5 Big Bible Story Takeaways for Little Ones

Helping to Apply Big Stories to Kids’ Lives Even at a Young Age

I remember snuggling with my son Cory when he was a toddler and reading Bible stories to him. I read about biblical people, and I told Cory about God when he was just two-years-old. As Cory got older I read the stories more in depth. We also memorized Scripture and looked for practical applications for our lives. It was like adding faith bricks onto a strong foundation. A foundation that started when Cory could barely speak in sentences.

Cory is now a dad, and (through adoption) we still have little ones at home, too. I’m still sharing God’s word through books likeJesus Calling: My First Bible Storybook with my children and grandchildren.

Sometimes this BIG story (the Bible) can be hard to understand. That’s why it’s important to help children learn how to apply God’s Word to their lives even from a young age. Here are five ways we parents can do that!

1. We can teach our kids that God’s Word tells us what is right and good.God’s Word helps us to know what to do. It’s different from the other books we read. This is a special Book with God’s own words. Every time we read a Bible story book, we can let our child know that this Book is different, special.
2. We can tell them that God uses ordinary people to do big and small things for Him.Each person in the Bible was an ordinary person who God chose to use. When we read a Bible story to our family, let’s talk about the Bible characters such as, “What good choices did the person make? What bad choices did they make?” “What big thing did God do?” We can remind our children that God’s has big and small plans for him or her, too.
3. We can remind our child that when we are weak God is strong.Bible stories show both the weaknesses of men and the strength of God. When little kids are overwhelmed they often say, “I can’t do it.” Bible stories remind kids that we don’t always have to be strong. When we are not strong we can turn to God and ask Him for help. And sometimes God sends people like our moms and dads or a teacher to help us, too.
4. We can teach our kids that the world has hard things but when we believe in Jesus we can look forward to a time in heaven with no hard things.The point of all Bible stories are to point us to Jesus’ death and payment for our sins. That was a hard, painful thing, but it allowed it so we could be with Jesus forever. When kids go through hard things — like people in the Bible — we can remember that Jesus has a good, good future planned for those who believe in Him.
5. We can remind our children that just as we love God we should love others.Kids usually find it easy to love God, but loving others can be hard. When reading Bible Studies we can point out how people loved God and how they loved each other. We can notice and point out these things in every day life, too. Being loving to someone isn’t just a good idea, it’s something that God asks us to do and models for us.

There are so many wonderful truths we can apply from God’s Word, and these are wonderful ones to start with! Remember that starting with even small bricks of truth will build a strong foundation.

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