Reading the Bible: Lessons for Teens

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By Ashley Allgood
Homeschooling high schoolers can be scary. One of the toughest subjects for me to teach my kids is Bible. I want them to enjoy reading their Bibles and also to understand what they are reading. Bible curriculum can be expensive, and what happens if you buy the curriculum and don’t like it? This year I decided we would read our Bibles, discuss what we read, and learn together.
I’ve graduated one child who is now in college, so I’m currently teaching my sixteen-year-old daughter and fourteen-year-old son. I admit I was worried this new method wouldn’t work or that I wouldn’t be able to answer their questions. But I went ahead and took the first step by making sure we had the same Bible versions so we could read together. I bought my two teens each a copy of my favorite translation of the Bible.
I wanted the kids to see the Bible come to life, so after doing some research on Bible DVDs, I bought Drive Through History: The Holy Land. The series comes on four DVDs with twelve episodes plus a discussion guide. The DVDs show you the real life locations of where different Bible events took place, and they include lessons on history and geography. We find the episodes entertaining, funny, and very educational. I try to match our readings with an episode. We usually watch one episode every two weeks or so.
I decided that my teens and I would start reading through the New Testament chapter by chapter. We started off with the first chapter of the book of Matthew. We took turns reading and discussed what we read. I ask them if anything spoke personally to them or if they had any questions. I then used the notes in the Life Application Bible to explain different verses and how we can apply them to our lives. We also picked a Bible verse to memorize.
We recently just finished the book of Matthew and I admit I have learned a lot along with the children. I’ve also been pleased to discover that they have taken in many lessons they learned at church, Youth Group, and Vacation Bible School. There were times we would be discussing a verse and they would remember lessons learned a few years prior, and then they would teach me. I’ve been very impressed and proud of them.
You could easily adapt this style for younger children by using Bible story books, adding coloring pages found free online, and using Bible verses for copywork. There are plenty of Bible story DVDs to supplement with that you may find in a church library, such as the The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible and Superbook by CBN. Younger kids could also act out their favorite parts of the story or sing related songs like “Zacchaeus was a Wee Little Man.”
I think the most important thing when studying the Bible is that you and the children enjoy the lessons. I want the Bible to be a daily part of my children’s lives and I’m thankful we have found ways we can share Bible studying together.
Ashley Allgood is a Christian wife married twenty-one years to Michael. They have three children ages 19, 16, and 14. They live in Georgia where they homeschool their children. Ashley is a distributor for Young Living oils. Ashley has always loved writing and storytelling. Read her blog, Thoughts Of Faith, at http://mythoughtsoffaith.blogspot.com.
 
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2 thoughts on “Reading the Bible: Lessons for Teens”

  1. Thank you for this post. It is so easy to forget that the Bible is all we need.
    That said, Our family LOVES the “What’s in the Bible” series from Phil Visher. My 12, 8, 6 yr old have learned so much from that series, thing I didn’t even know as an adult!

  2. Pleased to see that someone else uses my favorite method for teaching the Bible. Sometimes we just make things too complicated when we don’t need to do that. Also, there is a spiritual experience, a spiritual food that feeds us and our kids, when we read God’s word aloud, unlike any other book that we read. It is so good!

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