“Sweeter also than honey..”
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
Psalm 19: 7-11 (ESV)
I’m not prone to composing New Year’s resolutions, instead I tend to purge and cull the shelves, closets, and drawers of my home. This year was no different. Like most lovers of books, I found a sizable pile of “should read and why-haven’t-I-read” books. I began to remedy this by reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s 1938 classic, Life Together. Bonhoeffer was a minister, theologian, writer, and a martyr in Hitler’s Germany. He was executed for his role in a failed mission to kill Adolf Hitler. Two weeks later, American troops entered the concentration camp where he had been held.
While Bonhoeffer never had a family of his own, the one in which he was raised grounded him and his siblings with a deep spiritual heritage in God’s Word and hymns of the faith. As a young adult, he gravitated to children and youth, devoting himself to teaching Sunday school when he was so overcommitted it seemed impossible that he could prepare lessons. But, of course, he did and led outings with his pupils, remaining friends with many of them into adulthood.
Life Together is predominately about fostering and maintaining Christian community. The nugget of gold for me was his declaration that the family is the first community from which the church grows. He admonished families to center their homes on the often neglected practice of worship, leading their children to a deeply formed faith in God. He added that this was the best means for leading our children into corporate, sanctuary worship which makes total sense. Children learn table manners at home before going to a restaurant, or we wish they did. How can we expect them to participate in corporate worship if we haven’t introduced them to praying, reading God’s Word aloud, or to singing hymns in our homes? Certainly, faith formed in the home, and supported by the church community, is God’s ideal mode for faith passing from one generation to the other.
Bonhoeffer further wrote, “Only in the Holy Scriptures do we learn to know our own history.” We often read Scripture for what God is saying to us in our particular circumstance today but Bonhoeffer stated, “It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to His Son Jesus Christ than to seek what God intends for us today. The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die, and the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the Last Day.”*
“Family worship is the first community from which the church grows.”
Bonhoeffer made a strong case for reading Scripture consecutively as a “corpus, a living whole” in which chapters are read rather than “the verse-for-the-day” approach. Ideally for Bonhoeffer, families would read part of the Old Testament, part of the New Testament, sing, and pray a Psalter each morning.
If you are like me, gathering your family around the table for family devotions comes with a multitude of challenges. Children are different ages. They have different responsibilities before and after school. Sports, homework, technology, hobbies, and so much more claim prime time on their calendars.
So, how do we approach such a large responsibility in a doable way? First, we must ask God for ongoing help as family Bible reading and worship will be challenged both within and without our homes. Kids groan; we get tired; our schedules change; it’s not easy to gather together; and of course we have an enemy who seeks to undermine our time around God’s Word.
What tools should we use? We could simply read God’s Word and ask a few thoughtful questions. For younger children, I like to stick with the plot of the Bible. Start in Genesis which is filled with many “edge of your seat, nail-biting stories” of God’s people in peril who are dramatically rescued by him. When we come to more ponderous books, Leviticus and Numbers for example, it may be wise to provide a synopsis and a brief sample. (It’s likely a good idea not to read the long lists of laws and the census counts.) Explain why these books are in our canon, their purpose, and how they support God’s story. See the Bible Project for great video overviews. Older children will enjoy these videos too. https://bibleproject.com/explore/book-overviews/
One of my favorite resources is The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos. First published in 1934, the current edition has been edited by Vos’ daughter Marianne Catherine Vos Radius. While the illustrations could be vastly improved: Jesus appears as Caucasian rather than Middle Eastern and some are printed in low resolution, a good reader will overcome these hindrances. Her language drives the plot at exciting speeds, capturing the hearts of youngsters and older siblings. Each chapter cites the Bible text from which she writes. She includes the judges, the good and bad kings of Israel, and weaves in many of the prophets. For those of us who can’t align the years of the kings of Judah with the corresponding kings of Samaria, and the commensurate prophet(s), have no fear. She adeptly prefaces each chapter with the names of all the “players” with the accuracy of an Old Testament theological historian. Her book concludes with the book of Acts and the final chapter of Revelation. Even though she omits the Epistles, her work is comprehensive and appropriate for families with elementary school children. My mother read The Child’s Story Bible to me and my siblings. I distinctly remember her stopping mid-action so that we’d be begging for more the next night.
We all benefit from being both creative and flexible. Allowing our children who are able to read, take turns doing this, gives them ownership. Asking thought-provoking questions slows us down to reflect on what God was doing in a story. We can read less when we are short on time and more when we have more time. We can make this a treat, a highlight of our day. When we fail, and we all fail at this, we just pick up where we left off and keep on reading God’s Word.
*Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith (San Francisco: Harper & Row: 1954) p.54.