Another Great Idea by Grace

It is bedtime again, and Grace is again requesting a Bible story "...and make sure that it's one I've never heard before!"

And I'm tired. And I'm kind of wondering how this little girl who loves Bible stories and is an amazing little independent reader now, could possibly be motivated to read the Bible for herself.

"Well, you tell me the stories, so I don't need to read them," she reasons.

"How do you know I'm getting them right?"

She looks at me. She's not quite old enough yet to realize how much I don't know. But she's getting there fast.

Without really meaning to, I begin to give her a little speech about why it's important to know what the Bible says. I tell her that when temptation and lies come to us, there is sometimes just enough truth to make it sound okay, and we have to really know the truth so that we aren't deceived.

It is, I think, a fine little speech. And it appears to be sailing right over her little seven-year-old head.

She looks at me and I can imagine that in her head, my voice sounds not unlike the voice of all the adults on Charlie Brown movies: "Mwa mwa, mwa mwa, mwa mwa...."

Or maybe not.

She gets up and brings her Bible over. "How about this," she suggests. "When you tell me a Bible story, tell it mostly right but tell one little thing wrong. Then show me where it is and I'll read it and figure out which part is wrong."

Not a bad idea.

After doing this for a week or so, I have discovered several benefits. It gets Grace to open the Bible, it teaches her good reading skills, she gets double exposure to a passage, through hearing and reading, and, because she's such a sharp little thing, it really keeps me accountable to be reading the Bible. (As usual, God brings the thing I want to work on with my kids back to something I need to work on myself - Why does it always gotta be like that?)