For families with little ones (preschool age), this could be a 3-5 minute talk! It doesn’t have to be much. For older children, you can opt in for more of these options to extend your study time together. I recommend doing this with (especially little) children over a meal – whichever meal is the least chaotic in your home (for my family right now, that’s lunch), or saving the questions for while you’re on a walk or playing outside together. Have fun!
1. Read the scripture together: Romans 13:8-14. The important thing is that you’re reading scripture together! If you’re looking for different ways to engage your children while reading, here are some fun ways to read scripture as a family
Every Reader takes a verse
Ask each child to pick two words they don’t understand to talk about after you read it. (For longer scriptures and younger children, you may need to split up the reading in order to do this.)
Draw a picture of what you read
Act it out as a family (And please send documentation of this to children.sjumc@gmail.com because we could all use a laugh right now!)
Sing it!
Use Legos or dolls to tell the story
2. Tell your kids that this is the apostle Paul teaching a group of people called the Romans. He is talking about how all of our rules can be boiled down into one very important rule: Love your neighbor as yourself.
3. Discussion Questions (as always, pick and choose which questions you’d like to discuss!):
Can you think of any of the 10 commandments? How many can you think of?
Who is your neighbor?
What does it mean to you to love your neighbor like you love yourself?
Do you think you want the same things for everyone else in the world, that you want for yourself?
Can you see how if you love your neighbor as yourself, you automatically follow all the other rules?
4. Close in Prayer: Dear God, thank you for rules that help teach us about each other and bring us closer to You. Thank you for teaching us that LOVE is bigger than all the rules, and when we LOVE like You, we obey the most important rules that help us care for each other. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
~ Erynne DeVore, director of Children’s Ministry