Parenting With Purpose: Day 6 – Bible Literacy for the Family

Yesterday we discussed 3 Keys to Making God’s Word a Priority in Your Home, focusing on the scripture in Deuteronomy 6:6-9.  These are the three keys we reviewed:

1. Fill our own hearts and minds with God’s Word.

2. Talk about God’s story and His Word in our homes and read God’s Word out loud.

3. Fill your home with visual representations of God’s Word.

Scripture tells us these are all important facets of impressing God’s Word and His truths on the hearts of our children.

We are incredibly blessed to live in an environment now where a seemingly never-ending list of options are available to use as resources to aid in this daunting task.

Don’t believe me? Just search Amazon for “Bible story books” and you get 48,272 results!

Unfortunately, though, the vast amount of resources that come up when you start searching for anything online can be overwhelming!

I’ve picked out some of my favorite resources to share with you during this series. Hopefully you won’t be paralyzed by all the options and instead choose something new to try with your family as you seek to cultivate a more God-centered home. Plus, I have lots of great giveaways planned so some of my readers will get to try these out for free…the first giveaway is today!

Today’s Focus: Bible Literacy & Family Entertainment

When Phil Vischer created Veggie Tales in 1993, the availability of Christian entertainment for children was much more limited. If you think about it, Netflix didn’t make its debut until 1997, and DVRs and Hulu didn’t arrive on the scene until 2007.

Veggie Tales captured kids’ attention with simple, fun animation, something new on the scene as well, as Pixar’s first movie Toy Story didn’t release until 1995. The engaging Bible story, simple to remember scripture verse, and focus on one character quality per show had Christian parents thrilled with such a positive option for their kids.

Almost 20 years later, Phil realized that for years Christian kids had grown up learning Bible stories and character qualities (both good things) through Veggie Tales but often left for college without a foundational knowledge of the Bible and how the Bible’s message changes a person’s life.

As a result of this realization, in 2010 he ventured into a new project called What’s in the Bible? aimed at teaching families about the actual Bible contents (even the difficult and confusing parts) and how it completely changes one’s worldview.

For more on Phil’s philosophy behind this new project, check out the first 7 minutes or so of this video.

Different in many ways from Phil’s original creation Veggie Tales, The What’s in the Bible? DVD series uses a newscasting framework featuring old-school puppets with fun personalities, combined with real-life commentary by Phil himself. Now that there are so many more animated options on TV for kids, this different format is actually quite refreshing. The puppets take me back to memories of my days as a child watching the Muppet Babies! Plus, the interaction between Phil and the puppets is entertaining to watch, even for adults.

While I could go on and on about the specifics, I’ll just share with you my top 10 reasons why our family loves this series and why I think you might want to use is as a tool as you create a more God-centered home too!

Top 10 Reasons Why Our Family Loves “What’s In The Bible?”

1. The series is geared particularly toward elementary ages (1st-5th graders) but my younger kids enjoy it already & learn from it (ages 5 and 2). Bonus? Even parents learn from the DVDs since in addition to teaching the actual Bible itself, church history and other foundational concepts are taught too. Don’t know how the books of the Bible were chosen? No worries, DVD #1 covers that! (scroll down for a chance to win a copy!)

2. Not only do kids love the puppets, songs, and stories, but there is grown-up humor included too, although not the kind in mainstream movies that you hope your kids don’t understand!

3. In addition to the Bible stories that are shared, Bible concepts that are sometimes difficult for kids to understand are explained in words and songs to help them grasp the concepts. If you’ve ever wondered how to explain something like the word “faith” or “Pentecost” to a child and struggled, you will love this!

4. The series is perfect for families where the adults didn’t grow up in church and don’t have as much understanding of the background of the Bible. The parents can learn right along with the kids!

5. There are tons of supplemental activities to go along with the DVDs – many of them are free! {homeschooling families alert!}

• coloring sheets
• music
• flashcards
• a make-your-own popsicle stick theatre
• church Sunday School & VBS curriculum
• family activities
• and even toys

6. There is an intentional focus on the link between the Old Testament and the New Testament throughout, with a constant reminder of God’s “rescue plan” for people. This reminds me of one of my kids’ favorite books, the Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, as each story, including those in the Old Testament, points to Jesus.

7. Questions from real life kids are included in the two 25 minute segments of each DVD. As parents, you’ll love the kids’ answers, especially the kids whose answers probably would be more like your own kids’…silly! I think it’s helpful for my kids to see other kids engaging with concepts in God’s Word.

8. Not only can the DVD series and extra materials be used in the home, there is specific Sunday School and VBS curriculum. I love that the Sunday School curriculum takes kids through the entire Bible in 52 weeks. This means if you’re involved in children’s ministry in your church or small group and you’ve always wanted to go a little bit deeper with the kids, you’ve just found your resource!

9. If you sign up for the What’s in the Bible email newsletter, they’ll deliver exclusive free downloadable activities to your inbox and they are always running super deals! Bonus? Each month they give away a full DVD series to one of their new email subscribers! If you ask me, that’s reason enough to sign up.

10. If you’re a “no TV” family and don’t have a DVD player or you and your kids prefer to watch things on your computer or tablet, each video is also is available as a Digital Download. Hooray for technology!

Now that you know why our family loves this resource…it’s your chance to WIN!

Thank you to What’s in the Bible? for providing a copy of DVD Vol 1: In the Beginning (Genesis) and DVD Vol 10: Jesus is the Good News (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) for one lucky winner.

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter – there are lots of ways to get multiple entries into the drawing. The winner will be chosen randomly on Saturday, October 11th. I hope YOU win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


This post contains affiliate links {full disclosure}.