Family Project: Read the Bible in One Year

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.