Before
this, we were never really diligent about reading the Bible, sad to say. We do attend Sunday Mass and have novena days
(Wednesdays) but we had yet to have that shared time for reading the
Bible. With Tatay and I having to travel
(intermittently) on some days, we do have a problem in keeping everything
consistent. Ironically, I get to pray more with the kids when I’m on travel
because I make sure I call them up during bedtime. When I’m at home, it isn’t always the case
since they would usually be asleep by the time I enter the bedroom.
I got the
idea from the “Daily Devotions” I gave the olds as a gift last Christmas. It posted a challenge there about reading the
Bible in one year. Finding a common time
was easy. We made use of the time spent
every morning driving from home to school/office. Janin goes off in like 15 minutes from the
house and so we have that.
At first we
started with a chapter a day. So on our
first day we had Genesis, Chapter 1.
However, as the “stories” become more and more interesting, they would
often beg to add another chapter to it.
And so at times we’d finish 2 or even three chapters in a day. The funny thing was when we were well into
Joseph the dreamer’s story, especially that part when he’d met his brothers
again in Egypt after such a long time, Tatay was one with the kids in begging
to continue some more. The account on
their meeting again and Joseph pretending he doesn’t know them, must have
intrigued him so much that come night time, Tatay even requested that we make
that as the bedtime reading instead. So
funny, considering during the first few readings he was like always asking if
we’re done already so he could turn on the car’s stereo. That certainly had me exasperated and I had
to bite my tongue to keep from “lecturing” him.
Lecturing. Hmm… that part I had to be really
careful. I must admit there are times I
want to point out to the kids the “lessons” behind the stories but at the same
time I was aware that doing so might spoil everything for them. I don’t want them to associate reading the
Bible as a family with one of my “lecturing sessions” again, or worse, as one
of “Nanay’s nagging session!” But yeah,
I do ask what struck them the most and yeah, there are times when I’d totally
give in to the temptation of pointing out the lesson. Thank God, that isn’t often though.
It’s my
first time to read the Genesis through and through and I was surprised with the
details of the stories. Having been
raised in a “very-Catholic-very-Boholano” family, I grew up following some very
strict tradition that goes with the faith.
And having had my education from Catholic schools from day 1 of
Kindergarten till my very last day in College, I am indeed familiar with the
stories of creation, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Who isn’t? But reading everything through walked me
through some “parts” that totally surprised me.
For starters, there were much allusion to “laying down” and with “partners”
that are not exactly…err…”conventional,” for lack of a better word. Since I’m reading for kids, I had to go
around it. Now I fully understood why these
details are kept out of my “Christian Living” books and lessons. So in the end,
I took to reading the chapters first myself and so I’d know how to tell them to
the kids. And of course I had to tell
them about the context of that time. It’s
a difficult balancing act but we pray before each reading. Thanks to mine and
now Rod’s “Christian Living” books and the kiddy Bible we have, I know which
parts to read only to the kids.
Next stop
would be the book of Exodus. I had to be
away for a travel and so we had to have a pause. But I learned a lot from that first run and looking forward to reading and learning with the kids... God bless us.
