Bio:
Virginia lives in Memphis, TN and has been married to Frank Roberts for ten years. They have three sweet children Benjamin (4), Hannah (2), and Judah (8m). They recently fostered two children through the TN Baptist Children’s home.
She has enjoyed serving alongside her husband over the years through Campus Crusade for Christ and the high school ministry. They now lead an active young married life group at Bellevue Baptist Church. Virginia is passionate about biblical literacy and training up her children in the ways of the Lord.
Virginia is a recovering perfectionist who enjoys hosting dinner parties, blogging, post-it notes, cooking new recipes, discipiling women, and having good conversations with friends over dessert and coffee.
I have fond memories of watching my Granddaddy work jigsaw puzzles during our family beach trips each summer. Although I did not have the patience or skill to complete a puzzle, he would let me find all the corners and edge pieces. Granddaddy told me it was the most important job because when the framework is complete you can figure out where the other hundreds of other pieces go. Although he was probably just being kind by making my “kid-friendly job” sound significant, it was true. Come to find out the Bible is the exact same way!
Growing up I knew a lot of pieces of the Bible but not how they all fit together. Six years ago I learned that the Bible is not just 1000’s of random stories but rather ONE BIG story. I initially learned about the eras of the Bible by reading 30 Days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders. I found out that the eras are the like the “edge pieces” to the big story of the Bible. Later, Iva May challenged me to tell the whole story of the Bible. She told me, "God's people must know His story and they must tell His story." Scripture says that "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." I can remember the first time I talked through Genesis to Revelation with a friend...This was a game changer for me. Once I learned the framework I was able to take my daily Bible reading, podcasts, devotionals, or sermon series notes and place them in context of all of scripture. I realized that the heart can't love what the mind doesn't know.
Last year I realized that during our family Bible time we read a different Bible story every night, giving our kids random puzzle pieces that were not connected. Frank and I desired to give our children a firm foundation in the Word but our plan (or lack thereof) was not going to give achieve that goal. Since January, I have been on a journey of teaching our kids the chronology of the bible using the framework of the eras. My kids are preschool age but they are able to grasp the basic storyline of scripture.
Since I had several people ask me how I was teaching my kids the eras I created some resources for people to follow me on this journey. Disclaimer: You can't rubber stamp someone else’s plan on your family and get the same results (believe me I've tried and been frustrated - ha!) We all have different aged kids, different personalities, strengths, and are at different stages of life. With that in mind I created a Pinterest Board for each Era to give you easy access to activities, crafts, songs, videos, worksheets and more. You can use the eras as a track on which to run and personalize the teaching/application to your kids based on how they learn best!
This year we have learned about the days of creation, tested temptations in the garden, built Noah's ark and the tower of Babel, counted the stars, made an alter for Isaac's sacrifice, created puppets of Jacob/Esau, acted out Joseph's life, woven a basket for baby Moses, painted our doorposts with "blood", parted the waters of the Red Sea, learned the 10 commandments, spied on the promised land, wandered in the wilderness while eating manna, carried the ark of the covenant through the Jordan River, marched around Jericho and conquered the Promised Land. These are just some of the fun and memorable activities we have used to make the Bible has come alive to our kids.
Last week I made was Bible story stones. I found a picture to represent each story that we had covered from Creation-Conquest: printed, laminated, and cut out the pictures. Then took a second set of pictures and mod podged them to a set of stones from the Dollar Store. (Seriously no craftiness required). This has been a fun hands-on tool to use to review the story of the Bible. We will have finish walking through the Old Testament by the end of this year. It’s amazing how quickly kids learn. I firmly believe our kids deserve more than to just be entertained…but trained. I pray that this will be the foundation of Bible literacy on which they can spend the rest of their life building upon.
Remember: If you don't know God's Story, you will be addicted to your own. He invites you to enter into His story!
My challenge to you today:
· If you do not know the framework of the Bible…LEARN IT!
o Come to my small group starting next Wednesday at Bellevue Register Here
·
If you already know the framework of the Bible…PASS IT ON!
If you already know the framework of the Bible…PASS IT ON!
o Teach it to your kids or grandkids by using my blog and pinterest resources below.
o Disciple someone who wants to learn it
Interested in finding out more about the kids era study?
Ask me questions on my CBT Kids Era Study Facebook Group
Follow my Kids Era Study Blog
Creation Era Board
Patriarchs Era Board
Conquest Era Board
Judges Era Board
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