2: Bibles: how to use?

“Is the Bible really suitable for young children? How can they benefit from using it when they can’t even read it?”

Ro Willoughby, author of Tiddlywinks: My Little Red Book, and children’s editor answers:

The ink was barely dry on the scroll that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation before it was being read aloud (Jeremiah 36). The people who heard it knew that it was intended for them. It suited their situation exactly and was clearly God’s word for them at that moment.

Luke knew his readership and has a specific purpose in mind (Luke 1: 1–4).

Paul wrote to answer questions and problems in particular churches.

None of these writers was thinking of you, your church or your situation in the 21st century and none of them was writing for the under 5s, not even those who were alive then!

Yet we believe that the Bible contains God’s word for all people for all times. So, we do not consign these ancient writings to the archives. Instead we work with them, trying to see what God wants to say through them in our own times and life situations. In doing so, we have to select and adapt the messages, especially when using the Bible with small children.

We all act as interpreters of the Bible, whether we realise it or not. I have yet to meet anyone who has seriously tried to obey Jesus’ instruction: ‘Go into the village there ahead of you. As soon as you get there, you will find a colt tied up… Untie it and bring it here.’ (Mark 11:3) Yet we do take seriously his instruction: ‘Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you.’ (Matthew 7:1). Without even thinking about it, we make choices about what applies universally.

We also select passages which seem suitable for children according to their age – and rightly so. I do not think that the story of Jephthah’s daughter (Judges 11:30–40) or the account of Israel’s first census (Numbers 1) will ever become popular for small children! We use our common sense.

On the other hand, sometimes we don’t use our common sense enough. It’s not good enough to say, ‘We just use the stories that we remember from our own childhood.' This may lead to careless, unthinking use of the Bible.

In the Bible we have a precious heritage, which we should treat with respect. We have to think not only about the action and colour of a particular passage, but about what it means. I heard the story of Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:41–52) told with the following conclusion, 'Jesus was a naughty boy. He shouldn't have gone off on his own like that, should he?' There is no evidence that Luke wrote this story with that purpose in mind. This interpretation is against more explicit teaching about Jesus elsewhere (eg Hebrews 4:14–15).

This highlights something important. We must use great care in our use of Bible material for under-Ss. we should not use it for purposes for which it was never intended or against the spirit in which it was written.

When we try to work out which Bible passages are suitable for children, we will usually omit stories which are violent or which have a sexual connotation. Yet we ought to think carefully about others, including some, which are accepted as good material for children. The story of Daniel in the den of lions appears in nearly every children's Bible storybook, but is there really much that small children can relate to? Can they, if they try, persist in faith alone despite opposition? And would it be thought suitable for children if, instead of a pit of lions, Daniel's sentence had been to be thrown in with poisonous snakes or to receive some other kind of execution?

Children do not think as adults do and have little experience on which to base their understanding of Bible material, so there must always be some point of contact between their world and the context of the Bible. The contact points could be family experience, daily happenings or familiar ideas such as friendship, caring, generosity, people we meet. And these contact points need to refer to the point of the story, not just to features such as lions or kings.

We need to ask ourselves, 'Is the message of the passage I'm using something children need to know?'

What kind of response can we expect? Don't expect the children to remember the story or passage, not even for a few minutes. To expect them to remember 'what we heard about last week' is like asking me to remember what colour shoes I wore on a particular day twenty years ago.

Don't expect individual responses. Try asking half a group of children to keep their hands in. their laps while the others raise theirs. You will quickly see how difficult it is for them to act independently. When they respond to what they learn from the Bible it will be the same. As a rule, they will respond together and are strongly influenced by the adults who are closest to them. This kind of response should not be disregarded, though. It can be most sincere and meaningful.

Don't expect adult responses. Children are children, not mini-adults. When they respond to God on the basis of what they've learnt from the Bible, it will be a child-like response. As an example, when telling the story of Zacchaeus, we should not expect our children to react in repentance for the way they have cheated others. (Try to think through the concepts and the measure of self-awareness that is needed to make such a response.) They could however express happiness that Jesus wants to be our friend too.

The last point to make is something very important. Let children enjoy the Bible – not just the stories, either. Don't bore them with endless explanations of what every word means and what every story teaches. Use common sense and care in choosing what Bible material to use with the children, of course, but don't try too hard to make it all totally understandable. Let the Bible loose and let the Holy Spirit speak to children through it, just as we pray that he will speak to us as we read this precious book.