When it comes to family devotions, you may be intimidated by the idea of leading your family in a study of the Bible. Maybe you are new to the Bible yourself and don’t feel equipped to teach the Bible to your kids.

I want to give you just one tip for your family devotional time to help you start teaching the Bible to your kids. It’s very simple: Ask questions. Asking your kids questions may relieve you of the pressure of being the teacher because as you start discussions with your kids, you become a learner right alongside them.

This straightforward method for teaching the Bible may yield wonderful results in your family. Asking questions will not only be easier for you than pontificating on some Bible passage, but it will also help your kids engage with the Bible.

Active Vs. Passive Learning

There are many ways we learn. Sometimes we learn from lectures, like when a teacher instructs us about science or math, or when our grandpa helps us learn a new craft, or when the doctor explains our diagnosis. In these cases, someone hands us a load of information all at once.

Similarly, your kids could learn by listening to you teach them about the Bible, or by reading a book that teaches them about the Bible. But in this case, they will be passive learners. They will be receiving information rather than engaging with information.

Although sometimes we learn by being fed information, we also learn by tinkering on our own, like when you build a model airplane, learn to drive, or do artwork. It’s often the things we learn to do on our own that have the greatest impact on our lives because we are active participants in the learning process.

How to Help Your Kids Be Active Learners

Question-asking is one method to teach information in a way that makes the listeners active participants in learning. The best teachers often ask questions that lead their students to discover the truth on their own. The textbooks call this way of teaching “scaffolding,” and it is one of the best ways we learn. By being asked questions, instead of being told answers, learners come to knowledge on their own.

When you ask your kids questions about God’s Word, they will be active participants in your Bible study, rather than passive learners. And instead of standing over them as a teacher, asking questions will put you side-by-side with your kids as you learn together from God’s Word. It will encourage discussion, and they may surprise you with the reflections they have to offer!

So what questions do you ask? Simple ones! The first task in reading the Bible is always to make sure we have heard what it says. We want to be “quick to listen, slow to speak” (James 1:19). Ask questions that ensure you have all heard God’s Word, such as, “What did you hear from what we read? Did anything really catch your interest from what we read? What was that passage about? Can you summarize what we just read about?”

Question-asking isn’t the only way we learn from the Bible, but it’s a great first step. Our first business when reading the Bible is to hear what God has to say. Help your kids listen well to God’s Word and trust that as you grow in your knowledge of Scripture, God’s Spirit will do the heavy lifting of helping them understand his Word.

How to Start Teaching the Bible to Your Kids

Although there are plenty of resources to help you teach the Bible to your kids, we want to encourage you that it’s possible for you to all learn from God’s Word together with just the Bible as you are starting out. As we have encouraged you to make family worship a discussion time, rather than a teaching time, we hope that you see that the best way to teach your kids God’s Word is to be a learner right alongside them.