Playing the Bible

This post is from Moms Take Ten episode 71, God In Our Daily Interactions–Playing the Bible, which you can listen to wherever you listen to podcasts or at https://sites.libsyn.com/403493/god-in-our-daily-interactions-playing-the-bible

Hello Mamas! Over here, summer is now in full swing. We have day camps, sports camps, family trips and all the things planned. Moms Take Ten just wrapped up our first of three summer miniseries, For Fathers. I hope you enjoyed those conversations! If you haven’t listened, I encourage you to do so! And send them along to a dad or two as well.

Today we begin our second miniseries, God in our Daily Interactions. This series is all about how to talk about, teach about, and incorporate Bible stories and truths into our daily interaction with our kids. We are going really practical here. A great springboard conversation for this series is our episode from May 22 with Lynne Jackson of Connected Families. She spoke about the gospel being the secret sauce of parenting. It was what makes our home different from those who don’t believe in Jesus and so it is natural that it be a part of all we do as a family. Sometimes, we just don’t know how to do that. We reserve Bible conversations for Sundays or Vacation Bible School, or in moments of discipline when we are finding a verse that teaches our kid what we want them to learn.

There are so many ways that we can bring the truth of God’s word alive in our homes. When we do so, we help our kids see the beauty and the power of the Scriptures. We invite them into greater relationships with God for themselves as we make it applicable to all areas of their lives.

Let me give you the schedule for this series and then we will dive into today’s topic.

Part 1: Playing the Bible

Part 2: Talking about the Bible

Part 3: Seeing God Around Us

Part 4: Showing God to Others

My kids love to play. I’m sure yours do to. We have a dress up closet that is constantly in disarray because of all the costumes they are pulling out and using. On any given day you can find the Avengers, the cast of Frozen, or community helpers running around our basement. They get so creative in the stories they create, their use of props, and of course, background music. “Mama, we need a song about doctors!”

That love of play is a wonderful thing to tie into the love of scriptures! The Bible is full of stories to be acted out! I started to think about this as I was listening to an episode of Playfully Faithful Parenting. The host Joy Wendling did an episode on playfulness for Moms Take Ten this past winter. Playfully Faithful Parenting has an episode titled, “The Only 4 Toys You Need To Start Bible Play.” The title intrigued me so I had to listen. Joy and her guest Wendy Schulz talk about playing the Bible with our children. Wendy put together a play basket with a baby doll, animals, blocks, and a scarf. The basket would be easily accessible by the children and they could use the items to act out Bible stories or Bible lessons. They could build a nativity with the blocks and put the animals around the baby, or construct an ark etc. The beauty of Wendy’s idea is that these are toys that we typically have lying around that can be repurposed for the Bible basket.

Of course, you could always purchase the Noah’s ark set or a nativity, or any of the other Bible toys that stores carry. There’s a shop on Etsy called We Who Thirst that makes Bible peg dolls that are super cute to play with. Costumes can also be made or purchased. Use whatever to encourage the kids to bring the stories of the Bible to life.

In our house, Bible play tends to happen with Daddy. They all pile downstairs and use cushions and pillows and blankets to construct the tower of Babble, or a jail cell for the apostles to get put in, or a lion’s den for Daniel. Jonathan, as tall as he is, makes for a great Goliath with the kids throwing balls at him to take him down. Their play is big, theatrical, and very nosy! But they are remembering the stories they have learned about and getting a feel for what it might have been like to live it.

Games are another way to do Bible play. My husband has been researching and picking out a few board and card games for us to try. Or you can create your own. Simon Says, Charades or Trivia could easily become Bible themed. Google, Pinterest and your church Sunday School teachers can all be very helpful at coming up with games that your children would enjoy playing.

The goal is to make it fun. This is an opportunity for them to step into the shoes of the characters in the Bible, to become more familiar with the stories and to think about what it would have been like to be there.

My kids have so much fun doing this and I am regularly amazed at all the details they remember. I hope you have fun playing the Bible with your children as well!