How to equip our children for every good work

“from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.(2Timothy3:15-17)

This was the first reading from Mass today.  The Mass I attended had been offered for renewal of family prayer.  As I was listening to the reading I was struck by the timing of such a message.  As the passage states Sacred Scripture is God-breathed or inspired by God.  As such it is truth and our road map to salvation.  How does one learn the Holy Scriptures from infancy.  They are taught by our parents in family prayer.  The reading of the Bible from an early age is critical in the training of our young people in “righteousness” so that they may be “equipped for every good work”( 2Timothy3:17)  When young children are not exposed to the word of God growing up, they lack the direction needed to make choices which are in the best interest of their soul.  I do not mean to judge anyone by bringing this point to light.  Only in the past few years have we begun reading our Read Aloud Children’s Bible at night as a family.  I did not grow up reading the Bible at night and find that I am making up for lost time now as a young adult.  I have however, witness the beautiful effects on our children.  Our oldest son knows most of the Bible stories from the Old and New Testament. They are alive to him and he spends many nights as he is falling asleep reading them over before bed.  Spending time with Sacred Scripture is as important a school as the one we send our children to each day.  

Through this time with the Lord and His Word in family prayer vocations are born.  Our oldest son was just 6 when he began to speak of wanting to become a priest.  On his 8th Birthday just over a month ago, he and I were walking to church and I asked him if he wanted to ask the priest to give him a blessing and pray that maybe God would grant him the grace to become a priest.  He told me he would pray that he could become a priest silently when the priest was blessing him.  Just before Mass we said hello to the priest who was going to be saying the Mass.  My son asked for a blessing as it was his birthday.  The Father placed his hands on his head and blessed him and concluded by saying I not only bless you but ordain you to be a priest.  My son and I were both shocked to hear the priest say this as we had not said anything to him about his thoughts about a vocation.  This was also the first time this visiting priest had met my son.  I share this personal story to show the fruits of family prayer and reading scripture as a family.  The children’s rosary is dedicating this year to renewal of family prayer.  If you would like a Read Aloud Children’s Bible please contact us and we will get you one.  See the about us section of the blog for contact information.

Prayers before Our Lady

Our two oldest children

God Bless you all!!!