Hey there, sweet friends! With summer break from school upon us, it’s been on my heart to share a reboot of my ancient 2015 blog post #KidsintheWord. My own hope for our summer home is to spend intentional time with all three of my kiddos before our newest little bundle of joy arrives & I’d also really love to keep screen time to a minimum. Getting these little babes in the Word & spending time with Jesus is just kinda of a no brainer, right?!
I’ve been bible journaling with my daughter for the past four years [wow, time flies!] and it’s been such a heart-warming adventure to paint in my margins alongside her! If you follow along on instagram with me, you’ve probably caught some of our live bible journaling sessions together :] They’re usually wild & crazy with her pushing my bible out of the way so she can showcase her own art hah!
Today, I want to share a few of my own tips for encouraging your kids to come alongside you & join in with our creative worship movement in their own bibles!
TIP NUMBER ONE….
Work backwards. In my own experience, I have found that it’s the ART part of bible journaling that draws the babes in. And that’s okay, friend. We don’t want to force a relationship with Jesus on our children, but gently guide them to His loving arms. What an incredible tool we have readily available to offer them in the way of painting, stickers & doodles!!
I’ve found myself many a-time having to bite my tongue when I see Amelia paint her entire bible page purple. And I mean DARK purple, y’all. Like… words have disappeared, we’re swimming in a sea of acrylic Barney. BUT. While she spent fifteen minutes happily coating her page in color, we had time to chat about God’s love, God’s goodness & why we spend time worshipping Him through the decorating of said purple paint.
TIP NUMBER TWO….
Gather up some kid-friendly supplies. This can be as simple as a fresh box of crayons or a sheet of Veggie Tale stickers to use. One of our favorites to keep on hand is an file folder full of pretties from the Print & Pray shop. Amelia absolutely adores having her own sheets of Shanna’s highlight paintbrushes printed on clear sticker paper. I also love to keep a variety of Jess’ kid-themed sets for a lesson themed bible journaling sesh!
PS — Did you know you can purchase a class license & print enough of these adorable sets for your Sunday School class?! Our kiddos love when I bring these cuties in to play with!
TIP NUMBER THREE….
If you are able, get your kiddos their own bible to journal in. When I first started journaling with Amelia several years ago, I let her start out in my bible with a few verses related to children. But she quickly was ready & feeling oh-so-inspired to dig in deeper. Um… YES & AMEN! I was lucky enough to have an extra pre-illustrated bible on hand that I could gift her & now she adores working in her very own journaling bible!
An alternative option would be a simple little notebook created from construction paper! Use what you have on hand & what’s available to you :]
TIP NUMBER FOUR….
Spend some time OUTSIDE of the margins…. and then take it back to the bible! As much as I would personally love to bible journal for 28 hours every. single. day…. that’s just not gonna work out for the attention span of a child. Use other techniques to guide them to the Word! There are so many fabulous coloring books out there [geared towards adults & kiddos alike], and I like to keep a few of these on hand for when we need something fresh to try!
TIP NUMBER FIVE….
In the words of Queen Elsa, “Let it go!” Perfection is something that none of us will ever achieve, and we truly should never expect that from our babies either. As much as I want to confine Amelia to the two inch blank margin provided in her bible already, I have to remind myself how thrilling it is that she is spending time BY CHOICE in her bible & I constantly weigh the pros+cons of a completely painted, covered page. And like I shared earlier, this is her bible that she keeps specifically for art worship. Since she has another “regular” bible to take to church & summer camp, I’m able to let things slide a lot more ;)f
ONE LAST EXTRA FREEBIE TIP….
Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” We’re running a marathon here, friends…. not a sprint. Slowly guiding our sweet little blessings into the fold of Heaven. Let’s do it gently — with grace & a whole lot of purple paint.
Love this article! My daughter just asked me yesterday if she could get her own journaling Bible! Up until this point, she’d been using some small freebies they handed out at a local Christian book store near the Bible journaling supplies. Any suggestions on a good journaling Bible for kids, or do you use the same type you would use for yourself?!