BJU Press Blog

Search Results for: family devotions

Storytelling and Worldview

by

three beach balls in the blue sky

At times the challenge of developing a biblical worldview in my three little girls, five and under, overwhelms me. How can I equip these young minds with something as complex as a worldview? The writings of Paul David Tripp encourage me. In particular, Paul’s simple explanations and illustrations demonstrate that I can develop my daughters’ worldview.

I love Paul’s story about his three-year-old son, who after falling down the stairs exclaimed, “Thank you!” When Paul asked his son who he was talking to, the boy responded, “The angels. And I know how they did it.”

“Who did what?”

“The angels! One stands on this side, and the other stands on that side. They both hold beach balls. When you start to fall, they put the beach ball out to keep you safe.”

Tripp observes that even three-year-olds interpret what’s happening. In this case, the conclusion was immature, and it confused Sunday school lessons with family vacations. But even very young children are capable of understanding stories, synthesizing them, and using them to explain daily occurrences.

Thankfully, our heavenly Father has given us His perspective in terms of a story. It’s a story that even toddlers and preschoolers can learn and use to interpret everyday life. It’s a true story with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s a story that dramatically affects the way we interpret the learning that makes up education. It’s the story of Creation, Fall, and Redemption.

Creation

The story begins with “God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). But when the story reaches Genesis 1:26–28, we learn that we’re special. God creates man and woman in His own image. God tells them to fill the world with little image-bearers and to take care of the world. Then He gives the first man a home (Eden), a wife (Eve), and a job (to name the animals and to work the garden).

Fall

Then Adam rebels and everything breaks. Death, sadness, and fighting come because of Adam’s wrong choice. His sin means that our hearts have been broken and our minds have been polluted. Adam and Eve make clothes out of fig leaves and then hide from God. Adam blames his wife for the sin, and Eve blames the serpent (Genesis 3:7–12).

Redemption

Next, we see that God immediately sets in motion His plan to redeem His fallen creation (Genesis 3:15). He promises that there will be conflict between the anointed one and the serpent. He promises that the anointed one will win and redeem God’s creation. This redemption plan is fulfilled in Christ’s death on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection from the dead.

The story applied to . . . math?

I share this story, not because it’s new or insightful, but because it’s simple and familiar. This is a story I share with my girls during family devotions. It’s a story they hear in Sunday school, and it affects the way they interpret learning, even math!

  1. Math is a powerful tool to help us take care of the world (Genesis 1:28)
  2. Because of the fall, some people use math to deny God (Romans 1:21–23)
  3. The people of God can live in light of redemption by using math to love their neighbors (Luke 10:27–28)

The Creation-Fall-Redemption story doesn’t make worldview shaping easy, but it does make it attainable for my precious little ones. Using this story to interpret learning is critical for providing my children a thoroughly Christian education.

My Commitment to Biblical Worldview Education

by

family reading the Bible together

As a dad, I’ve appreciated Karin’s posts on family devotions. Family worship offers me the opportunity to disciple my children with intentionality. As I gather my three daughters daily to read God’s Word, I’m trying to obey the command in Deuteronomy 6:7 to “teach them diligently.” So it’s encouraging to hear about others practicing family worship and to learn that they’re experiencing (and overcoming) the same difficulties.

Of course, our obligation to diligently teach our families to love God isn’t fulfilled in a routine Bible time. We’re supposed to teach God’s Word when we’re sitting, when we’re walking, when we’re lying down, and when we’re waking up. It’s an all-day, every-day commitment.

For my girls, a large part of their daily life is education, so it’s important to me that their education is contributing to their discipleship. In fact, since education is worship, I want to give my daughters a biblical worldview education.

Education Is Worship

It’s easy to look at teaching kids how to subtract or read as “neutral.” After all, 2 + 2 = 4 whether you’re a Christian, a Buddhist, or an atheist. But education is far too foundational an undertaking to occur without a purpose. From age five to eighteen, my girls will spend over fourteen thousand hours learning math, science, history, and language arts. All of that effort has to be for a purpose, or it’s a waste of time. Even children know that education needs a purpose. While answering their twenty-three math problems, they will ask the critical question: “Why do I have to learn this?”

In his book The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School, Neil Postman observed that education is worship when he said, “For school to make sense, the young, their parents, and their teachers must have a god to serve, or even better, several gods.” He argues that American public schools are dedicated to serving, among others, the god of consumerism. Worshipers of consumerism learn so that they can get jobs and buy the best cars, houses, and vacations. If Postman, who was a secular humanist, sees the religious nature of education, we Christian dads need to think through the worship implications of the education choices we make for our children.

The Purpose of Education

After my wife and I got engaged, we would take long walks where we’d discuss how we planned to run our household. Since both of us received a biblical worldview education, we wanted this same education for our children. It was and still is important to us that we teach our children to glorify God and love their neighbor as themselves through math, science, history, and language arts. My daughters need to know that math isn’t the key to financial security and prosperity; it’s a tool God gives us to obey His commands. That context is crucial for using education to serve God instead of the god of consumerism. If I am going to obey Deuteronomy 6:7, I have to diligently teach my daughters that the purpose of their education is serving God.

Before I was born, my dad determined that his children would be homeschooled so that they could receive a biblical worldview education. I owe so much to my dad for that gift. Now as a dad, I want to teach my daughters that worshiping God isn’t limited to Sunday church services. We serve God through the right kind of education; therefore, my wife and I are committed to providing our daughters with a biblical worldview education.

How to Apply Deuteronomy 6

by

a woman with a Bible opened to Deuteronomy 6 taking notes

In a six-part series, we explored family devotions—the importance of it as well as ways to structure the time, to overcome obstacles, and to keep the gospel central. A regular family devotions time enables us to systematically disciple our children in “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27 NKJV). But God’s Word should so permeate our hearts and minds that we naturally talk about it throughout the day with our children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

God’s command to the Israelites to teach their children His words is reiterated to believers in the New Testament. After instructing children to obey and honor their parents as taught in the Ten Commandments, the apostle Paul admonished parents, “Do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4 NKJV).

In order to diligently teach God’s Word to our children, we must first treasure it in our own hearts (Deuteronomy 6:6). When we are deepening our love for the Lord and saturating our minds with His Word, talking to our children about the things of the Lord will be a regular overflow. In an effort to be more intentional, for a few months I kept a journal about opportunities I had to point my children to the Lord during normal events of the day.

Here are some entries from my journal. These moments are not intended to be replicated but to be examples of implementing Deuteronomy 6 teaching in day-to-day life. Many of my journal entries include analogies (tying a life event or an item in creation to a spiritual truth). As you share, seek to be gospel-centered.

Journal of Deuteronomy 6 Teachable Moments

  • Tuesday: My young children got scared and ran to me when there was a loud series of fire alarm tests in our apartment building. When we are afraid, we run to someone stronger, and that should ultimately be the Lord. I reminded the kids that God is in control and that He is with us. We talked about how a fire alarm is good because it warns us of a fire so we can escape. God’s Word has fire alarms, warning us about the lake of fire and how to escape the punishment for our sins through trusting in Jesus.
  • Wednesday: My child confessed doing something wrong while I wasn’t watching. We talked about how God always sees us, even when Mommy isn’t looking. We can’t get away with secret sin. Through a song, we’ve learned this verse: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3 NKJV).
  • Thursday: We were playing in a room where the curtains were closed. We talked about how there was a curtain in the temple separating the holy place from the most holy place. When Jesus died, that curtain was torn in two (at that point, we flung open the curtains), symbolizing the access we have to the Father because the flesh of Jesus was torn on the cross for our sins (Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 10:19–22).

I no longer keep a journal of my Deuteronomy 6 opportunities, but perhaps I’ll begin writing them down again if I find myself falling into complacency. Teaching my children diligently must spring from a heart that is captivated with the glory and grace of the Lord and saturated with a personal knowledge of His Word.

May the Lord bless you with wisdom as you seize the opportune, fleeting moments to teach your children along the way. “From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15 NKJV).

How to Guide Your Homeschooler through Middle School

by

child with backpack

Quick question: Who would like to go back and relive their middle school years? No one? I think once was hard enough! We describe them with words like awkward, confusing, sometimes even painful. But you know what? Also amazing. Really. I don’t think of my own middle school years as amazing—but when I look back at my three (now grown) sons, and the hundreds of middle school students I was privileged to teach, I clearly saw God at work in these young people. In the middle of the mess, there were also victories.

So parents of middle schoolers, take hope. You and your children can survive these years of changes and growth without losing your sanity. As my church moms love to declare, God’s got this! Prayer, perspective, a support group, and maybe some deep breathing techniques will be foundational as you learn how to guide your homeschooler through middle school.

Learn about guiding your child through middle school!

Always, Yet Never Alone: Homeschooling During COVID-19

by

when you're dealing with homeschool loneliness
I am always, yet never alone. That’s my life as a homeschool mom in this strange and troubling COVID-19 world. When my governor closed all essential businesses back in the middle of March, my world came to a screeching halt. No more in-person music lessons. No more dropping off my kids at my local gym’s childcare program so I could get my 30 minutes of exercise. We don’t have anymore church fellowships or ministry obligations or homeschool group get-togethers. My husband continued to go to work everyday just as he had before the pandemic, but I suddenly found myself basically confined to my home all day, every day. I was confronted with a deep homeschool loneliness.

But I am not confined alone…