The Lord your God has directed me to teach you his commands, rules and laws. Obey them in the land you will take over when you go across the Jordan River. 2 Then you, your children and their children after them will honor the Lord your God as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I’m giving you. If you do, you will enjoy long life. 3 Israel, listen to me. Make sure you obey me. Then things will go well with you. The number of your people will increase greatly in a land that has plenty of milk and honey. That’s what the Lord, the God of your parents, promised you. Deuteronomy 6:1-3
Make up some trail mix with the kiddos, letting them mix the ingredients or even choose a few of them. Some suggestions are mini marshmallows, banana chips, raisins, nuts of any kind, chocolate chips or carob chips, candy pieces, dried fruit, yogurt chips, popcorn, pretzels, cereal or whatever else you can imagine. Pack the mix into small baggies and store extras in the fridge.
The bible is not a bag of trail mix, you can’t just pick out the pieces you like and ignore the rest! But in order to fully understand that we have to know what our Bible says.
Read the beginning of Deuteronomy together and challenge the kids to retell the first verses in their own words. Do they want to live a long happy life? Of course! Do they want their children’s children to honour God? YES!
Then we need to obey the rules and commands in the Bible, not just the ones we learn in Sunday School. We need to study them for ourselves. Ask the children how they would like to learn the Bible themselves, whether it’s in a group setting or privately, by listening to an audio Bible, reading aloud, or reading quietly. And then help them achieve that goal. They’ll have days they don’t feel like it, but they will thank you for installing that discipline, really they will, one day.