Do you want to do a better job of teaching about Jesus at home, but you don’t know where to start?

I am joined by guest Bethany Golding, sharing some great ideas for you today! 

Listen to the Podcast HERE.

In a recent study, research found that moms on average complete about 34 tasks per day for a total of 238 every week! That number may not be your number, but I think we can all agree, moms are BUSY! The desire to be intentional about Jesus can easily get lost in all the daily tasks. So lean in momma, as we talk about how we can better point our kids to Jesus!

I am joined by guest and friend, Bethany Golding. She is a wife and stay-at-home mom to three kids under the age of 4! We have known each other for several years now. Bethany went to Union University right after I graduated, and she used to sing and volunteer in our church youth ministry.

We were catching up recently about what it means to really point our kids to Jesus and some things the Lord has been teaching her about that, and I got really excited since her heart mirrored what Faithful 31 Moms is all about…Encouraging moms to grow closer to the Lord, so out of that overflow, we can point our kids to Jesus. 

Bethany is joining me to share 3 ways to teach your kids about Jesus:

1. Bethany, How do you have your quiet time?

Bethany: This has looked different my whole entire life. I’m more of a night owl and not a morning person. So throughout high school and college, I had my quiet time at night and that was great for me, because I was wide awake and could focus and pay attention. Then when I got my first teaching job and later became a mom, I really liked to aim for early mornings so that I was starting my day in the Word and in prayer. However, I have been pregnant and having 3 babies since 2017, so my mornings have been a little crazy since then! So I have found myself having the best time every day during nap time, I work hard at getting all my kids down at the same time so I can sit down and really do my deeper Bible study then.

 

2. I have definitely found that this is common with moms with young kids napping or even kids at school, that afternoons are the best time for a more in depth Biblestudy time….and I want to get into what that looks like for you Bethany in just a minute…But before we get there, what would be some advice you have for a mom that is struggling to wake up and start her day with some Jesus time before the kids are up and the day gets crazy?

Bethany: Well, I have a couple of suggestions. One of the things my mom did in the mornings when I was growing up, was only allow Christian music to be played in the house. At the time I thought it to be a little legalistic, but I actually do it with my kids today. It just sets the tone for your whole day, so now I begin each morning with worship music in our house. I also have a rule for myself that I can’t pick up my phone, read texts or emails, until I’ve first meditated on a Scripture or started the day with prayer. You can even include your kids on starting the morning with prayer before technology, if it’s been a crazy morning and you haven’t had time to do it alone!

These are great ideas for starting your day with the Lord! To go along with this, another idea I wanted to share is our NEW Casting of the Flowers Scripture plan that is completely free when you sign up at the bottom of our homepage. It’s basically one little scripture a day that a child could easily help you read or memorize, even if they’re not reading yet. It’s an easy way start your day with Scripture, or even focus on one verse per week. It goes along with the Bible verses in our NEW devotional coloring book (Purchase Here.)

 

3. I love those practical “first morning” suggestions you gave Bethany, that are easy to do no matter what the day holds, but we don’t want to stop there! You said that it’s during the kids afternoon nap time that you really sit down and spend a longer time with the Lord. Will you tell us a little bit about what that time looks like for you?

Bethany: Yes. So I’ve always kind of followed a one year Bible plan. I started doing this when I was younger. I think I had a “Read the Bible in two years” when I was younger. I’ve always loved reading my Bible and TRYING to do it in a year, but of course I’ve always missed days. I’ve never done it perfectly, but it’s been a good way to have an actual plan, so that when I sit down to read my Bible, I’m not just flipping through pages. Then in 2020, I started doing the Bible Recap, which is a podcast by Tara Leigh Cobble, which was a game changer for my quiet time! It’s only a seven or eight minute daily podcast, and she helps you read through the Bible in a year chronologically, explaining it along the way. I can’t even tell you what that did for my Bible reading and study. It has absolutely opened my eyes to so many things I’d never seen before. Actually knowing the context of what you’re reading and understanding it HUGE! So she gives you a plan, and you can do it with any Bible. You look up what you’re supposed to read each day and then listen to the short podcast where she answers your questions. I did that through 2020 and then again in 2021, and I learned more in those two years than I ever have in any other bible study!

 

4. Even if a mom can’t commit to this everyday, I know you have said you do a weekly Biblestudy at church, or a working mom could do it over a lunch break or with some co-workers. But would you say at least once per week, it’s crucial to carve out time for more in depth Biblestudy?

Bethany: Absolutely! I think that if you can start once a week doing a Bible study and then do something with other people, whether that’s at your church or if you’re a working mom them with coworkers over lunch, it helps to keep you accountable. You can ask each other questions and dive deeper than you would if you were just reading by yourself.

 

5. That’s a great challenge to go deeper at least once per week, because the Lord will stretch and grow you so much! And the more time you spend in His Word, the more you will want to spend time with Him! Soon one day per week won’t be enough, Because the Lord is going to stretch and grow you so much! Bethany this is what has happened to you in the last two years. Share with us something you learned that has changed the way you live and the kind of mother you want to be?

Bethany: Well, like I said, 2020 was one of the first times that I read through the Bible chronologically in order. So I’m going to be honest and admit that the Old Testament used to be boring to me growing up. I would read it and knew the main stories, but I didn’t know the context and how they fit all together. I mean, I knew the basic things you learn growing up in a Christian home and a church, but reading the Bible in order and having the podcast to help me understand it, made everything come to life! I’d been praying that the Lord would speak to me through his Word and he did. At the end of the Book of Joshua, last year in 2021, if you know the order of the Old Testament, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and he passed down his leadership role to Joshua. So Joshua was going to be the guy to actually lead the Israelites into the promised land. Then when you get to the end of the Book of Joshua, you see Joshua presenting this choice to the Israelites. He’s reminding the Israelites in chapter 24 of their whole history and of the faithfulness of God, and he’s also reminding them of the harm that will come to them if they don’t follow God in their new promised land. He’s tells them is verses 14-17 to “Choose this day, whom you will serve. As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord” and the people answered in verse 16 saying, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods for is the Lord, our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt.“

So you see in this scripture, Joshua is constantly reminding the Israelites over and over how they will be tempted to bow down to other gods in the promised land, tempted to intermarry with the people who live there and worship their idols and that they should NOT DO IT! The people seem very passionate about following the Lord. So then if we skip over to start the Book of Judges. (This is the beauty about reading the Bible chronologically, because I had just read this chapter, and it was fresh on my mind!) Just two chapters into Judges, you see that their leader Joshua dies, and with that, the whole generation that knew Joshua also passed away. And it tells us in Judges 2, that “There arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” When I read this, because it was so fresh on my mind from the day before, my jaw dropped! So then I had to do some thinking and look back to when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, and they wandered for 40 years before they could enter the promised land because of their unbelief. Now going back to Joshua’s generation, they were the kids then, coming out of Egypt and would have seen the 10 plagues. They would’ve seen the Red Sea part and Moses leading them out. They would’ve seen the way God provided for them with the daily manna. They are the ones who grew up and inherited the Promised Land. BUT DON’T MISS THIS….after seeing God do ALL of that…they are the same ones that didn’t pass it all to their kids! WHAT?! That’s mind blowing to me. After all they had seen God do and how he provided for them, that we now start the book of Judges with their kids not even knowing the Lord! CRAZY!

Mallory: That’s crazy! And a great reminder that we have to tell our kids what the Lord has done in our lives, and that’s a really big challenge!!

 

6. You and I have talked about this before Bethany, but so many times we rely on family tradition—“Well, we are a Christian family” or “We go to church” for our kids to know Jesus, but they don’t just inherit Jesus like an eye-color from us. Our kids have to be taught about the Bible little by little, and too many times, we depend on the church to teach it and not the home! Bethany I know you get passionate about this subject like I do, so will you share with us about that?

Bethany: Absolutely. So in my reading through the rest of the Old Testament, I started seeing a theme emerge. And I started seeing that the way we parent looks a lot like the way that Israelites did things in the Old Testament. So if you fast forward through the dumpster fire that is the Book of Judges, you come to the end and see all the sin that had entered into these families. All of the false idols and evil that was passed down from generation to generation. This really made me examine my own life. What false idols and sin do I have in my own life? How do I spend my money? What do I talk about? Who do I talk about? Because our kids are watching us. They are going to live and act the way we live and act. So of course church, Christian music and all of those things are important, but we also have to have a living and active faith that they’ll actually want to live out, and just dropping them off at church will not accomplish this!

Mallory: Yes so true!! I remember in a quote from a book (find here) of Pastor Adrian Rogers where he said:

“Do you know what children need to see in your home? They need to see a sincere love for God. They need to see in you a burning, passionate, emotional sincerity when it comes to the things of God. Kids can spot a phony a mile away, and they know whether or not you love God with all your heart. It is phoniness of parents, by and large, that turns kids off to the things of God.” 

– Adrian Rogers –

Bethany: That’s an awesome quote! And I think what you’re saying goes to the fact, I’m always hearing people concerned about young people leaving the church and going off to college and not staying involved in a church. We’re always asking what can the church do better? And of course the church plays a vital role in your walk with the Lord. But I think what we have to start asking ourselves is what can we, as parents do better? I know I’ve told my parents time and time again, because of their living and active walks with the Lord. I saw prayers answered. I saw the way that they spent their money, their time and what they talked about. I saw that like what Dr. Rogers said, they loved God with their whole heart! They weren’t perfect, but because of their walk with the Lord, I never doubted that God was real because I’ve seen Him be real in their lives!

That’s an awesome testimony to a home where the parents LIVED out a sincere love for God! So to recap what we have learned so far, here are the 2 things that we have challenged you with so far:

• Start each day with Jesus.
  • With a Scripture or short prayer to begin the day.
  • Use our Casting of the Flowers Scripture Plan and let your kids join in!
  • Play Christian music in the house, but regardless, START THE DAY WITH A JESUS FOCUS!

• At least once per week, spend some in depth time in God’s Word.
  • Click here to check out the podcast Bethany uses! More that that is great but start somewhere!
  • Join a church Biblestudy or group with work friends to hold you accountable.

With these two challenges, it’s clear that we can’t teach our kids what we do not know, and we don’t want to be accused of being a “phony” like we heard in Pastor Rogers quote above.

 

7. Bethany, for the 3rd and final challenge, we want to encourage moms to point their kids to Jesus in some practical ways….What are some tools you use at home to point your kids to Jesus and teach them Bible stories, songs, etc:??

Bethany: I would say that our favorite kids Bible, since we have younger kids, is the Jesus Story Book Bible. She writes everything in a way that points to Jesus, even the Old Testament stories. And that is the focus that I always want to bring to my kids’ attention. There’s also a Bible we use, I would say that’s even for even younger kids than the Jesus Story Book Bible, like ages 1-3, that’s called the Rhyme Bible. The stories are very short and everything rhymes, so it’s just a good way to teach foundational Bible stories in the little years.

We also love to listen to Seeds Family Worship Music in the car. You can find them on Spotify and iTunes, and it’s a good way to put Scripture memory to songs so that they can memorize it. We have another thing, now that my kids are getting a little older, that I’ve been trying to do and that’s using scripture memory cards with them at breakfast. We do our gummy vitamins afterwards, and just a fun thing we’ve tried to incorporate to breakfast time.

Mallory: I love all of those suggestions! My kids are a little older (5-8), so we do our bible reading time at night before bed, and here are some of our favorites, along with Bethany’s list:

1. Casting of the Flowers Book and Devotional Coloring Book: https://faithful31moms.com/resources/
2. Casting of the Flowers Scripture Writing Plan: https://faithful31moms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/C-of-F-SWP-.pdf
3. Tales that Tell the Truth Series (you can buy individually or as a set): https://www.amazon.com/Tales-that-Tell-Truth-Set/dp/B08Y5Y38VQ/
4. Jesus Calling Bible Storybook: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Calling-Bible-Storybook-Sarah/dp/140032033X/
5. *The Rhyme Bible Storybook: https://www.amazon.com/Rhyme-Bible-Storybook-L-Sattgast/dp/0310726026
6. *The Jesus Storybook Bible: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Storybook-Bible-Every-Whispers/dp/0310708257
7. *Seeds Family Worship Scripture Songs: https://music.apple.com/us/album/my-soul-finds-rest-psalm-62-1-2/1055783972?i=1055785097
8. *Scripture Memory Cards for Kids: https://www.dayspring.com/my-first-bible-memory-verse-cards
9. *The Bible Recap Podcast (Bethany refers to for reading the Bible in a year): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bible-recap/id1440833267 or https://www.taraleighcobble.com/podcast

Be sure to check out our Instagram @Faithful31Moms for our Scripture Saturdays, where my kids are helping me go through the Casting of the Flowers Scripture plan I mentioned above. We are using these verses and putting motions and inflections with them to show you how you can teach your kids Bible verses in a fun way that they can remember!

Thanks to Bethany for joining me and sharing with us some of the things that God has been teaching her and challenging us to start our day with Jesus, to dive deeper with him at least once per week, so that we can ultimately point our kids to Jesus!

Listen to the Podcast HERE.