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Some practical questions on children

Deanne

Deanne

New Member
Real Person
Hi everyone,
I'd love to hear how you are teaching your children the Word. What general ages do you have (if that's not too personal)? What do you do on a regular basis, and what types of (spiritual training) things do you do spur of the moment? The more specific you can be, the better. How do you pray with your children?

Those who are already in a polygynous family, how do your children interact with the community and vice versa? How do you guide your children in discussing the subject of polygyny with others, whether extended family, neighbors, or people in public? On which scriptures do you base this decision?

Thanks, Deanne :)
 
DeanneRay,
For Chaplains Rose and I, we have 4 children ages 28 to 19. My 2 oldest are married and we still have 2 at home. My kids all grew-up in church so they were exposed to the word from a young age. We tried to do Bible study at home but with the way that I work, it just did not work out. My kids were active in various church functions from children's choir, Bible drill, youth activities, RA / GA ( Royal Ambassadors / Girls in Action, a Southern Baptitst program) among other church activities. With prayer, I usually led it at meal time and other times where we were all together but I would and still do ask them on occasion to pray as a means of letting them pray in front of other people.
 
DeanneRay said:
Hi everyone,
I'd love to hear how you are teaching your children the Word. What general ages do you have (if that's not too personal)? What do you do on a regular basis, and what types of (spiritual training) things do you do spur of the moment? The more specific you can be, the better. How do you pray with your children?
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We have three children, and my wife and I have brought them up in Christ and the word since birth. We pray before every meal, including ones in public at restaurants. This is just a normal thing for them. Our children are still of a very young age and each have their own "version" of the bible, meaning they have ones especially made for children, you know they have pictures and have only very basic stories. When we do our studies they have their books, and I have our main King James Version there to go into more depth study, but only so much to clarify any points that thier books may have missed. Also, as part of their education, when they come home after school at least 30 minutes is devoted to bible study and lessons, to which they will be responsible for tests and scores as if they were still in school. Our theory is, whatever the devil teaches them during the day, we teach them what God wants at night, as well as when the topics at school directly interfere with biblical teaching and scripture. I am of course speaking of the teaching of evolution in schools. They ahve their music, which consists of musicians like Steven Curtis Chapman, Casting Crowns and the like. These are just some specific examples of bible study that we do as a whole concerning the entire scripture.

DeanneRay said:
Those who are already in a polygynous family, how do your children interact with the community and vice versa? How do you guide your children in discussing the subject of polygyny with others, whether extended family, neighbors, or people in public? On which scriptures do you base this decision?

Thanks, Deanne :)
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My family is not currently a polygynous family. We may at sometime in the future IF God wants it to be for us, It may not be. As far as the subject, it is hand in hand with other teachings in scripture. It is no more or less treated as any other study for any other topic in the truth. The first time we dealt with the lesson of polygny was I ask my children one simple question,"What makes up a family unit? The study went from there. My children gave the basic answers of Mommy and daddy, brothers and sisters, Grandparents, and so on. I then would ask them about people they did not mention. I ask them what about Aunts or uncles, to which they would go oh yeah. Then I ask about Cousins or certain friends that we have. Then I ask them "Can a family consist of two different Mommys?". I then told them to get their bibles to study Jacob. I ask them to read the story. They did and then I ask them how many sons, did Jacob have according to their books, they of course answered 12. I ask them how many wives did it say that Jacob had. They then stated one. Then I pulled the main bible out and showed them the truth. that Jacob had four wives. This was the start of their study with this topic. Since then, they have asked questions and thought of examples and did other study with plural marriages, so it would not be a shock to them if we were to get another wife in the family. Thsi of course was the first time the subject was broached and of course more in depth study will come when they get older, but I find that the younger you can bring your children up with the ENTIRE truth about Gods word, the better. I hope this has helped.

God Bless
 
truthfinder1967 said:
I ask them how many wives did it say that Jacob had. They then stated one.
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This "simplified children's bible translation" makes me want to cry! Children are not fools that we have to dumb down reality for them. They will reach the level we teach. It's very good that you give them the rest of the truth yourselves... but this translation thing is just... sad... :cry:
 
We have three under four. We get many bible story books from relatives, we screen them and throw out the many dubious ones. We are pretty much just teaching songs and basic ideas to them, they are young. We have a private school lined up so we don't have to worry about the cult of chaos there, though we have plans to teach more advanced apologetics as they get older. There are still issues with the private school's doctrine, but we plan to deal with that as it comes.
 
For our family, as soon as they can read, they read their own bibles. Not children's translations either. Be prepared for your nine year old to ask you what a concubine is and what "spilled his seed" means, because they should start in Genesis, as it should be. You will be amazed at the insight that you receive from hearing your children's comments on what they think the Bible is saying and meaning. They have not been indoctrinated with churchiosity, false interpretation, eisegesis, traditions, or heresy. Many times they will say something about a particular passage and point out something that is clear and simple and makes you rethink what you thought that passage should mean. Of course, they are not always correct, but they keep you on your toes (in the Word).
 
Paul not the apostle said:
For our family, as soon as they can read, they read their own bibles. Not children's translations either. Be prepared for your nine year old to ask you what a concubine is and what "spilled his seed" means, because they should start in Genesis, as it should be. You will be amazed at the insight that you receive from hearing your children's comments on what they think the Bible is saying and meaning. They have not been indoctrinated with churchiosity, false interpretation, eisegesis, traditions, or heresy. Many times they will say something about a particular passage and point out something that is clear and simple and makes you rethink what you thought that passage should mean. Of course, they are not always correct, but they keep you on your toes (in the Word).
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*Applause*
 
Thank you, Thank you. My wife gets the credit for that one. Our daughter reads her Bible because she sees mom doing it in the morning and wants to be like her.
 
Paul not the apostle said:
Thank you, Thank you. My wife gets the credit for that one. Our daughter reads her Bible because she sees mom doing it in the morning and wants to be like her.
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Awww
 
Well, I had to get in the Word because I kept saying "Be nice! It's in the Bible!", but I really didn't know exactly what it said or where it was.

Paul (not the Apostle) is right that we don't use the childrens' versions bibles. One of my kids recently found their kiddie Bible and asked me to read it to him. I was reading the story of Noah's Ark to him and at the end it said that God put a rainbow in the sky to remind himself of His promise to never flood the earth again. Remind? You mean God thought that He might actually forget? Are rainbows God's post-its?

That, among other things, made me put the kiddie Bible back into hiding. We shouldn't hide God's wrath or His love from our kids in His Word. I think that everything in the Bible is good for kids to learn. Have you ever heard of No Greater Joy Ministries? They have good resources on raising kids in the Word and you can subscribe to their free magazine on their website.

Our kids are 13, 9, 5, 3 & 1. Our style of prayer with them really depends on the situation. When we have our "home church" time Paul will read from the Bible and we have a time where the kids can give their input and then Paul will summarize it. We sing together and each share what we are thankful for. Then we pray in a way that's mostly thanksgiving.
Other times we just pray spontaneously with the kids, like after we get a phone call requesting prayer for someone. We even pray spiritual warfare with the kids present if the situation requires it. Basically, I don't pray any differently with the kids than I do by myself.

As far as poly-life, we had not brought it up to the kids until we went to the Orlando retreat a few weeks ago. After a few hours our 9 year-old was telling us about her new friend and she said, "do you know that her dad has 2 wives?" We said yes and asked her what she thought about it. She said, "Well, I saw both of her moms in the kitchen laughing together and I thought it was really sweet." We are so thankful that her first impression was positive, but we also told the kids that there are a lot of people who disagree with it.
 
I certainly don't enjoy reading the children's versions to the kids nor any of the other story ones. We have found one we really enjoy for them (of course we do verbal editing as we go). It's good so far and we enjoy the simplest realizations that even we get when we read it. It's not so much which version, or how to bring the Word to the kids we worry about, it's mostly how d we tell them they don't have to tell everyone they have two moms?

The youngest doesn't realize societal facts and "truth" versus societal taboos and "lies" yet; the oldeset however, is struggling with not being like all the other kids. i have told him repeatedly along with my spouses that he doesn't have to tell anyone he's not comfortable telling. it's no one's business why you have one guy and two ladies watching your sports games. Luckily our culture is so brainwashed with monogamy being the only norm it's assumed i'm the overly affectionate cousin or friend or something to that effect.

How do we tell the kids it's not 'normal" but it's a different way to live one's life? it's difficult, we are managing fine i think, but really I wish i could have a child's insights sometimes.
 
Don't kids in blended families "have 2 moms"? One who lives with them and one who doesn't, but whom they probably have to spend time with?

The only difference for these kids MIGHT be explainable as, "We're lucky! Our mom and dad don't hate each other, and our mom and step mom are best friends. Oh, and we all live together, so we don't have to be going back and forth all the bloomin' time! Too bad you ain't got the same sweet setup, dude! Sucks to be you!" ... at least I think that's the way kids talk nowadays, judging from ours ... *sigh*

Any chance that would work?
 
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