Our Morning Bible Time Routine – Ways to Worship the Lord Together

When I first started this parenting journey, I was given the best advice – that the most important thing I could do with our children was to read the Bible and worship God together. I have gone through seasons where we made this a priority, and then other seasons where we slowly got off track.

I don’t know exactly how we get off track at times. It usually started with just one decision. I would look at my day, and decide we were so busy that we could skip Bible, just today, I would tell myself.

Then on days we had dance, the day just seemed too packed, so I decided it would be ok to take out Bible. There’s nothing wrong with taking a day off from reading Bible together, but slowly I noticed, our once in a while breaks were turning into not having Bible together for weeks, or when we did have it, it was more of an exception than a routine.

And while the past year has had so many struggles and challenges, one of the blessings in disguise has been having more time at home and slowing down together. There were no excuses of being too busy or having too many extracurricular activities, because everything was put on hold. We have intentionally put Bible back in the center of our homeschool.

Now even with activities picking up again, we are staying strong (only with God’s help!) and doing Bible first thing in the morning. Making it the most important priority and doing it early has been key to consistency for us.

Now if something has to get skipped, I would rather it be math or English, than Bible. Since Bible is priority for me, I know I have done the most important thing first and that is pleasing to the Lord. I can trust Him to fill in the gaps I have missed in academics. To me, success is not getting a great job and having the American dream, but loving and following the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind.

Our greatest calling as parents is to pass on our faith. That starts with a exemplifying a genuine faith. Be an example first and foremost and be in the Word yourself everyday.

⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deut 6:5-9

As you see in Deut 6:5 God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength. We are also commanded to teach these things diligently to our children. But it starts with us first. Before we can teach, inspire and encourage our children to love the Lord, we must love the Lord with all our heart. We must spend time with Him.

And spending time with Him includes being in His Word and prayer on a daily basis. For a super easy way to get started reading the Bible consistently, check out my post on the Easiest Bible Study.

Now, we are commanded to teach these things to our children as well. I have put this post together to give you ideas of how to incorporate a morning Bible time and put God in the center of your home.

I will show you what we do in our morning Bible time together, and give you some of the resources we have used and loved too.

This is the basic routine of what we do after breakfast. Pray, memory verse, read Bible, worship song. If you don’t have a morning routine or Bible time routine with your children, start with one of these things first. Do just one thing for three weeks, and once it becomes a habit and easy to do, add another thing.

For example, you could just start with praying together after breakfast. Just take five minutes or less to pray over your children’s day. That’s it. By starting with one small step you are putting God in the center.

If you already have one of these things, maybe this post will give you an idea of something else you would like to add. I started with just Bible, song and verse when my children were toddlers and it took about 15 minutes/day. Now it takes about 30 minutes to do it all, but I give myself an hour of time because I still have little ones and there are plenty of interruptions – just keeping it real here! Do what works best for your family, routine and season of life.

Prayer Time

After breakfast, we all gather our Bibles and quiet activities and start our day in prayer together. I start the prayer and typically praise God for who He is and pray for each child and my husband.

If a child is sick or injured, we pray for that. I pray for their school day and anything else we may have going on during the day. And I pray for our time together in the Word. It doesn’t have to be a long prayer, and takes a few minutes at the most.

Then each child goes around and prays for something. They usually pray for their day, each other and for others in need. This is a great time for children to see you be an example of prayer and for them to apply it and practice it in their own life.

For more practical ideas on ways to pray with your children, sign up for my FREE Easy Ways to Pray with Children Cheat Sheet.

Memory Verse

but his delight is in the law^[b] of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1:2

For years I wanted to memorize verses because I knew I wanted to fix my thoughts on God’s Word more. Memorizing verses keeps our focus on God throughout the day because as we encounter problems and trials in our life we can recall the truths of God right then and there.

But I kept putting it off. It was difficult for me to memorize and I didn’t have a consistent time or way that I practiced. Practicing memorizing verses with my children was one of the first ways I got started!

It’s so good not only for our children to memorize the verses, but it’s good for us to do it with them. When they see the example of us learning it with them, it makes them want to do it more and we can encourage each other with what we are learning.

If you are new to bible memorization, start with one easy verse and continue practicing three times/day. I say a few words in the verse, and then the kids repeat after me. You can also make it fun by practicing the verse different ways. Some easy and fun ideas include:

• Say the verse in different voices or tones. Examples include whisper, loud, robot, singing, funny accents – make it fun for your children so they want to learn more!
• Have older children volunteer to be the one leading the verse
• Write the verse out on a pretty paper and cut it up like a puzzle and have your children put it back together
• Write each word on a separate index card and have your children put it in the right order
• Give rewards when they know the verse by heart. Offer plenty of praise for their efforts and give a reward. This can be anything from a sticker to an ice cream date.

After you get into the practice of doing one verse together, you can slowly graduate to practicing more verses or short chapters together.

Bible Time

For our Bible time, everyone has their own Bibles. You can use a centralized spot for the younger children’s Bibles so little ones can easily grab their Bibles. A basket, specific bookshelf or little drawers like this one from Walmart are easy to grab homeschool books and Bibles.

You may opt to let your children color or do some quiet activity while reading the Bible together. Or you might choose not to. Choose what works best for your family. I allow my children to color or use water wows or some other quiet activity as long as they are listening and can still answer questions. If they are not able to answer simple questions and it seems because they are more distracted with their activity than focused, then I have them put it aside for Bible time.

For the most part, they stay focused because they want to be able to color at the same time. I have my older children who can read, read 2-3 verses, and then I read 3 verses.

We are reading Generations’ God’s Big Story for Bible. God’s Big Story is a children’s Bible at the 5th grade level that presents the whole story of the Bible, pointing to God’s redemptive story from beginning to end.

We take the passages covered in God’s Big Story and read them from our Bibles first. Then I read it again in God’s Big Story for greater understanding of what is happening.

This has been really helpful for books of the Bible I am not as familiar with, like what we are currently reading in Judges. It has helped me fill in the gaps as I am teaching and helped me grow more in the Word at the same time. It’s a win-win!

We read about 15 minutes/day and I stop wherever we are, even if we don’t get through the whole chapter. This is about the time limit we can all do together during this season of our lives.

I ask them one thing they learned about or ask each child a specific question appropriate for their age level and understanding. That way even the youngest ones can participate and have answers they feel confident and good about.

My oldest daughter is the only one who does a couple of pages in the workbook each time since she is the only one at the 5th grade level. My children range from 5th grade to toddler and we have been able to use this children’s Bible for everyone.

At times, I will also bring out the Beginner’s Bible and read the story that correlates with what we are learning in the Bible. Visual pictures are especially engaging for younger children to learn and understand, and I can show the pictures and read the text and explain it in a way they easily understand.

Also, share what you are learning too. Be vulnerable with your children. Give real life examples where you have failed and sinned (age appropriate). Let them witness vulnerability and humility in your parenting. Whenever I share a story about my past, my kids are so attentive and ask lots of questions. They are really paying attention! Give glory to God and how He helped you in that situation. Testimonies are powerful examples of faith.

Other Bible Resources:

• ABC Jesus Loves Me – The best FREE Christian preschool curriculum. Weekly play-based lesson plans for ages 1-5 years old that includes BIble, music, academics, pre-reading and more. Highly recommended if you are starting preschool at home with little ones. This is what we used for the first years of my oldest daughter’s life and she loved it! I have the best memories of us playing and learning together and it helped us lay a solid biblical foundation in our homeschool.
• Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) – BSF is an international bible study that offers free, in-depth bible studies with trained group leaders for men, women, students and children for all denominations. We participated in BSF for years and it helped me and my children grow so much in the Word! Many women’s programs have coinciding children programs so you and your children are learning the same passages and can also read and talk about it at home together. A wonderful bible study to lay a solid biblical foundation for you and your family and also a great community to meet like minded moms, including many homeschool moms in my experience.
• Betty Luken’s Through the Bible in Felt – Such a fun and interactive way to teach Bible. The deluxe set includes more than 600 beautiful felt pieces, three felt boards, a teacher’s manual with more than 182 Bible stories and more. I loved using this to teach Bible when my children were younger, and the older ones still love to get it out and re-enact and play with it. Great for hands-on learners and active children.

Worship

For worship we head over to our living room and play our favorite worship songs. Right now, we sing one song, and our children take turns choosing the songs. I try to incorporate hymn songs when it’s my turn. I love for our children to hear and learn the hymns as it teaches beautiful truths of God’s Word.

Now it’s your turn. In what ways do you and your family worship the Lord together? In what ways would you like to grow?