Help Your Family Love the Word of God

Submitted by Jennifer Power

This past weekend, I pulled out the Bible I received from my hometown church in third grade on September 6, 1992. I shared with the kids how I used to read from this Bible regularly and often underlined verses which stuck out to me as a child and teen.

Sometimes we are quick to think the important work in ministry is with adults – after all, adults tend to be the people with influence; but as I read through the verses which stuck out to me in childhood (which I grew up reading again and again), I was blown away by how God had used those verses to shape me in the 23 years since I received my first Bible. There are verses which I knew are significant to me today, but which I had forgotten had also been significant to me as a child and teen. We must never take lightly the faith of a child. Not only are children equal members of the body of Christ, but what they are fed today can (and likely will) significantly impact them throughout their entire lives.

In the front of my bible, I had written “1 Peter 3:4 Let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight. 12/20/01.” I remember this verse being important to me as I often struggled significantly with my appearance and with fitting in. This is a verse I turned to time and time again throughout my childhood and teen years.

When I pulled out my old Bible last week, I loved reading the verses I had marked – it honestly moved me to tears and reminded me that God’s plan for my life is not some haphazard random mess which He manages to make use of, but a master plan by a Master Creator. It reminded me He intends to use me for good and for His Glory in ways beyond my ability to comprehend if only I will continue to remain in Him as I have tried to do my whole life. It gave me great hope and reminded me of the depth of His love for me.

I would therefore like to encourage you to consider doing some of the following to help your family grow in your love for the Word of God:

1. Tonight, read some of your favorite Bible passages to your children.
2. Encourage your (reading) children to read the Bible for themselves each and every day.
3. Encourage them to mark verses which stand out to them or to keep a journal of these verses and the significance to their own lives.
4. If you have a childhood Bible in which you wrote, pull it out and look for verses which spoke to you as a child.
5. If you do not have a childhood Bible in which you wrote, start keeping track today of verses which strike you as significant (either by writing in your Bible or in a journal). It might be neat to date the verses as you mark them so you can look back in years to come at what spoke to you at different times of your life.
6. Start reading through the Bible with your family. You do not have to follow a calendar (though you certainly can). Start at the beginning or start in the New Testament and just read what you can each day and continue reading until you make it through the whole book.
7. Come up with your own creative, intentional ways to be in the Word of God as a family. Talk about what you read together and pray for strength from God’s Holy Spirit to not just be readers of the Word, but doers.

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Here are a (rather large) sampling of verses and passages from the Bible which were significant to me in my early years of study (from the New Revised Standard Version, my first Bible):

Psalm 18:46 “The Lord lives! Blessed by my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation”

Psalm 126:5-6 “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.”

Proverbs 17:22 “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.”

Proverbs 18:16 “A gift opens doors; it gives access to the great.”

Proverbs 19:2b “One who moves too hurriedly misses the way.”

Proverbs 19:21 “The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.”

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; know, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Matthew 25: 35-36 “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

John 1:12-13 “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”

John 13:34b “love one another.”

John 14:15 “If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”

Romans 3:10-11, 23-24 “There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God… Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Romans 5:20b “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

Romans 6:3, 23 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?… For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:18 “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.”

Romans 8:25 “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Romans 8:28 “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, not life, not angels, not rules, not things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 10:9 “Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 11:29 “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

1 Corinthians 2:9 “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

1 Corinthians 7:35 “I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 10:24 “Do not seek your own advantages, but that of the other.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

Ephesians 2:8-10, 13 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life… But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:1-2 “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”

Ephesians 6:9b “With him there is no partiality.”

1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”

2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

James 1:19, 22 “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness… But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”

James 2:5b “Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?”

James 2:13 “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

James 2: 19, 22, 24 “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder… You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was brought to completion by the works… You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

James 4:7-8 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

1 John 4:2 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.”

1 John 4:7-21 “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Song into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sings. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.