Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade

So, in the past, we’ve sometimes sung their memory work. Our children went to a Christian school and had memory work from our church’s songbook (the Book of Praise). It’s not first of all the job of the church, but of the youth pastors, i.e.

Whatever is done, it’s important for parents to catechize their children with Christian doctrine. She also has a book based on the Heidelberg Catechism, Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds… I still prefer her previous book. The book is entitled Training Hearts, Teaching Minds. As our children became older, we used a book by Starr Meade based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. When our children were younger, we sometimes used The Children’s Catechism, encouraging them to memorize the answers. It’s really enriched our Bible reading time!Īfter Scripture, we do a short time of catechism instruction. Sometimes there are just comments, other times questions to ponder or discuss. Every chapter includes “Thoughts for Personal and Family Worship.” This feature has also been distilled into the Family Worship Bible Guide. That can even be hard for a father who’s a pastor! This is where you can really benefit from the Reformation Heritage Study Bible. The hard part for a father is trying to make some intelligent comments about what is read, comments that draw out the meaning of the passage, how it points to Christ, and how it applies to our lives. Most times we read an entire chapter, but if the chapter is long we might split it up over a couple of days or more.

But in the last few months, everyone has a Bible and everyone takes a turn reading a verse or two from the chapter. For many years, I would just read and everyone else would listen. Throughout our married life, my wife and I have just constantly read straight through the Bible in our family worship. During that prayer, I’ll also ask for God’s blessing on our family worship later.Īfter the meal is over, we’ll begin by reading Scripture. At the beginning of the meal, I normally lead in prayer and give thanks for the food. In our family, we normally do family worship after our evening meal.

Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade