Monday, July 26th, 2010...3:02 pm

Through the Bible with My Child (author interview and book giveaway)

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**UPDATE**: Congratulations to Mary Ann, chosen by the random number generator! And many thanks for all the comments, prayers, and encouragement for us in our ministry through this book. Blessings on all of you as you teach your children and grandchildren!

Last summer, KTLF Light Praise Radio announcer Jerry King interviewed Charles Sharman, author of Through the Bible with My Child. Following is part of that interview. Click the “Parent-Child Bible Teaching” tab above to find more details on the book. To enter the book giveaway, see below.

To read a recent review, visit Christian Book Notes!

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Jerry King: Good morning!

Charles Sharman: Good morning, Jerry. Thanks for having us!

JK: Well, glad to have you here in the studio and excited to find out just what it was that inspired you to book-writing. I understand you’re an electrical engineer.

CS: That’s correct.

JK: The book you’ve written—and it’s a sizeable book—but it’s an awesome opportunity to teach and to take a child through the Bible. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you found yourself writing this book.

CS: Well, when my son entered first grade I decided I wanted him to know the Bible. I looked through some published curriculums (I’m a Sunday School teacher) and I thought, I’d really like to do this myself. So I began writing the book. It was actually not a book at that time; it was simply notes. We started in Genesis, chapter one, and I wrote down daily notes. I wrote down questions to ask. I began writing tests to review them. I began to write down memorization sections. It developed from a daily study of the Word, and then later, when I was done with it, I realized other parents could really benefit from this. Monica, my wife, helped compile most of the notes (they were handwritten at the time), and we were able to make a book out of it.

JK: Praise the Lord! I was impressed as I was looking through it. There are crossword puzzles, there are true-false, there are multiple choice, there are fill-in-the blanks. I mean, it doesn’t stay to one particular type of a format. It’s really an opportunity for a child and even the parent to go through the Bible. Even as an adult, I was panning through it this morning and thinking, “You know, there’s some of these questions I don’t think I know.” [laughter] And I consider myself pretty well-versed! But I was having a lot of fun with it, and I would imagine that is exactly the case with you and your children. What became an opportunity for you to teach your children is now an opportunity for others to benefit.

CS: That’s right. We’ve had a great time with it. It’s amazing what kind of dinner conversations you can have once your child knows the Word as well as they do now!

JK: That’s great! As an electrical engineer, did you think you’d ever find yourself putting together, compiling, or even writing a book?

CS: No, I didn’t think so. In fact, I had originally come with the notes to a friend of mine at Anchor-Cross and said, “Hey, would you just put this on your website? Because I think other parents might benefit.” As he began to look through it, he said, “This is good enough to publish. We ought to do that.”

JK: What a beautiful way to bring the whole family into a study of God’s Word. And this is something a person can take with them, review the notes, review their answers to questions—even later on.

CS: That’s right. As you said, Jerry, the questions are challenging enough for most of us. You can certainly pick it up and see how well you know the book of Ezekiel, for example.

JK: Actually, that’s where I was looking this morning! [laughter] Well, God really presents to us wonderful opportunities if we’re paying attention, and that’s really what it’s all about: Are we really paying attention? You said you did this study, really, just to benefit your kids, and yet keeping the notes, putting them all together and everything else, and then being told by a friend, “Hey, you could make a book out of this thing.” What were some of the things that ran through your mind when that was going on?

CS: I think one of the things that ran through my mind was just how much of a need this is for parents. Our children don’t get enough Bible education, on average, and I was thinking, “Gosh, wouldn’t it be great if every parent was taking a daily time with their child to teach them the Word. What would the level of knowledge be in our churches if everybody was doing that?” So, the dreams were going through my mind a lot as I was working on it, and that was a good motivator.

JK: Before we came on the air we were talking about the fact that KTLF is heard worldwide. You mentioned something about the text being available at the publisher’s site?

CS: That’s right, you can go to the publisher’s site, www.anchorcross.org, and you can actually review the entire book online to see if it’s something you’d like to do. If you’re overseas and don’t have access to some of those other places [bookstores], you’re welcome to download it. The text is freely available to anyone.

JK: Well, that’s great! That’s making something available that can be a benefit to everybody out there. You mentioned earlier that our kids just don’t get enough Bible. They just don’t get that teaching. And it’s true; in the public schools, they’re not going to get it, nor should we expect them to get it in the public schools. It’s something that we as parents need to take very seriously and spend the time to bring our children into God’s Word. We’re told, ourselves, to spend time in God’s Word, and often times we don’t spend enough time. Basically, what you’ve done is put together a program to make it so if somebody says, “I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to teach my kids the Bible; I don’t know it well enough myself!”—here’s an opportunity for the parent and child to get together and do it at the same time.

CS: Yeah, that’s right. The weekly church programs we have, they just don’t have enough time to them to really get the Word in deep. And so, if you can spend time on a daily basis, you can get a lot further. I tell people, “How good would your child be at math if they just did it once a week? Or how good would your child be at violin if they just did it once a week?” If you can get it into their mind on a regular basis, it gets much deeper.

JK: Now, did you find it also being a strengthening in your relationship with your children?

CS: Absolutely. It brings a friendship along, it brings an understanding, it brings some respect (“Gosh, Dad knows this!”).

[laughter]

JK: Well, wait until they’re twenty; they’ll tell you you don’t know anything! Been there, done that. [laughter] But I really see that as a family-building time as well, because you’re spending time, you’re learning together, you’re asking questions together, you’re looking for the answers together, and you’re calling on the Father to bless that time. And He does, doesn’t He?

CS: That’s absolutely right. Yeah.

JK: Finding time. I know you said you homeschool your kids, and not everybody has that opportunity. I know in my house, I’m a fifteen-hour a day kind of a guy. That’s how much I work. I get home, I work out for another hour, hour and a half. So it reduces the amount of time. How much time does it take to do this study?

CS: The study takes, on average, 30 minutes a day.

JK: Oh, that’s not much.

CS: For the younger children it’ll take a little bit longer because there’s writing involved, and they tend to write slower. So that was maybe 35 to 40 minutes. As they got older, it was taking 20 to 25 minutes a day.

JK: Okay. So it’s not a lot of time, but it’s very, very quality time.

CS: That’s right. One of the biggest resistances I’ve had to starting it is the time factor. We do all live very busy lives. What I tell parents is, “You know, at the end of the day, what’s more important—how great a soccer player your kid is, or how well they know the Bible?” What it comes down to is a priority issue. And then also, it comes down to quitting something. I don’t want anybody to actually just try to jam this into their already busy schedule.

JK: Right.

CS: You really gotta drop something to be able to pull this off.

JK: Mmm-hmm. It’s a planning thing, it really is. We all have day planners or—what do I have—I have a Blackberry now, so it works really well! [laughter] But you just set it in your schedule. You just say, this is going to be this time, and then just commit it to the Lord and find out just how blessed you’ll be.

CS: That’s right.

JK: I see it truly as a great Bible study. I think it would be awesome for adults to get together and do this study! And there are different application quizzes at the and of certain lessons. It’s going to be a blessing to whoever picks it up.

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JK: As always happens, we run out of time. But what I’d like to do, if it’s okay with you, is to wrap up with taking the opportunity to pray for you.

CS: That’d be great.

JK: Father, thank You for your Word, for the fact that it’s living and active. Every time we open it, it’s new and fresh. But there’s a responsibility there, and that’s to open it. And we do it so little. And Father, you have laid on Charles and Monica’s heart the desire to see their children—all children—come to a better understanding of your Word, a better familiarity with your Word, and a stronger desire to know your Word. Because in knowing your Word, Father, we learn to know you. So I thank you. I thank you for Charles’ willingness to say yes when you said, “Do this.” For Monica’s willingness to say yes when you called her. And Father, I pray that you would continue to guide them, direct them in all that they do. Give them the wisdom that they need, and provide as only you provide. You are Jehovah Jireh, and so I pray that you would do just that. I pray that those who would pick up this book would see it as a challenge not only for their children, but for themselves as well. And that they would find themselves more and more looking forward to that 15 minutes or 30 minutes or 45 minutes—however much time it is—spending time in your Word, and spending time in your presence. Father, thank you. Thank you for the ways that you call us and the ways that you use us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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I would love to put this book in someone’s hands! This book was not intended to be specifically a homeschool curriculum, but many readers use it for just that. We have prayed it would be a blessing and a help to any family, homeschooling or not. As the interviewer mentioned, it can be used not only for parents and children but for an adult as well. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment. To enter your name twice, leave a comment and mention it on Twitter like this:

RT @monicasharman _Through the Bible with My Child_ book giveaway: http://tinyurl.com/25hj9uw

I will use a random number generator to draw a name at noon (Mountain Time) on Monday, August 2.

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