DH (the Theology major) prefers starting on page one and reading straight through the Bible. I tend to lean more towards topical stuff, but that's my personality.

3. What would you like to see in the way of Scripture memorization? Would you prefer your kiddos to learn key verses or would you prefer for you kiddos to learn entire passages? I guess this depends on the age. I would love for my kids to eventually get to the point of learning whole passages, but I think it would depend on the child's personality. If my daughter (the oldest) had to learn a whole passage, she would become very discouraged and overwhelmed. Perhaps give the option to the family? Include the passage for the child to learn but also give the key verse(s) for those who are overwhelmed by the idea of learning a whole passage.

4. What would you like to see in the way of prayer? We encourage our kids to pray daily and have tried hard to get away from the "Good is good, God is great," prayers. One thing we've seen in ministry are a lot of adults who complain because they say they never learned how to pray and feel very uncomfortable praying in public. They said they can pray in private, but because their parents (this is a frequent argument we hear) either encouraged them to say a prayer which was memorized or because they never heard their parents pray something that wasn't memorized. They genuinely don't understand the simplicity of prayer and feel this stems from not being taught as a child. I would like to see some guides included but not an actual prayer for them to repeat (I hope that makes sense).

[Jessi]

aboverubiesmama- I really like your idea for number 3 about having the whole passage but also indicating the key scripture verse to memorize so it gives the parents more options depending on the child's ability.

Carrie- I just want to say that I think teaching them personal quiet time is an awesome thing. I never had that training as a child and sure wish I could have been taught that discipline young so I wouldn't struggle with it so much now. Besides if it is in there, perhaps it will help moms to work in their personal time if it is hard to come by at the same time. Just a thought.

Why is it I always remember the supplication part of my prayers with NO problem but the adoration, thanksgiving, and confession parts are conveniently missing a lot. GULP!

[Mom2Monkeys]

I just have a minute to reply, but I think this is a GREAT idea and look foward to seeing this implemented.

I wanted to comment on the parts of prayer, specifically the confession part. We've been through issues with our pastor for ourselves and our children. So my comments stem from what we learned, but probably won't sound nearly as intelligent or spiritual as when our pastor said it!! LOL

Kids generally know about sin. Its bad choices or disobedience. They see the surface layer of obvious sin. They need to learn how to recognize the deeper layer of less obvious sins. This could be a good lesson worked into the confession part of teaching them to pray. Kids know hitting their brother is a sin...but do they realize the selfishness and anger that drove them to do that was a sin? Likely not. They know that tattle tales get on parents nerves and that we tell them not to do it, but do they realize the sin of taking delight in getting a sibling or friend in trouble. What about complaining...we/they know its sinful but the heart issue of discontentment and unthankfulness is the true sin. Some heart probing questions to go along with the confession part of prayer to guide them to the heart issue would be great. A great resource for this is called "Wise Words for Moms" by Ginger Plowman. Its made like a calendar and is in chart form (and very inexpensive-- $4.00). It lists behaviors, shows questions for heart probing, verses for reproof and verses for encouraging right behavior in place of the sinful one, and then additional verses. It covers everything from blaming, boastfulness, arguing, and whining to worry, lies, teasing, and stealing...plus many many more! Maybe a confession focus each week based of this?

I know that I have trouble recognizing my own sin and my confessions are shallow...I did this, I did that...what was in my heart though? That's what I need to focus on. The behavior in ourselves and our children is a symptom, not the problem. If we fix the heart issues, then our behavior will reflect the condition of our hearts.

ETA: A couple examples of application from what they've learned from the day's study would be nice too. Sometimes I get what a scripture is saying, but can't quite apply it to myself and put it into action.

[water2wine]

This is one near and dear to my heart. I am so glad you are going to do this. I love what you are going to use for the group Bible study but I think this edition is wonderful. I love that you are constantly leading them toward authentic relationship with God.

1. What would you like to see within your child's daily quiet time?

I would like to see it be something that leads them to seek deeper about Who God is and how He wants then to live. Something that helps them to really understand Who is Jesus as Savior and what does that really mean for them, what does it mean truly to be Christ-like, and who the Holy Spirit is and how He leads us and a real understanding of why we need the Holy Spirit. Another great thing would be for them to learn how to hear God speak in their life and acknowledge that. Or maybe in other words I would like it to be more relational knowledge rather than head knowledge or possibly intertwining of head knowledge that teaches them to really apply so it becomes heart knowledge. Every program out there fills their heads with Bible facts but I want something that will teach them how to really know Him and what it really means to live for Him.

2. What things have you enjoyed within your own quiet time, and how could that knowledge of what has worked for you transfer to helping develop a quiet time for your kiddos?

The types of things that I have enjoyed are really digging deeper to understand the true meaning of scripture. I have enjoyed reading chronologically but have enjoyed study that relates one area of the Bible to another or that is topical in nature. I like to see some kind of connection I guess whether it is to me or to other things in the Bible. It is like solving God's great puzzle. I also have enjoyed prayer that is about real change and guidance where I am seeking His will on something and then really seeing His hand in things and keeping track of the answers to His prayer. I have enjoyed counting my blessings and even writing those things out. And I have enjoyed study that has made me see God more deeply or in a different light and has broadened my view of His majesty and power, and things that made me look deeper at what God is saying and why He might have said it. I also like looking at things that He might have said to others in the Bible, to look at why He said it and what that might mean in my own life. I think how these things could help develop a quiet time for my kids is that when you become fascinated about God you want to seek Him and you want to learn more about Him. Just developing that love to dig deeper may make them long to do it on their own. But also all these things would be great for them to do because they are really all spiritual growth type things.

3. What would you like to see in the way of Scripture memorization? Would you prefer your kiddos to learn key verses or would you prefer for you kiddos to learn entire passages?

I think the option of both would be good for customizing but I would lean toward entire passages or at least key verses that had what came before or after it or supporting verses whichever seems appropriate for the verse. That along with some teaching that helps to give understanding of the meaning of the verse or thought being studied I think would be great. It makes it more meaningful and I think they would be very ready for it at this age. In this day and age we have so much distortion of scripture I think it would be great to show them that you need to read what comes before and after so that you can understand the context and see how it is applied rather than taking it out of context and applying however you feel like which often distorts it. And I think understanding what you are memorizing and how God wants us to apply it to our lives is essential.

4. What would you like to see in the way of prayer?

I would like to see some guidance for prayer with the emphasis on real Christianity. Something that shows them how to pray to God and how to have continual conversation and prayer with him throughout the day even. But also prayer that evokes gratitude, confronts sin, seeks change, praises Him for His greatness, prayer that teaches them how to depend on Him, and prayer that invites Him into their life to do a good work. I think it would be great to maybe have a series of prayer that goes deeper and deeper on the same few topics and prayer that is based on scripture but personalizes it for them (you know something that teaches them to take scripture and pray it into their lives). I would also like for them to understand the purpose for prayer and also what prayer is not as well as the understanding of what kind of prayer God hears and when He will and will not hear prayer. To me this last point is very important because it is something that can carry over to adulthood and lead to a distorted view of God and self and to inaccurate conclusions sometimes as to what an answer to prayer really looks like.

So excited you are asking us about this and can't wait to hear what you ultimately decide.

[netpea]

I think the option of both would be good for customizing but I would lean toward entire passages or at least key verses that had what came before or after it or supporting verses whichever seems appropriate for the verse. That along with some teaching that helps to give understanding of the meaning of the verse or thought being studied I think would be great. It makes it more meaningful and I think they would be very ready for it at this age. In this day and age we have so much distortion of scripture I think it would be great to show them that you need to read what comes before and after so that you can understand the context and see how it is applied rather than taking it out of context and applying however you feel like which often distorts it. And I think understanding what you are memorizing and how God wants us to apply it to our lives is essential.

so true. We often hear scripture quoted in ways that are not in keeping with the context of the passage. I do not have much to add right now. My son will move into Preparing next year and Ancients the year after that, and it is hard to imagine how much he will grow academically and spiritually by then.

I will say though that I would definitely like to have the scripture references included so we could use our Bible instead of buying another one. We have enough Bible story books and Bible translations. I would like to start instilling a love in my son for his own bible so that he makes it his own, rather than introducing another one. I still have my first bible given to me by my Grandfather when I was 8, it is the one I read up through college. I want my son to "attach" to his bible that way and enjoy reading it. Does that make sense?

[water2wine]

I will say though that I would definitely like to have the scripture references included so we could use our Bible instead of buying another one. We have enough Bible story books and Bible translations. I would like to start instilling a love in my son for his own bible so that he makes it his own, rather than introducing another one. I still have my first bible given to me by my Grandfather when I was 8, it is the one I read up through college. I want my son to "attach" to his bible that way and enjoy reading it. Does that make sense?

I completely agree. I want them to move to a real Bible. My first thought though was since you were including both it might be great to have the option to do even both and use the Story Bible more for understanding. But I was afraid to say that because I am thinking that would be something that HOD would maybe want to avoid is people like me who would say great let's do them both.

[Kathleen]

Ok, I only have a minute here...but I'm so excited to see your ideas on this Carrie! So many moms I know say that they don't ever want to push their kids to have a quiet time because it will make it seem like a chore. And then their kids will never want to be in the Word as adults. Now, I see this as an essential thing to try to teach and train my kids to do. What a gift to be able to raise them to be in the habit of cultivating a personal relationship with their Lord and to LOVE being in His Word!
1. What would you like to see within your child's daily quiet time?

I think that a guide as to where to read will be helpful at this age. I would like to see time spent in the Old and New Teastaments to help them develop a taste for ALL of God's Word. Questions that would lead them to think of what the passage is saying (literal interpretation) would be good...as well as what does this teach me about God's character, and how should I respond to what I've learned about God (application).

2. What things have you enjoyed within your own quiet time, and how could that knowledge of what has worked for you transfer to helping develop a quiet time for your kiddos?

I kind of go back and forth between reaading straight from my Bible to using a guide that probes me with the kinds of questions I listed above. I always love to go to the Psalms...to be encouraged in an intimate relationship with God, and to be able to pray them to God.

3. What would you like to see in the way of Scripture memorization? Would you prefer your kiddos to learn key verses or would you prefer for you kiddos to learn entire passages?

I think it would be great to see passages learned in verse-by-verse fashion. Start with a verse or 2 and continue to add to it as the days/weeks progress. I wouldn't be opposed to single verses here and there, but I think passages would be good, too. (A bite at a time.)

4. What would you like to see in the way of prayer?

I think a prayer journal to record prayers and their answers would be a great way to let them see God working in their lives.

Oh, I'm so glad that you're wanting to include this to help us train our kids' hearts, Carrie! Working with God to develop a love for Him in my kids' hearts is top on my priority list...and the fact that it is on yours, too, is why HOD works so well for our family!

Kathleen

[SouthernMrs]

Hi Carrie,
Great ideas you've gotten so far! I love to hear all the neat things you are planning for the upcoming guides. I'm sure I'll be repeating some of what the others have suggested.
As for the Bible story book, I think for our family that we would just use a Bible.

1. What would you like to see within your child's daily quiet time?

I'd like to see some guidance as to what to read, some suggestions for application and what to pray about regarding the Bible reading, and perhaps a prompt to remind kiddos to search their own hearts for sin.

2. What things have you enjoyed within your own quiet time, and how could that knowledge of what has worked for you transfer to helping develop a quiet time for your kiddos?
I enjoy reading a book of the Bible at a time instead of random verses here and there. It really gives me a feel for what God is doing all in one chunk. I also enjoy keeping my prayer journal. This is a very real encouragement to me. I can go back and visually see how God answered specifics prayers that I prayed. I also enjoy praying Scriptures, so I search for Scriptures on specific topics and jot them on index cards to keep in my Bible to pray through.

3. What would you like to see in the way of Scripture memorization? Would you prefer your kiddos to learn key verses or would you prefer for you kiddos to learn entire passages?

I think an option of either would be great. We do participate in Awana and I must confess that the children do seem to get overwhelmed easily with having too much Scripture to memorize (is that possible?? ).

4. What would you like to see in the way of prayer?

I am of the same mind as Kathleen above. I too would like to see an option for keeping a prayer journal ... perhaps providing a writing prompt?

Looking forward to reading the other suggestions as well!

Take care,

[Mom2Monkeys]

I personally LOVE the Family Illustrated Bible as an option in addition to reading the Bible. There are example pages on amazon and I thought it looked incredible! Being a somewhat new and immature Christian myself, I can kinda see the "daunting task" of undertaking reading the Bible and trying to figure it out as a child might see it. I think the family Bible adds some insight , extra info, plus history,illustrations, charts, timelines,etc. to gain greater understanding of what is being read. I was raised without that knowledge so its harder for me to pass it on to my children. So, although I'll be planning on using our own Bible, we would certainly get much use of the Bible you have considered using. I hope it gets put in there!

I enjoy the idea of the kids memorizing whole passages, but in chunks with key verses pointed out. Something I've started doing while working through Beyond is we review previous memory verses at the end of the week. So, maybe a memory verse review (of just key verses?) could be planned?? I've considered having dd write them on index cards...for example, Galatians 6:9 on one side and the scripture written on the other.

[eazbnsmom]

Carrie,

I think it is a wonderful idea! I was just reading ahead to tommorrows Bible plan which I think introduces the Quiet time and was very excited. Just having it in there as a reminder, no matter what the resource is will be a great reminder. This was something I was hoping to accomplish in my children (as well as myself)

Great idea!

[8arrows]

I like the idea of reading directly from the Bible, and I would prefer memorizing Scripture passages. How great to learn to have quiet time when one is young!

[6timeboymom]

I say let Julie write that part of the guide! GHILLM has been the best thing I've ever used/read for my quiet time, hands down!!!
really, it has!
Here's why: there's short bits of reading, scripture references/passages to read, prayer starters, and it's categorized into the different areas of my life: mom, teacher, wife, etc. I could totally see her writing one just for teens, and just for the ancients book. (go, Julie! go!!)

W2W and Kathleen said what I would say, too. I would add something I would avoid: doctrine type stuff. I have rarely used the Bible sections of most of our curriculums because it's usually denomination-specific. In fact, we don't do the bible study in our HOD as often as we should because we have great resources at church that the kids use during the school year in their sunday school and confirmation classes. But, again, that's the beauty of HOD-I CAN skip what's scheduled and use what the kids bring home! It was always too hard to do that with any other curriculum.
But already you've done a great job in the other guides at keeping things pretty basic, so I guess I'm not really adding to what you don't already know!

[ncmomof5]

Carrie,
I want to reiterate what all the others have said. Thank you for making this a part of your curriculum. Building Godly habits is SOOOO important. And when we look at this from God's perspective, I know He is pleased with our choosing to use some of our "school time" to teach our children to spend daily time with Him. And what matters more than knowing God is pleased with how we "do school"?
I am not very picky about how you set it up. Here's a list of the things I agree should be a part of the quiet time habit (to me, building the habit is the key):

Scripture reading, Scripture memory, application, meditation, journaling, prayer time, prayer journaling

We also do AWANA, so I know what you mean SouthernMrs about being overwhelmed with Scripture memory.

Thanks again, Carrie for asking for our input.

In His Love,
RuthAnn

[Amey]

I did not have time to read the previous posts, so excuse me if I am redundant in any of my answers

1. What would you like to see within your child's daily quiet time?
* I would like to see a chronological progression (even if it is not the Bible in it's entirety) I think having an understanding of how it all fits together is important. Also directed focused time spent talking with the Lord. Maybe a starting point for them...

2. What things have you enjoyed within your own quiet time, and how could that knowledge of what has worked for you transfer to helping develop a quiet time for your kiddos?
*I enjoy looking up and writing out all the scriptures that speak to a specific topic
*meditation on one verse for a time and re-writing it in my own words
*waiting on the Lord


3. What would you like to see in the way of Scripture memorization? Would you prefer your kiddos to learn key verses or would you prefer for you kiddos to learn entire passages?
*I would love for my kids to memorize whole passages and think putting things to memory is a forgotten art that used to be a very typical method of education

4. What would you like to see in the way of prayer?
* I also like the prayer journal idea
* An emphasis on hearing from the Lord...not just talking to Him, but listening