PTCUMC presents Bibles to our Third Graders every fall because we believe that at this point in their faith journey, they are ready to begin building a deep, life-long relationship with God through Christ. We’ll celebrate this special milestone with our Third Graders this Sunday, September 21, during both the 9:30 and 11am services.
One of our favorite parts of this celebration is hearing from our friend and Kids Leader, Mr. Tim. While he’s not able to be with us in person this year, we asked him to share his “words of wisdom” for our Third Graders in this newsletter. Thank you, Mr. Tim – whom we fondly call “someone who knows stuff”, for your 30 years of faithful kids ministry, and for the love and dedication you continue to pour into the lives of our children. ~ Beth Green, Director of Kids Ministry
Hello third graders! Third Grade Bible Sunday is one of my favorite events and I would love to be there, but we will be out of the area on vacation.
If I was there, here is what I would tell you!
The Bible is a book, but we are literally begging you not to read it like you would a normal book. When you get pretty much any other kind of book, you start on page one and you keep reading until you get to the end. With the Bible, that works pretty well in the first “Chapter,” called Genesis, and even in the next one called Exodus. But after that, it will bog you down, won’t make a lot of sense to you (yet), and just seem like work.
Instead, we encourage you to skip around all you want! Go to some of your favorite stories and only read those. You can even flip through the pictures and if something grabs your attention, read about that. There is no rule about how long it should take for you to read the Bible. The important thing is to think about the part you are reading and ask yourself what it means and how it can help you be a better person.
Second, the Bible is almost like a “build your own adventure story.” You can be reading one story at a point in your life when you have a pile of stuff going on, and it will speak to you one way. Then a few years later, you can read that same story with different things going on in your life, and look at it completely different. So, once you read one thing, don’t put it down and think you know it, because we promise that your viewpoint will change.
The Bible is a love letter from God with almost a million words in it. Sometimes you will need some help connecting that thread of love through the whole thing, but it is there. Always treasure it like the love letter that it is!
