I’ve been having a lot of fun reading The Beginner’s Bible with Evie (who is now 11 months old). We read one little chapter a day. Generally, we lay on my bed; and she sits down while I read the chapter (with lots of inflection and whatnot because I did take “Performance of Children’s Literature” in college…he he he…). Most of the time, she tries to turn the pages or eat the pages. Most of the time, she doesn’t seem to care to much about what I’m reading. But, two things are happening that I think is really cool:
1. She knows that Bible is hers.
For real. Of all the books that we have (and we have some really cool ones), she really gets excited when I bring out her Bible. I love the way her eyes light up. Some of that comes from the extended time that I let her have just chewing on it and flipping the cover back and forth. She knows it’s hers, though. The tooth marks and drool stains confirm it.
2. She has expectation when she sees it.
I’m sure she associates a lot of things with the appearance of her Bible. Daddy is going to talk to her. Daddy is going to hold her for a long time. Daddy is going to build a tent with the blanket to snuggle under. Daddy is going to let her tear into it. I’m cool with all that. There may not be a spiritual reason in the world that Evie lights up when that Bible comes out (I mean, she doesn’t even talk yet!), but I love the fact that she lights up at her Bible.
I remember what Mary Kate (my wife) told me about the children she met on a mission trip in Kenya. They say these words all at the same time at chapel: “This is MY Bible. I CHERISH my Bible.” You can see that going on in the picture that she took above. As a youth pastor, sometimes I wish that the kids in my group of teenagers had that same kind of relationship to their Bibles– that pure sense of ownership, that pure sense of cherishing.
For Evie, this is the beginning of that ownership.
For Evie, this is the beginning of that cherishing.
You can never start too early, and I hope she never takes God’s Word for granted.
The first thing we did is a “Meet Me at Chick-Fil-A” close to the Tour venue. There, we were able to interact with family ministry workers from a variety of churches and hear a bunch of insights from peers about how they’re being orange (leaning into that partnership between the “yellow” church and “red” home). Also, it was great to meet with Orange thinkers like Matt McKee (who really challenged me with some ways to partner with parents), Jeremy Zach (whose enthusiasm is contagious), Stephanie Porter (who makes everything more fun), and Sue Miller (who “wrote the book” on children’s ministry). It probably could have been just that lunch at Chick-Fil-A; but, thankfully, there was more.
