6 Ways to Help Grandchildren Live According to God’s Word – #4 #5 #6
Read 6 Ways to Help Grandchildren Live According to God’s Word – #1, #2, #3
- Give Your Grandchild a Bible
When my mother was dying of ALS, she asked me what I wanted of her possessions to remember her by. My mom had expensive jewelry, money, and things with worldly value, but the thing I wanted most was her Bible. My mom’s Bible is the physical expression of the greatest gift she ever gave me: a love for God’s Word. Her Bible is tattered and torn. Its pages are yellow and marked up. It was well used and well loved. I want you to give this same gift to your grandchildren.
Purchase a high-quality leather Bible and personalize it for each child. Choose a full text, readable version a child can use as they grow older. A good age to give this to a child is during their middle elementary years, between ages eight and ten.
Plan a special ceremony or meal around this event. Before giving the Bible to your grandchild, underline or highlight passages you want to emphasize. Make notations in the margins, and write short notes of encouragement and affirmation. May your gift help your grandchild love God’s Word and echo the Psalmist, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey” (Psalm 119:103).
- Teach Your Grandchildren How to Study the Bible
During the early years of a child’s life, the parent is the one to feed them spiritually. But gradually, this responsibility should be shifted to the child. For this to happen, parents must teach their child how to read the Bible. Grandchildren should be taught basic Bible study methods which include observation, interpretation, and application. This is known as inductive Bible study.
Observation: “What does this passage say?” Observation is taking a close look at what is going on in the passage of Scripture. Correct observations are key to understanding the meaning of the text. We need to read the Bible thoroughly, slowly, and prayerfully to understand what God is saying.
Interpretation: “What does this mean?” Interpretation is trying to understand the intent of the author. Interpretation is affected by the culture in which the author wrote, the biases we bring to the text, and the context in which the passage is found. We cannot understand a verse without understanding a chapter. We cannot understand a chapter without understanding the entire book. We should teach grandchildren to interpret Scripture with Scripture and to consult resources such as commentaries to best understand a passage.
Application: “What does this passage require of me?” We come to the Bible for transformation, not simply information. God’s Word has the authority to tell us how to live. We train grandchildren to obey all God’s commands, not just the ones they like. Teach grandchildren that obedience is essential, not optional.
- Provide Bible Study Tools for Grandchildren
Every grandchild should understand how to use the following Bible study tools, which make great gifts.
Commentaries: A commentary simply explains the meaning and application of Scripture. Scholars spend great amounts of time studying the Bible. They write about their discoveries in commentaries. Scripture can be difficult to understand, so good commentaries are helpful for a young person to have.
Bible Dictionary: A Bible dictionary lists items by theme. Using this tool, young people will be taught to look up people, places, and themes of Scripture. Bible dictionaries help a person quickly learn about important and obscure people of the Bible or the meaning of a word. Grandchildren can also look up themes such as faith and learn more about the topic.
Concordance: A concordance is a catalog of the Bible. It lists every word by alphabetical order and tells where to find each word by listing references. It is extremely helpful if a young person wants to study a specific word or remembers a word in a passage, but cannot remember the reference.
Bible Atlas: A Bible atlas will teach about the geography of the Bible, the location of cities, and the whereabouts of important happenings. For example, there is an Old Testament Jericho and a New Testament Jericho. This is helpful to understand. The Scripture writers purposefully write when Jesus walked up to a location. This is a geographical reference. It is helpful to know where a city is located to better understand a text.
Josh Mulvihill is the Executive Director of Church and Family Ministry at Renewanation. He served as a pastor for nearly 20 years, has a PhD in Family Ministry, serves on the board of Awana, and is the author or editor of ten books on parenting and grandparenting including Biblical Grandparenting, Preparing Children for Marriage, Biblical Worldview, and his latest 50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home. He is married to Jen, they have five children, and live on a family farm in Minnesota. Josh blogs at GospelShapedFamily.com, enjoys camping with friends, reading a great book around the bonfire, and catching big fish in Minnesota lakes.
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