2024_01_05 Insight Post- Jessica Woodcock
This week’s reading- Genesis 4:1-16, Matthew 23:35, Hebrews 11:4, Hebrews 12:24, 1 John 3:12, Jude 11
I’m super excited about the Bible Reading Plan this year. I tend to lean towards studies that settle into one book or a few chapters of the Bible, rather than topical studies. But taking a whole year to study more than 52 different men and women of the Bible has piqued my interest! There are so many characters in the Bible, and many of the names aren’t common today, so it can be easy to confuse which story goes with which Biblical character.
This year, we are going to study Hagar and Tamar. Do you remember which is which? I know their stories (both found in Genesis), but often have to take a pause to remember which woman lived during the time of Abraham and which during the time of Judah. We’re also going to take a week to look at Salome and then a few weeks later, read about a completely different Salome! I have to admit, I don’t really remember their stories. We’ll take time to study two different Josephs and a whole slew of both named and unnamed men and women of the Bible.
As my husband and I were talking about the new plan this year, we decided that we would read the plan as a family. The readings can be done in a short amount of time and the suggested questions are a great starting point for discussion with our children. The questions include:
- Are there character traits to emulate?
- What does the Bible say about these traits? For example, if kindness is identified, where else can you find the Bible addressing kindness?
- Are there character traits to avoid?
- What does the Bible say about these avoidable traits? For example, where else can you find the Bible addressing greed if greed is identified?
- Extra credit: who influenced and/or was influenced by this person?
A quick note, our children’s ages range from 12-18, so we will be reading and discussing everything. For those of you with younger children, I suggest doing the reading on your own first so that you can decide what is age-appropriate and how you want to introduce or if you want to skip certain stories. (I’m looking at you Tamar!)
I believe this study is going to be a good litmus test for how Tim and I are engaging with the Bible ourselves and how well we are doing with our children. My family’s plan this year is for each individual to read the weekly reading by Tuesday evening, then come together as a family, maybe over dinner, and talk about what we learned. We’ll go over the provided questions, discuss our thoughts, and any questions the readings brought up. Then, we will have the rest of the week to dig deeper to answer any questions, and to engage with the Insight Posts.
This first week, we did the plan together as we were driving home from seeing family over Christmas break. Since no one had done the reading yet, as a family, we talked about what we already knew about Cain and Abel. It was interesting to hear what knowledge each of the kids had, and their different perspectives- which details of the story each of them focused on. After that initial discussion, we read the first passage in Genesis 4. We then read the questions and took turns reading the rest of the passages. This structure got us thinking at the beginning and then let us read the remaining passages while considering the questions. I really liked having that discussion before the reading and am thinking about ways I can implement that each week. Most weeks, my family is all in the car together as we drive home from Sunday night Takeover, I think that for our family, that would be a great time to have a quick discussion about the topic of the week’s reading.
I encourage you to engage with the Bible Reading Plan this year, looking for insights into characters you may know and those that are new to you. Set up times to read and discuss the plan, that will be easily remembered and won’t get lost in the busyness of life. It is never too late to start reading, learning, and teaching! So regardless of where you are, if many of the names on this plan look familiar, or if you are feeling overwhelmed and only recognize a few, I encourage you to dig in and to do so with your kids as well. Your influence can have a huge impact.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
Jessica Woodcock
Administrative Manager