“You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” Deuteronomy 6:7
Once things are underway in our home in the mornings, the kids have a tendency to put on the “listen of the time”—usually Adventures in Odyssey, Jonathan Park, Down Gilead Lane, Sugar Creek Gang, Father Gilbert, Your Story Hour, Focus on the Family radio dramas, or talking books (often Boxcar Children or Magic Tree House, though lately it’s been Little House books unless one of the older guys is manning the player, in which case it might be Les Miserable or Tale of Two Cities!). While faith and character are definitely included in many of those, especially Odyssey, Jonathan Park, Gilead, Sugar Creek, and Your Story Hour, I like to “do hard things” first. It’s easy to listen to radio dramas; it’s entertaining to listen to chapter books; but it takes work, brain power, engagement, and “putting on the mind of Christ” to do more devotional types of material.
Therefore, one of my favorite “listens” to put on in the morning is the Bible—either dramatized or not. We have had many of these through the years—and have many fond memories of them, like the time when Joshua turned twelve and listened to the entire Old Testament in eight weeks or when we have listened to an entire New Testament book during a family work evening. But clicking on a chapter or two in the mornings and having that playing in the background (super alternative to morning television or news radio!) is an uplifting, faith-building way to begin the day.
The link below is an awesome Bible listening link. If you have your computer in the main area of the home (another suggestion we have for families who want to protect their kids from harmful internet possibilities), you can “click” and listen to the Bible right in the main traffic areas of your home first thing in the morning!
Bible Gateway: Choose version and book of the Bible—then click the “speaker” to hear it on audio. A neat feature is that it has the text on the screen as well, so if you hear something you want to double check, you can look at the words as well. https://www.biblegateway.com/
The following link has “the Bible on one page”—click on the chapter of the book and you will go directly to it at the Bible Gateway. Then you click to hear it or read it—you may also change the version. This is a cool little page: https://www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm
