Let Your Kids Crash Your Bible Study

So you got up extra early to have some quiet Bible study time, but no matter how early you get up, someone seems to wake up and crash it. Let me tell you a story about why you might want to welcome that, and how it can benefit your kids in the long run.

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Here is the transcript:

Well Hi there everybody this is Kelly Harbaugh with Working Homeschooler and I am coming to you from a little bit different of a setting today. I usually do my videos downstairs in my little corner right down that - actually you can see the steps to my basement going down there behind me. But today I am. I am up here in my dining room, because I want to tell you a story that actually relates - it's about Bible study and it actually relates to my dining room table. So if that seems impossible, we will get to it.

The the subject for today is why you should let your kids crash your Bible study time. I know that might seem counterintuitive to all the reasons why you have your devotion time while you try to beat the kids out of a bed to get up and have that quiet time with the Lord and and study your Bible and that is all very important. I'm not telling you noto do that, but what I want to tell you about is why there is value in those times where they get out of bed and come to sit beside you before...before you are done. I know that time can be frustrating. And I learned a lesson from this. I actually learned it in the long run. And so I'm going to tell you a story about that. 

So first, let me let me show you a little bit up close my dining room table and I'm sorry, I'm holding the phone so it's shaking a bit. But I bought this unfinished about 19 years ago. It was unfinished and I actually stained the table the color that it's stained and I did it's kind of hard to see but the chairs are kind of distressed. I spray painted them and wipe them off before the paint was dry. So there's a little bit of a distressed black paint on the chairs. My husband actually commented to me yesterday while we were getting dinner ready how long we've had this table; it's been about 19 years. At that time, my oldest was about the age of my my youngest right now, he was probably about four or five. You know, I can't remember the exact year and the exact age, but it was in that time.

And I was at that time where many of you are now where you you try to get up, you try to have that devotion time in the morning. And no matter how early you seem to get up, your child tends to get up before you're ready. And I know there's a little bit of frustration there. But let me tell you about what happened with that in the long run. What I would do is I would just I would just tell my oldest, you know, I'm still having her Bible study. But if you come up here and crawl right up beside me, you can you can sit beside me until I'm finished. And sometimes you've asked me questions about what I was studying, but this is what happened most mornings.

Now on the day that I was finishing this table. I had a Pampered Chef party scheduled with a lot of friends to come over that evening and I still had two chairs I had it was like I think it was the day or two Before the party, that I actually finished the table, and I still had two of these chairs left to finish. And so I got up that- I'm guessing it was Saturday morning, I think, and well it had to have been because I was working full time, so I would have to had been on the weekend. But I got up that morning, and instead of doing my Bible study, I thought, Oh, I have these two chairs that need to be finished. I better get them done now so that they're dry before my guests all get here this evening. 

So it was pretty early. I went out in the garage, painted wipe off the chairs real quick. It didn't take me very long. But when I walked back into the house, my son was standing there with this just panicked look on his face. And he said, Mom, where were you? I could not find you anywhere. I usually get up and you are sitting on your couch studying your Bible, where were you? And I hadn't realized before that moment how, how much he expected that time when he got out of bed to find me they're doing my Bible study . Now, okay, so at that point, I learned that it was a significant thing for him. But I didn't really realize until later when he was grown, reflecting back, this was one of the few things that I did right, unintentionally. God in His grace used it. But you know, with our oldest This is - we joke, I joke with him all the time that he was our guinea pig child, your oldest is the one that you make mistakes with.

And I when I think back over the years, my oldest was the type who he has, he has great critical thinking skills. Okay. When kids have this he has a very a good gift for seeing things from a lot of different perspectives. And that is a gift but this is what that means for a child like that when they're growing. up: it means that they argue with everything. They second guess everything that you that you tell them. You can tell them the sky is blue, and they will maybe come at you with well could it be green because ...? And you know it's every single thing now all kids will argue with you and question you a little bit but some who I, you know, I've learned that this is a gift. I didn't think that this was a gift back then. But seeing him as adult and adult I do see where where this is a gift of his. But it is very hard to deal with as a parent, when when you have a child like that when they're growing up.

But here's the thing that I learned later upon reflection: all of the years where we debated and went round and round and talked about different perspectives on things where he maybe wasn't so much argued but questioned would say what about this, and what about this, and who - he always arrived the right conclusion but not after hours or days of saying what about, and what about, and what about this? It's like he always had to (I have I have a little one playing games right next to me." Sweetie, I need you to keep your Keep your voice down.") Okay?

So all of those times that he argued and questioned, he never ever questioned me on scripture. Anytime that he had a question that had to do with doctrine, with beliefs with scripture, my son would ask me, and I would explain it to him, I would take him to Scripture. He never ever said, "Well, what about and I'm not sure, or do you think this could be wrong?"

And if you if you understood how much that was a part of every conversation, you would have Understand how, how miraculous was that we did not have arguments about scripture. Now, you know, he did have his time where, you know, he he accepted Christ at a very young age. And he did have his time say around, you know, 10 or 11 years old, where he started realizing he had to take ownership of that. And he had to think about do I believe all of these things, and I remember he took a couple days and, and came back to me and said, You know, I've decided I do believe I still believe.
But it was never an argument. It was never something I had to convince him.

And I truly believe when I look back on that all of this mistakes that I made, you know that just about every video, I have something where I tell you the mistakes that I made with my first child, the things that I learned, that is the one thing I can point to, unintentionally just that I happened to accidentally do, right. Because, Because my child had this belief that he knew that I spent every morning studying that Bible. And that doesn't mean that I always had it right. I mean, I'm not here telling you that I know everything. But I did not... I had credibility with my child whenever he got older, because he knew that he could find me studying my Bible every morning. I had a credibility there, that I know I still have today, that he still comes to me sometimes with questions.

And so for that reason, Mom, when you are - in the morning, when you are trying to beat your child out of bed, and they just happen to get up, don't get angry with them, don't get frustrated with them; tell them, "mom you are having" or I'm sorry, tell them you know, "I'm having my Bible study. Mom's having Bible study right now. And I'd like you to come up here and sit beside me and I can tell you in a few minutes about what I'm studying. But this is my this is important that I do this first thing every day."

And they will learn from that and that will give you credibility as they get older that you just won't even believe. So I just want to encourage you in that today, I want to encourage you to let your kids be a part of that. Let them see that you're studying your Bible because you know what, if you're done every morning before they get up, they don't even see it. They don't even know what's going on. And they don't even have an opportunity to learn from that. So I hope that gave you a different perspective today. If your kids, you know, crash your Bible study tomorrow, maybe - maybe take that in consideration and, you know, try a different approach. So that's all I have for this week and you have a great day.