“But I’m not Bible teacher! I’ve never been to seminary!”
Take heart, my fellow-grandparent. By God’s grace, the Lord could use you to have memory-making, life-shaping Bible studies with your grandchild. Let’s break down this idea of how to do Bible studies with your grandchildren into manageable steps by asking the traditional journalism questions: “who,” “what,” “where,” when,” “why” and “how.” But, if you don’t mind, I’d like to begin with . . .
Why? Sometimes grandparents never venture into seriously engaging their grandchildren in Bible study, assuming, “Well, that’s not my job. That’s the parents’ job.” Your right, it is the parent’s job (Ephesians 6:4), but it’s not only the parents’ job. It’s our job, too. Throughout God’s Word we can find reminder after reminder that we in the older generation are to be teaching the coming generations the words and ways of God. Way back in Moses’ day we can read verses like Deuteronomy 4:9, “Make them known to your children and your children's children.” Did you catch that “and”? We are to be teaching not only our own children, but our “children’s children,” too! And, what about all those Psalms that talk about “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4)? Psalm 78:4-8 is similarly gripping.
Who? Well, obviously we grandparents are involved, but which of our grandchildren? When are our grandchildren old enough for a Bible study? I would suggest that we start teaching the Bible to our grandchildren from an early age, even if we are simply sharing a verse and praying the content of that scripture over our grandchild. As the grandchildren get a bit older, the depth of our Bible studies will grow with them. Eventually, the grandchildren are old enough to read the Bible for themselves and engage in conversations on the passage’s meaning and application. Those conversations can have a life-long impact, by God’s grace.
What? Are you like me? If I’m not sure what to do, my tendency is to do nothing – or at least to procrastinate until I have a little more confidence that I’m doing the right thing. But, if we keep procrastinating on studying the Bible with our grandkids, we’re missing wonderful opportunities to show them how the Word of God can shape their lives for eternity. Thankfully, if you are inexperienced in studying the Bible with children, there are resources that can guide you step-by-step. For example, my wife Gladine and I have been doing a weekly Bible study with two of our grandchildren using David Murray’s manual for kids called Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. This resource walks the student through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation with fairly easy “fill in the blank” sections to guide the learning process. Each of our grandkids has a copy as do my wife and I. We can work on it together page-by-page, or the grandkids can work on it on their own and we can discuss what they’ve learned. Look around online for biblically sound materials that would be appropriate for your grandchild’s reading ability.
Where? Thankfully, these days we’re not prohibited from having Bible studies with our grandkids due to geographical distance. Of course, if you have grandchildren who live near you, it might be fairly easy to set up a regular time each week to sit with them over an open Bible in your own home or in theirs. But, even if your grandchildren live a distance away, it would be quite possible to set up a regular video call for your grandparent/grandchild Bible study. Most of us are fairly comfortable with using this technology, but if you are not, don’t give up too quickly. Ask your kids and/or grandkids to help you learn how to use the available technology so that you can enjoy the blessing of studying God’s Word regularly with the coming generation.
When? Let me encourage you to set up a regular time for your Bible study with your grandchildren. We have found doing this weekly is great accountability for all of us. We’ve communicated with our daughter and son-in-law on what the best time might be in their weekly schedule. Every family’s schedule is unique. Some of our grandchildren are homeschooled, giving us more time options to consider. But, other grandchildren attend a brick and mortar school, giving fewer options. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort to find a time that works, even if it’s not weekly. Talk to your grandchildren’s parents about what would work best for their family. If your grandkids are old enough to have some say in their own schedule, get their input, too. Then, set the agreed upon time as a “repeat” on your calendar.
How? Without making it too rigid, we’ve found ourselves following a basic pattern in our weekly Bible studies with our grandkids. We like to “meet” with our grandkids individually, even if our meeting is via a video call. We always begin with excited greetings followed by questions regarding how they have been doing since we talked last. We’re happy for them to talk to us for a while about what’s been happening in their lives and even showing us something they’ve been working on.
Then, we try to draw their attention toward God by asking how they’ve seen answers to prayer regarding last week’s prayer requests. (We keep a notebook so we don’t forget!) Then we each share praises and requests, including struggles we may be facing and appropriate confessions of sin. After that, we each take a turn praying for one another. Those can be really sweet times – not only praying for our precious grandkids, but hearing them pray for us!
After prayer we ask how their Bible study has been going. If we’re using a study manual, we open to the recent pages. If we’re working through a Bible passage, we will turn there. By the way, with older children, working through a book of the Bible can be a great way to get them in the habit of daily Bible reading. We like using a study Bible, having the study notes available if we get stuck in our understanding of a particular passage. We seek to make a reasonable amount of progress in that week’s Bible study, depending on the age of the grandchild and the time we have available. When our time is drawing to a close, we summarize what we’ve been learning together and end with expressions of love and excitedly talk about our next “meeting.”
What a privilege we have as grandparents, to tell the next generation the wonderful works of God so that they would “set their hope in God” (Psalm 78:7). Let’s get started.