When I was young, my mother would read us simply-told Bible stories from a yellow book called A Child's Garden of Bible Stories by Arthur W. Gross. I loved the illustrations and could eventually come near to quoting the stories word-for-word.
When we got a little older, Mother graduated us to the more advanced Egermeier's Bible Story Book by Elsie E. Egermeier.
By the time I was in 8th grade, I was well-versed in Bible stories. My teacher gave us a 100 question Bible test. I got 99 questions correct. The only one I didn't get was a verse he quoted and asked which book of the Bible the verse came from. I said it was in one of the Timothy's and it was from the other Timothy. Heartbreaking! I have always called that a technical A+.
Once we were teens and older, both of my parents would have us gather for Bible reading. We read through a number of books of the Bible - sometimes with more than one version going at the same time. John liked his KJV, Daddy usually read out of the NIV, and I would try to follow along in the Living Bible. If we were reading an epistle, Daddy would always have me read the last line "Sincerely, Paul" or "Farewell, Paul". We'd take turns closing with prayer.
When we were babies, we had a couple of memorized prayers. One was the Lord's Prayer and one was a simple children's bedtime prayer.
Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
And this I ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.
Mother decided that having us go to sleep thinking about dying was maybe not the best thought to leave in our minds. So she added two lines:
If I should live for other days,
I pray Thee, Lord, to guide my ways.
Those lines went right before "And this I ask..."
The Bible says "Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6
My parents took that verse literally and they had a lot less grief from us than many other parents had with their children. I, for one, am grateful that, although I made plenty of bad choices, I was taught enough to keep me from making some of the disastrous choices I might otherwise have made.
May God bless us all,
Kathi Linz
