The reason New Year’s Resolutions don’t work is because we set our sights too high. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in discipline and self-control and finishing what I’ve set out to do but oftentimes we get so down on ourselves this time of year, we feel like we need a change, and we try to do too much at once!
Take reading the Bible for instance.
We all know it is important to read the Word of God and reading it daily not only strengthens our relationship with God but empowers us to defend our faith.
Sometimes we feel guilty for how little the Bible actually makes it into our schooling. Sure, a verse is found in our science text here and there and our history curriculum might be Biblically based but how much actual study of the Bible is there? I struggled in the beginning, because I wanted to incorporate it but my children’s attention span just was not there. Here are a few goals that I find realistic and actual work to help stay on track as far as keeping Bible at the forefront of our day.
GOAL: Read a chapter of Proverbs a day.
Start with chapter one on the first of the month and go have the day of the month coincide with the chapter you read. Start over on the first of the next month and keep on going. This isn’t a new concept, but it is an effective one. It can help motivate you to make sure you don’t miss a day, and it’s not too much at one time so it doesn’t seem overwhelming.
GOAL: Read through the entire Bible in your homeschool at least once before your child graduates!
There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible. If you do the traditional 170 days of school a year then it would take 7 years to get through the Bible at a chapter a day, five days a week. If you want to get through it quicker obviously you could double up, go through the weekends or the summer too. This is the method we use. We are in our 14th book of the Bible right now. At this pace, my oldest three will have read through the whole Bible AT LEAST once before graduating.
GOAL: Read through a Children’s One-Year Bible.
This type of Bible highlights major events and people from Genesis to Revelation, giving them a good overview, a good introduction to the Bible. Here’s a good one to start with. We did this in our homeschool before we started reading through the entire Bible, and it was powerful and effective. These bite-sized stories are perfect for little ones, it keeps their attention and is not too overwhelming!
