
Put “children’s Bible-reading plan” in Google and you’ll come up with a lengthy list. I haven’t had time to explore the list, I’m sure most of them are good – after all, you can’t go wrong reading God’s Word with your kids.
Most of the plans go chapter-by-chapter. Some alternate between Old and New Testament and I know at least a few include a Psalm along with the day’s reading.
I have read through the Bible in a similar way several times, but a few years ago I took an entirely different approach.
Larry Fowler, a man I worked with at Awana, challenged us to read 1000 chapters during the year. I don’t know exactly what Larry had in mind. All together the Bible has 1,189 chapters – so doing chapter-by-chapter, I would’ve gotten through the Old Testament and into the New.
But I didn’t do it that way. Because the challenge was to read 1,000 chapters, I reread the same chapters over and over. Each reading I looked for something new that I hadn’t picked up on the previous readings. For instance, I read Philemon about 15 times, each time focusing on a different character: Philemon, Onesimus, the Apostle Paul or a different aspect of the book.
Think how much fun you could have with your kids.
You can challenge them in different ways.
- Overview of the chapter.
- People mentioned in the chapter.
- Words used more than once.
- Phrases to remember.
- Chosen verse to read.
Here are some suggestions of chapters to read multiple times with your children.
1. Genesis 1
2. Psalm 148
3. Proverbs 17
4. Matthew 27-28
5. Philemon (a book often neglected)
You might enjoy this different approach to Bible reading. Just a suggestion to do something out-of-the-box this year.