Teach Your Kids The Bible: Reviewing Israel Wayne’s ‘Foundations In Faith’

One of my greatest passions is for Christian women to grow in their faith and walk with the Lord. You might say I want them to have a Set-Apart Walk. I’ve been a Christian for fourteen years, and I’ve attended retreats, conferences, and been a pastor’s wife for nine years. Suffice it to say, I’ve met a lot of Christian ladies, and I’ve been saddened at the lack of spiritual depth many displayed. These women lacked even basic apologetic skills, and they didn’t know why they believe what they believe. Thankfully, other women lead spiritually rich lives and are mature believers. The most notable difference between these two groups of Christians? The mature Christians had been taught the Bible in depth in their youth. Christian moms, you need to teach your kids the Bible because it might be the difference between a topical faith and an abundant life in Christ.

Who Should Teach Your Kids The Bible?

Parents have a hard job, don’t they? Most two-parent families can only function at the status quo if they both work. Most children are public school students which means parents have to get their kids packed up and dropped off to school before heading out for a full day of work. After work and school, parents need to make dinner, clean up, help with homework, and use the little time left in the evening for family time. The rest of the week is rinse, wash, and repeat.

Imagine a week with extracurriculars and lessons! It’s no wonder parents are exhausted. And it’s that time squeeze and exhaustion that leads to outsourcing Bible lessons. I mean, isn’t that what Sunday school, church services, and youth group are for? Kind of. Those are great things to attend, but that can’t be the only thing your children do in order to learn about God. It simply isn’t enough. You, the parent, need to be your children’s primary Bible teacher.

This isn’t a homeschool post, but this lack of time and enormous responsibility for my children’s Bible education play a large role in why I was convicted to leave behind my career and home educate. I had plenty of reasons to send them to school, but I couldn’t convince myself they were enough to not homeschool.

How Should You Teach Your Kids The Bible?

It might feel odd at first because you aren’t accustomed to it, but Bible study time with your kids will begin to feel like second nature. So much so, in fact, that you may find yourself teaching them about God’s Word at random times. For instance, I recently ended up on a rabbit trail about a section of Scripture because of a completely nonspiritual question one of my daughters asked me. God and His Holy Word are just a natural topic in my home that comes up the way celebrity gossip comes up in other homes. “Oh, that reminds me of something I was reading yesterday…”

A good place to start when you begin to take charge of teaching your kids the Bible is…wait for it…the Bible.

Start with a study in the Book of John or Proverbs. Just jump in. You don’t have to read a lot of it each time. Read a chapter or a few verses and dig into what God is saying.

All right. I know that some of you don’t feel comfortable opening the Bible and teaching from it without a lesson plan. Some people need an outline or guide, and I understand that completely. I don’t need it, but I highly prefer it. Well, for ladies like us, there are Bible studies and curricula readily available at all kinds of price points.

I’ve tried more Bible curricula than I can remember. Some were pretty terrible, but most of them were a solid resource. None of them have been exactly what I’m looking for, but that’s not a reasonable expectation. So, I have continued to search for a better fit. Y’all, I think I found it.

Teach Your Kids The Bible With Foundations In Faith

Foundations In Faith is a Bible curriculum from Master Books written by author and conference speaker, Israel Wayne. My family received it from the first printing in January 2023, and we have been steadily working our way through it. And I love it!

Organization

I have a difficult time using a curriculum that has me flipping all over the book and managing too many worksheets. Foundations in Faith is clear, concise, and laid out in a logical and easy to follow manner.

Easy To Use

Don’t you love spending hours prepping for lessons? No? Oh, me neither. I’m an open and go kind of mama. Who has time for hours of preparation when meals need to be cooked, laundry needs to be folded, coffee needs to be consumed…?

Being able to open the book to that day’s lesson and immediately begin reading makes actually teaching your kids the Bible much more likely to happen consistently. They won’t learn anything if the curriculum is too much of a hassle for you to use.

I pick up this book, open to the next lesson, and we spend about 20 minutes on average going over the material. And all my kids, even my six-year-old, are getting something from the time we spend with Foundations in Faith.

Readability

This curriculum is designed for students in seventh through twelfth grade. So, I worried it might end up coming across as a textbook. You know what I mean. I’m talking about those dry texts that put you to sleep, or the books that are so forgettable you can’t remember what you just read. No one in my home wants to read that kind of study.

Wayne wrote this book in such a way that it feels like you’re sitting down having a Bible study with someone from your church. He’s relatable, knowledgeable, and takes care to give the information in digestible bites.

Apologetics

It’s essential each believer be able to defend her faith and understand why she believes the things she does. Blind faith is no faith at all. What are you putting your faith in when it’s blind? You don’t really know.

Foundations in Faith is a slow walk through what one ought to believe in order to call herself a Christian. Wayne includes Scripture to back up his statements, and he is careful not to infuse any of his personal opinions into the mix. This truly makes the curriculum accessible to any Bible-believing Christian. In the book, Wayne clarifies that it contains a “broad Protestant Evangelical perspective” and is unaffiliated with any particular denomination. No angles. Just facts.

Not only does Wayne identify and scripturally support foundational Christian beliefs, but he also goes through some of the pertinent history. This helps us understand more about how the Church reached the stances and biblical understanding that it did. Ultimately, this allows us to defend our faith with more confidence and knowledge.

Once you finish Foundations in Faith, your child should not only know what Christians believe but why. It’s this fuller understanding of God that helps kids grow into faithful believers who own their faith rather than become pew warmers who put on Christianity for Sunday because “mama said we go to church on Sunday mornings.”

Missions Emphasis

Along with the main text, Foundations in Faith requires a small book entitled Great for God: Missionaries Who Changed the World. Readings from this book are assigned throughout the course.

In my opinion, if you teach your kids the Bible and the foundations of faith, then missions should be a natural next step for study. How can we believe the only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ but then not feel compelled to share the gospel and hear about how others have shared the Truth?

Good For All Ages

Foundations in Faith may be aimed at seventh through twelfth graders, but everyone in your family can learn something from this curriculum. All of us have holes in our biblical understanding, and there is plenty of content to challenge a seasoned Christian to think more on a subject than they have before.

What about young children, though? Well, they can take pieces of information at an age-appropriate level. Don’t expect them to understand everything you talk about, but don’t underestimate their ability to understand you.

Whether you’re someone learning God’s truths for the first time or brushing up a little, this curriculum can be a fantastic resource for any age.

Final Thought

You don’t have to be a homeschooling family to take the lead on your children’s spiritual education. In fact, God expects you to teach your kids the Bible (i.e. His Word).

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

However you tackle this task, do it with prayer and in confidence that God will give you what you need to rise to the challenge. And if you’re looking for a place to start, I can’t recommend Israel Wayne’s Foundations in Faith enough.

What resources do you use to teach the Bible to your kids? Have you tried Foundations in Faith yet?

Image courtesy of Jonathan Borba via Unsplash.