Bible & Breakfast

One of the best things I’ve ever done with my kids is start a “Bible & Breakfast” tradition as part of our everyday morning routine.

It is super simple: during breakfast, I read part of a bible story (that I wrote myself- I’ll get into that in a second), and then when the kids are done eating they each take a turn reciting a scripture memory verse. 

The kids are able to memorize the verses simply by listening to me read the same passage out loud every single day. After a week or so, I start prompting them with the first words of each line, and they fill in the rest until they can eventually recite the whole thing on their own. 

We’ve been doing this consistently for about a year and a half, and have seen really cool results. So far, my 9-year-old daughter has memorized the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23, the Beattitudes, Philippians 4:6-9 (Be anxious for nothing), and 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 (Love is patient, love is kind).

When my middle daughter was three, she could recite the entire 23rd Psalm, and my two-year-old is close to having it memorized, too.

Reading them the bible storybook has resulted in some fun results, as well. My middle daughter is four now and recently I bought new sandals and when she saw them she said, “Those are so fancy, just like the fancy sandals that God gave that lady.” It took me a second to realize she was referring to Ezekiel 16.  And then the other day I was telling my youngest, who is only two, that if she played the part of the king in her sisters’ dress-up play she would get to be in charge of everything, and she said, “just like God??” 

Here’s how Bible & Breakfast time started:

A few years ago, I realized that there was not a single bible storybook I was fully on board with (I have had several recommended to me since then and I’m sure they’re great, I just haven’t checked them out yet). Children’s bible storybooks are often inaccurate, (they might say Eve ate an apple, instead of a fruit). Or they have goofy drawings, (like Noah with all the animals jammed into a dinghy). Don’t even get me started on the cartoony pictures of Jesus. I also dislike that bible storybooks will often quote God (“so God said…”) but using words God never said.

It’s entirely possible that I am just too picky, but whatever the case, I decided to write my own children’s storybook, without pictures, and accurate, and written in simple terms that my kids can understand but with true dialogue. 

This started as a simple project. I was originally going to just do a quick write-up of the basic stories: Daniel in the lion’s den, Noah’s ark, and so on. But as I started to go through Genesis to select stories, and realized there were so many more I wanted to include, it quickly turned into a huge, ongoing project and began to unexpectedly double as a Bible study for myself. Let me tell you, there has been no better way for me to dive deep into the bible and learn things I never noticed before than trying to put bible stories into children’s terms. My aim for accuracy has me researching biblical times like never before. For instance, I am currently in Nehemiah, and for the very first time ever I have realized that the king Nehemiah served was the son of the king Esther married. I never thought to research that before.

So, if you’re looking for a way to get your kids into the word of God while also studying the bible more for yourself, look no further! I have decided to write out the chronological order that I am following so you can do the same if you want. There are no rules, there is no timeline to accomplish it in, and if you get no further than Genesis 3 there is no one who will come and yell at you, it’s just a fun exercise to get you and your kids further into the word.

What I personally do is read a few chapters during my devotional time and then pick and choose what I want to add into my ongoing Bible storybook. I skip genealogies. For Psalms and Proverbs, Song of Solomon, etc, I briefly mentioned them while writing about King David and King Solomon, and I will often reference an applicable Psalm within another story. For the minor prophets, I generally just summarize the book and message. I’ll mention the name of the prophet, what was going on at the time historically, and then write up the main themes of what he prophesied about. 

So that’s about it, and every morning I read to my kids during breakfast from my ongoing google document on the google docs app on my phone. We have reached the end of what I’ve written many times by now and we just go back and start at the beginning again. Also, it’s not a replacement for reading the actual Bible to them, it’s in addition to it. I actually bought this super giant print bible for our family because it’s easy for my kids to read for themselves as they learn to read, or for me to read if it’s on my lap while I’m holding them or nursing a baby.

I won’t be trying to publish my own bible storybook when it’s done, because it has some theological explanations in it that I know might differ for other families. But I really think every Christian mom would benefit by writing one for their own kids to read at breakfast time. Something about the writing being in your own style, with your own inside jokes and personality within it written directly for your own kids is very special and will hold their attention so well. For instance, I have written things like “Esther couldn’t just willy nilly go see the king.” Or when writing about the animals God created, I used some of my kids’ own favorite animals as examples. My kids love it so much they won’t even start eating breakfast now until I start reading, because they like to eat and hear the stories at the same time. 

Like I said, I’m only up to Nehemiah, so I have not gotten far enough to know if I’ve made a mistake writing out the chronological order of the gospels here, (or if I missed any books of the bible), but I tried to follow along with a plan I found online that supposedly lines the events of all four gospels up together chronologically. I will come back and update this list when I get to that point if I find any mistakes in the order.

(Also, I chose to skip Chronicles and focused on Kings so I do not have 1st and 2nd Chronicles in the chronological order alongside of 1st and 2nd Kings. You can of course add Chronicles into your studies alongside of Kings).

Happy Bible & Breakfasting!

Chronological Bible: (or you can order a chronological bible like this one to make it even simpler).

Genesis 1-11

Job 

Genesis 11-50

Exodus  

Leviticus  

Numbers  

Deuteronomy  

Joshua 

Judges  

Ruth 

I Samuel  

II Samuel 

Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

1 Kings 1-15 

2 Kings 12

Joel 1-3

Jonah

2 Kings 13-14

Amos

Hosea

2 Kings 15-16

Isaiah 1-35

2 Kings 17-19

Isaiah 36-37

2 Kings 20

Isaiah 38-66

2 Kings 21

Nahum 

2 Kings 22-23

Habakkuk

Zephaniah 

Jeremiah 1-20

Jeremiah 22, 23, 26, 25, 35, 36, 45, 27, 28, 29, 24, 37, 21, 34, 30-33, 38, 39, 52

2 Kings 24-25

Lamentations 1-5

Obadiah

Jeremiah 40-42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51

Ezra 1-4

Haggai

Zechariah 1-14

Ezra 5-6

Esther

Ezra 7-10

Nehemiah 1-13

Malachi

Luke 1

John 1:1-14

Matthew 1

Luke 2:1-38

Matthew 2

Luke 2:39-52

Matthew 3

Mark 1

Luke 3

Matthew 4

Luke 4-5

John 1:15-51

John 2-4

Mark 2

John 5

Matthew 12:1-21

Mark 3

Luke 6

Matthew 5-7

Matthew 8:1-13

Luke 7

Matthew 11

Matthew 12:22-50

Luke 11

Matthew 13

Luke 8

Matthew 8:14-34

Mark 4-5

Matthew 9-10

Matthew 14

Mark 6

Luke 9:1-17

John 6

Matthew 15

Mark 7

Matthew 16

Mark 8

Luke 9:18-27

Matthew 17

Mark 9

Luke 9:28-62

Matthew 17

Mark 9

Luke 9:28-62

Matthew 18

John 7-8

John 9:1-41

John 10:1-21

Luke 10

John 10:22-42

Luke 12-13

Luke 14-16

Luke 17: 1-10

John 11

Luke 17: 11-37

Luke 18:1-14

Matthew 19

Mark 10

Matthew 20-21

Luke 18:15-43

Luke 19: 1-48

Mark 11

John 12

Matthew 22

Mark 12

Matthew 23

Luke 20-21

Mark 13

Matthew 24

Matthew 25

Matthew 26

Mark 14

Luke 22

John 13

John 14-17

Matthew 27

Mark 15

Luke 23

John 18-19

Matthew 28

Mark 16

Luke 24

John 20-21

Acts 1-19

Acts 20:1-3

Romans 1-16

Acts 20:4-38

Acts 21-28

Colossians 1-4

Philemon

Ephesians 

Philippians

1 Timothy 

Titus

1 Peter

Hebrews

2 Timothy

2 Peter

Jude

1 John

2 John 

3 John

Revelation