Encouragement to keep faithfully teaching + sharing God’s Word with your kids (even when it feels hard or weird)

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I have a bit of a confession to make.

Sometimes reading the Bible to my kids feels, well, awkward or stilted. I want to share the story or passage in an approachable way and, in the end, I feel like I muddled through a strange tale about a talking snake, or a man who walks on water, or demons entering pigs. Even though I hold strongly that the Word of God is perfect, true, and God’s inspired Word, it is definitely filled with many crazy and hard-to-understand parts.

And that can trip me up. I want it to feel natural and simple—but sometimes, it just feels weird trying to explain or unpack part of the Bible that I struggle to understand myself or seems hard to bring to the child’s level. 

I feel like it’s up to me to have the answers or be able to articulate the Bible clearly.

Another confession.

Sometimes I try really hard to make learning the Bible fun and engaging and it ends up exposing what sin looks like (hello crabby and frustrated momma!) in a better way than a cute Bible craft can (ha!). My curated plans meet the reality of children, and I find myself smiling through my teeth and saying “Time to learn about Jesus and you.better.listen.and.like.it.”

In the end, I feel defeated because the last thing I want is for my kids to feel like reading the Bible is drudgery or learning about Jesus is a task. 

I want them to have a hunger and thirst for the Word of God and a desire to know about the One who wrote it. 

Maybe you can relate to this. 

Over the years, I have found some helpful tips, resources, and reminders that have helped me when I struggle or wonder if I’m doing it right. I thought I’d share them with you (and you can share your tips with me too!).

  1. It’s not my job to change my kid’s heart or give them ears to hear. That’s God’s role. When I remember this, it gives me the freedom to simply walk with Christ, share my life and learning with my children, and prayerfully ask God to work in them. You saw my list up there--those challenges often come when I’m trying to take on more responsibility for my children’s faith than I ought to. I’m often reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:7:

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”

  1. Be honest. If you don’t understand something about a passage, tell your kids. Admit when you find something challenging to obey or understand in the Bible. Realizing that we don’t know or understand everything shows that we approach God’s Word with humbleness and ask Him to help us understand it.  Study it together!

  2. Just do it. Okay, okay. I know that sounds a little silly, but often, when I feel discouraged because my kids don’t seem interested, I tend to give up and say, “Oh well! No one is listening so I just won’t do it!” I’ve realized that there won’t be amazing learning or lightbulb moments for my kids (or myself!) every day (or even every week or month). They will be distracted, sometimes disruptive, or bored. But God tells me in His word to share with others about Him--and my kiddos are part of that. If you are like me and struggle with this, ask God to help you be faithful (especially when it’s hard or you yourself are feeling spiritually parched). Ps. Sometimes it is wise to stop reading or sharing if your kids are all over the place--but don’t let that stop you from picking it back up at a later time :) 

  3. Use tools to help you teach your kids about the Bible and the Gospel. Grab a storybook Bible, kid-friendly devotional book, or a Bible reading plan to help you know what to read. I often find that when we are working through something, my kids are more likely to ask “What’s the next story in….” or “Mom! We haven’t read from ____ yet today!” Ps. At the bottom of this post are some of my favorite tools we’ve used! 

  4. Pray. Pray. And Pray. Like I mentioned before, I often get stuck when I’m relying too much on myself and thinking it’s all up to me. While I do think that we have a responsibility to teach our kids the truths about God (see Psalms 78:1-7), we can’t manufacture faith in our children’s hearts. But! We can pray for wisdom, gentleness, and patience as we teach and share with them. We can also pray with our kids and ask God to help us study and learn from His Word.

  5. Spend personal time studying and learning about God through His Word. I’ve found that if I’m consistently in the Word, it’s far more natural to simply share with my kids what I’m learning about and how God is working in my life. 

  6. Focus on God and the Gospel. Well, I bet you’re thinking, “Nicole, isn’t that pretty obvious?” Let me explain. I think we (or at least I do!) get befuddled when we try to impart too many lessons or ideas when we are reading something about the Bible. I’m learning how to better whittle it down to “What does this passage/story teach us about God?” or “How does this show God’s big story (aka the Gospel)? 

  7. Engage your kids at their level. Maybe you have a little one who loves music and singing? Sing the scriptures! Maybe you have an analytical child who has a lot of questions--perhaps deep dive into theology with them. Do they need to keep their hands busy? Give them something to play with as they listen to you read the Bible. Meet your kids at their level and remember that we all learn differently--their style may be very different from yours! 

  8. Remember that it's not about the boxes. I’ve fallen into this more times than I care to admit. I want to be sure that I’m doing the “right Christian mom thing” and teaching my kids the Bible. So, I bring out the Bible, read something, and we move on with our day. The end. Check. Maybe it sounds like I’m repeating myself, but I’m going to say it again, pray! Ask God to bring life and excitement for sharing the Word with your kids--He has definitely met this need many times for me when I’ve been in a rut or going through the motions. 

  9.  Trust God’s Word to do what God says it will do. It’s a light. It’s God-breathed. It’s truth. It’s a useful for teaching and correcting. It endures forever. It’s flawless. It is right and true. What a joy it is to have God’s word and to be able to know God through His word! If you feel discouraged, remember this: God’s Word never returns void. And even our most muddly-fuddly, awkward storytelling, and strange explanations can be used by God. 

As I wrap this up, I want to leave one last encouraging word to you. And I’m telling myself this just as much as I’m telling you.

Stay rooted. It’s easy to get distracted and discouraged. Maybe you see a mom teaching her kids 25 memory verses a week, or they do a fun weekly Bible skit or lesson, or whatever she is doing just seems...well, better than what you are doing.

It is not your job to do more; it is your job to be faithful. More hustle on our part does not produce more faith in our children’s hearts.

God has given you these little ones in your home, and He has given you His Word to guide you. He loves and created your children. 

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So stay rooted. Open up that good and precious gift and read it. Ask God to help you understand and apply it. Study it. Live it. Be in awe of the One who breathed it. Tell your children what it says, talk about it throughout your day, joyfully share the Good News, and keep watering those cute little plants that live in your home. Let’s encourage one another as we do this in our homes :)

Some of our favorite Bible tools + resources:

Ps. Don’t forget to download your free “God’s Word” printable—a print full of everything God’s Word is! I stuck mine of my fridge so that it will daily remind me to trust + stay rooted in God’s word :)

Have a good one!

Nicole

What's inside this year's Back to School Basket?

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In less than two weeks, we’ll finish up our summer break and enter into our 4th year of homeschooling (I can hardly believe that!). As much as I adore the loose schedule and break of summer, I am SO ready to begin our school rhythms and enjoy bringing back some structure to our days.

Whether you send your kids off to school or homeschool, I bet you can relate to the itch for routine ;)

Every year, I love putting together a basket for the first day of school. Especially since we don’t do the typical back-to-school shopping, this is a fun back-to-school tradition :)

This year, we are doing the King Kingdom from the Peaceful Press and I am so excited to learn about medieval history, kings and queens, Narnia, and not to mention, try to make our own Turkish delight ;)

So, of course, I had to create a basket that had a few Narnia-inspired or medieval-inspired items in there.

So, let’s start with what in the basket for my littlest (he’s two and a half):

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For my middle guy (he’s 5 1/2 and entering into Kindergarten), we got:

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Here’s what we gathered for our oldest who is entering 3rd grade:

I generally try to stick to including a new book, game, school supplies, and something we can use through-out the year (such as a water bottle, new shirt, etc). Often, the first day of school includes lots of reading new books, playing a new game, and gently beginning the new year :)

Have you given your kiddos a back-to-school basket? Or do you have any fun back-to-school traditions?

Have a good one!

Nicole

*Some of the links included are affiliate links. See my affiliate disclosure here.

Do you use reverse planning? Do you know what it is?

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I know that we can’t see one another across the channels of the internet, but if are a homeschool parent, and have felt like you have no clue what you are doing—raise your hand. I’m over here raising mine!

We are about to enter into our 4th year of homeschooling (and I still feel like an absolute newbie), but on the other hand, I have found some systems and tools that work (and don’t work) for our us.

At the beginning of our homeschool journey, I made a lot of plans. I wrote them down, organized them, and then, well, got frustrated when they didn’t quite work the way I had envisioned. Even though I often knew that we should shift gears with a plan that wasn’t working, I was determined to check it off the list. To be honest, I chucked planning every detail pretty quickly. But then I was left feeling like we aimless and I would often wonder if I was doing enough.

I’m pretty sure the question: Am I doing enough? is an age-old parenting and homeschooling question.

You can raise your hand across the internet if you’ve felt that too!

Then, someone introduced me to reverse or back planning. And it truly made all the difference. For the last few years, I’ve purchased a simple calendar and just jotted down notes about our day and what we did. Doing this gave me more freedom to shift gears (instead of dogged determination to follow my plan), keep track of what we’ve done during the day, and visually see that our day was made up of all kinds of learning and together moments. I also used it to keep notes about attitudes and what seemed to be working (or not working!). I write down everything from library visits, to baking together, impromptu science experiments, math lessons, games we’ve played together, trips to the store, outdoor adventures, reading lessons, and everything in between :)

This year, I’ll be homeschooling two kids instead of one, so I went on the hunt for a planner that could better keep track of what we’ve done. I wanted something that could separate the subjects a bit to get a feel for our rhythms with those areas. I also wanted a planner with a way to jot down some tasks and priorities that I want do during the week (as I do like to make a few loose plans ahead of time).

Goodness. I found a lot of amazing homeschool planners and even teacher planners. They were filled to the brim with so many wonderful pages of goals, subject leaning, mini-unit plans, etc.

But at the end of the day, I was looking for something that could mainly be used to plan ahead a little bit and also back or reverse plan. As much as those homeschool planners looked awesome, I knew that I didn’t need all the extra tools they included.

So, what’s a girl to do? Well, I made my own. It’s simple and has just what I need. It has a weekly planning page, a weekly spread with blank subject and weekday spots (which I plan to use to write down what we did), some encouraging verses and quotes, and a section to keep track of books we’ve read, places we’ve gone, memories we’ve made, and other notes. Plus, I added some full calendar pages to help me get monthly overviews and keep track of weeks off, holidays, special events, etc.

It’s more of a memory-keeper than a plan aheader ;)

I thought that maybe someone else would like something simple and straight-forward too. I enjoyed making some pretty covers, and it was hard to choose which one I liked best. But, the interior pages are all black and white (to help you save on printing costs!) and easy to get printed and bound.

So, if you’ve been on the hunt for a tool to simply keep track of learning or plan ahead, this may work for you. I’m looking forward to using it this year and then tucking it away with our school items at the end of the year.

I’d love to know: Do you like all the planning tools or do you like to just jot down the basics? Have you tried reverse or back planning?

Have a good one!

Nicole

The Gospel for Pirates

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A number of years ago, when my oldest was close to 3-years-old, I was ready to teach him the Christmas story. But, it happened a little like this:

I asked Luke where Jesus was born. His response, "the hospital?"

So, I read him the first part of the Christmas story in the Jesus Storybook Bible and afterward asked him the same question. His response this time, "That place? Starbucks?"

I guess it was all the talk about stars?

Then we went to the page about God creating space, and I asked him, "Luke, who created the stars and outer space?" And you know what he said? Darth Vader. Darth Vader.

True story. I’m still learning that teaching my kids about God’s word and the truth takes perseverance and seemingly repeating the same truths over and over again. To be honest, sometimes it’s discouraging when I feel like I’ve told them a story or a truth over and over and they just don’t seem to get it. Have you been there?

Last year, I did a little survey and asked you guys what you want your kids to know the most about the Bible and God. Overwhelmingly, you responded with The Gospel or God’s Love. So, I wanted to create something that could break down the Gospel story for kids. I often struggle with knowing how to best communicate the Gospel to my kids—on one hand, it is so simple. God loved us so much that He sent His son to die for our sins and give us eternal life. And on the other hand, how does a man dying on a cross thousands of years ago for our sins make sense to our kids? Ever feel the same way?

And I started thinking about it, I started thinking about the curse of sin, and then I started thinking about pirates and treasure. So, here we are! I hope that the Gospel for Pirates provides an engaging and simple way for you to walk your kids through the Gospel story—from creation to restoration. There are four lessons total: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

Going through the Gospel for Pirates was an engaging way to share the Gospel with my boys—the moldy “sin” bread especially struck a cord and they enjoyed creating their big pirate map.

My hope that if you use this resource that it can help you share the Gospel with your little pirates too!

Have a good one!

Nicole

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Encouragement for your Earbuds

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Everyday our homes are filled with noises and sounds. In my home, there is often a lot of noise--my music soft in the background, cars buzzing, lego play, boisterous boys, shouting, conversations and directions, and of course, a few sibling squabbles.

Lately, I've been thinking about the importance of what we hear in our home. Not simply the level of noise, but what is actually being said and heard. 

Are my boys overstimulated by the extra music in the background or is it contributing to the mood?

 Is that podcast teaching my kids Biblical truths or trustworthy ideas? 

 Is that audiobook engaging and helpful or is it full of unkind characters or content?

 Is my tone kind and gentle or harsh and critical (or loud!)? (Ouch. That's a hard question to ask!)

 As I ask myself these questions, I find myself on the hunt for resources that bring a “noise of encouragement” in our home. So, I'd like to share a few resources and tools that have been helpful for me as we work towards this :)

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Here are a few of MY FAVORITE encouraging + positive listening resources

DWELL BIBLE APP

I love using this for myself, but also like to use it for our Bible reading or listening time. I especially love the variety of voices and translations included. It really is SO encouraging to not only read, but to hear, the word of God! It is a yearly subscription, but it has been absolutely worth it! Learn more about Dwell here.

MUSIC PLAYLISTS

I love using Spotify to create playlists for different moods and genres. You don't have to use Spotify, but it's fun to curate a list of music that is encouraging and uplifting! I'd love to know some of your favorite songs/playlists!  Recently, I’ve loved the music by Mission House, Shane and Shane, and CityAlight. You can see some of my favorite playlists here:

PODCASTS

Of course, you can definitely find a lot of not-so-great content on podcasts, but I'll share a few that we've enjoyed. For kids, we've loved the God's Big Story podcast, Lamplighter Kids Stories (this is a new-to-us podcast that we’ve enjoyed so far), and Kid's Bible Stories. I’m looking forward to listening to a few on this list too :)

For me, I've loved Risen Motherhood, Gentle and Lowly Podcast, Journeywomen, Knowing Faith (one of my new favorites!), At Home with Sally, and The Elizabeth Elliot podcast. I often go through spurts where I will listen to a lot, and then have a period of time that I hardly listen to any at all (maybe my mind needs a mental break?). Does that happen to you too?

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SCRIBD

Scribd is my new favorite audiobook resource—mostly because they have so many options. You do pay for it—but it has been well worth it! If you use this link, you can listen for two months for free (and cancel at anytime if it isn’t your thing!). We do use our local library for many audiobooks (through Libby and Overdrive), but they often don’t have the books we want to listen to, so Scribd has been a helpful resource to give us more listening options.

So far, my boys have enjoyed:

I am currently listening to:

  • Triggers by Amber Lia and Wendy Speake

  • Daughter of Rome by Tessa Afshar (which is a little listening treat while I fold laundry or tidy the kitchen)

I’d also recommend and have enjoyed:

Ooof. That was a bit of a list, wasn’t it. But! I hope that you earmarked some new resources to add some encouraging noise to your home :) I’d love if you shared your favorite podcasts, audiobooks, or scripture passages that have been encouraging to your (or your family’s!) earbuds lately! Ps. We love our Doss speaker in our home—just in case you are on the hunt for a speaker with awesome volume and sound (plus there are so many fun colors!)

Have a good one!

—Nicole