Monday, June 15, 2009

The Summer is for Reading

I want to encourage you this summer to be a reader. When I mention reading, most of you fall into one of two general categories. First, there are those of you who have already quit reading this because reading is not something you enjoy and skimming a blog on the net is the full extent of your reading pleasure. On the other hand, the other category presents the opposite. You were immediately transported to Barnes & Nobles in an effort to pick out this year's beach chair romance or thriller.

Neither of those responses are my intended target. Before I exhort you to read something more substantive this summer, I want to assure you that I love reading fiction novels. Adventure novels and spy thrillers both are guilty pleasures that I enjoy with great passion. The excitement of a fast-paced story filled with thrills and enjoyable characters is certainly exhilarating and en effective escape from day to day stress.

Summer itself provides enough escape. It is filled with blockbuster movies, vacations, trips to the lake, baseball, and endless distractions. In fact, our culture ha trained us to "take the summer off" in virtually every area of life. We put it on cruise control at church, kids are out of school, and family routines go by the wayside. We put in our time at work and then recreate ourselves into mindlessness. It is not a stretch to state that the average christian, who struggles with a quiet time on good days, will lose most of the summer in terms of any bible study at all.

Satan does not however take the summer off. He finds our holidays to be a time of great harvest. He wreaks havoc in the lives of teenagers and in marriages. Children fail to receive any effective spiritual training - with the possible exception of a week of Vacation Bible School. Churches are forced to reduce or eliminate all but the staple of Sunday morning programming. The spiritual cost to "summer vacation" is devastating.

Try something different this summer. Read a real book. Do a study with your family. Engage your mind and heart this summer. It is the perfect time to grow. Give your kids something to read that is positive and stimulating to their spiritual life and intellect. They have no homework and no risk of work overload. They have far less in the way of time constraints. This is the perfect time to place in front of them some incredible teaching. Read something with them. Start a family reading list or devotional. Prepare them for the next school year. Have them read American history books that fill in the gaps left by their secular history.

Here are a few principles. 1) Select a couple of books for them based upon their age, learning, stage of education, and interests. 2) Select a couple of different genres for diversity and interest. Choose a spiritual book for growth and a book of history of some sort. 3) Discuss the books with them as they read. It certainly would not hurt you to read along with them. 4) Motivate them in such as way as to make it fun and not punishment. Pay them for reading. reward them with trips to the ice cream parlor for each completed chapter. Find some way to make it fun and worthwhile.

Here are some ideas. Biographies: You should read at least one biography every year. Summer is a great time. Choose a historical figure such as a President, General, or famous missionary.
Historical Accounts: Choose a famous event and read a book about it. There are myriads to choose from. Select a specific revival. Select a famous battle from the civil war or World War II. There are wonderful accounts of famous expeditions, inventions, etc.
Literature: Summer is the perfect time to introduce your family to great works of literature - C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc.
Audiobooks: This is a great avenue for reading - yes it is reading because it uses the written word to educate, expand, excite, and illuminate. They are so easily obtained today. A cheap subscription to audible.com is worth a mint. You can download them from the internet using a phone, an ipod, or laptop. You can purchase them at used bookstores. You can go in 1/2s with a friend and share them between your children.

Summer is the perfect time to red. It is the perfect time to help your children grow in a new area of their spiritual life. It is a chance to enhance their education and grow their minds by teaching them to enjoy and embrace reading. It is a prefect time to plug the holes in their true understanding to the biblical foundation of our country by reading about the Constitution, the American Revolution, or the faith of our forefathers. It is a time to excite them about the church through biographies of leaders and stories of revival. It is the time to expand their view of their own futures by sharing with them the biographies of great men and women that will teach them to be passionate and visionary.

It all begins with your vision of the summer as the perfect time for reading.

1 comment:

  1. This is great! I took you up on your challenge to read the Bible in its entirety back when you first came to First Baptist Cabot, and I finally finished a few weeks ago (I continued to do devotionals etc. so it took me a while) and all I can say is reading the Bible front to back is a must for all Christians! What a revival and spiritual awakening we would experience if we did!

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