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: Genesis 1:1-2:2a. 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 this is the very start of the Creation story, and the very first verses in the Bible! You can tell them what you’d like about Creation. What I tell my children is that we learn a little from the Bible and from scientists today, and we don’t know everything, but we learn more by talking with each other and reading.. But the people who wrote the Bible (Moses, in the case of Genesis) and put the Bible together must have thought this story had something important for us to learn from!
3. Discussion Questions (as always, pick and choose which questions you’d like to discuss!):
How do you feel when you think about always being here, even before us and the trees?
What is your favorite way to enjoy creation? You can talk about some of your favorite outdoor or Alaskan memories together as a family!
We were made in the image of God! If God is our creator, that means we must be a little creative too, right?! What are your favorite ways to be creative?
4. Close in Prayer: God, before I was born, you were there. Before my grandparents or great grandparents or ancestors were around, you were there! Since you are Love and you made us to be like you, we must be made with Love, too. Thank you for that! And thank you for the beautiful Alaskan state that we get to live in! Amen.
~ Erynne DeVore, director of Children’s Ministry