September 16, 2026 – Anchoring the Bible in Educating Your Child
Anchoring the Bible in Educating Your Child
September 16, 2026
Deborah Wuehler
Prone to Wander
Danika Cooley
The Greatest Joy
Stacy Farrell
If Scripture Doesn’t Shape Their Thinking, Headlines Will
David West
The Best Anchor in Educating Your Child
Mercy Every Minute
Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor
Prone to Wander
“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above.”
These words were penned by a 22-year-old young man, Robert Robinson. In 1752, at 16 years old, he heard George Whitefield preach the gospel. By 1755, Robert began preaching himself when he wrote “Come Thou Fount.”
The culture we find ourselves in will desperately try to get your children to wander, and only the gospel of Jesus Christ will rescue and anchor them. We all need that anchor for our soul. That is why the Bible is “life and death” important in our children’s education. In fact, without Biblical discipleship at the core of education, what are we even doing? Are we filling their heads with worldly knowledge so they can make something of themselves? That only leads to wandering. No, we are grounding them in the actual spoken Word of God that brings an anchor for life. No need to wander or wonder. His Truth grounds us.
Our family Bible times together didn’t always look pretty. There were attitudes, children sent to their rooms, noise, and times I felt I didn’t have any of their attention. If you have the same, never give up. To be gathered together before the throne of God and the Word of God is truly a reason to give thanks to be home with your children. Don’t let satan’s oppositions frustrate or halt our attempts at making the Bible our first priority of study. To know Him and to make Him known (John 17) is a worthy goal that will anchor them for a lifetime.
The best curriculum is the one book that says it contains all that we need for life (2 Peter 1:3-4) and provides escape from the corruption of the world! Read it separately and together, talk about it, pray over it, apply it in your parenting, remind each other about it, meditate on it, memorize it, copy it.
Don’t give in to feelings of guilt for what you are not doing, just get up and carve out your times of Bible study as an important, even urgent, priority every day as you keep them Home. Where They Belong.
~Deborah
Find our daily Bible reading plans on Bible.com.
From the TOS Archives:
“5 Steps to Enrich Your Family Bible Study” Union Gospel Press
“Bible Study in the Busyness” Kendra Fletcher
“3 Steps to High School Bible Study for College Prep” Dave Glander
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Danika Cooley
The Greatest Joy
More than anything in this world, my husband and I wanted our kids to know and understand the Gospel. We wanted them to study and love God’s Word. Third John 1:4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”
Here are a few things we did to anchor our children’s education in Scripture. You can do them too.
- We went through the Bible together. Our family used Bible Road Trip™ to read through Scripture four times before our kids graduated.
- We chose curriculum that honored God’s Word. Our history was from a Biblical worldview, and our handwriting was Bible‑verse copywork. Even our math curriculum was written by a Christian.
- We read Christian biographies together. The stories of ordinary Christians living for Jesus helped our children understand how they could live for him too.
- We worked to encourage our kids with Scripture.
- Discipline pointed to the Gospel. We all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. How sad! But Jesus died to pay the price for our sin. How amazing! We must believe in Jesus and repent of our sins to be saved.
Discipling our children in Scripture was so important to us that I wrote a whole book about how to do it! We cannot control whether our kids come to salvation in Jesus, but we can ensure they know God’s truth. Discipling our kids for Christ is one of the most important jobs God gives us as parents.
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About the author
Danika Cooley is an award-winning children’s author who blogs about Bible and Christian history books, crafts, and activities at Thinking Kids. Her books include 60 Scriptures You Can Pray, Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, puzzle-based study with Bible Investigators, and the Who What Why Series, Christian history for 7-12 year olds. Grab your free three-week sample of her popular Bible Road Trip™ curriculum here.
Author of Before Austen Comes Aesop: The Children’s Great Books and How to Experience Them, The Story of J.R.R. Tolkien, and Maria von Trapp and Her Musical Family (Ignatius Press)/www.onceuponapen.studio
Stacy Farrell
If Scripture Doesn’t Shape Their Thinking, Headlines Will
All too soon, your children will make their own way in an increasingly Godless culture. Will they be equipped to stand?
The Primary Text
Homeschooling is more than academics. It is discipleship.
If we treat the Bible as one class among many—something we “fit in” after math—culture will gladly work to unseat it as the standard of truth.
A Biblical worldview is not extra credit. It is the lens through which every idea, every assignment, and every decision must pass. It is “given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).”
That means science, history, literature, and current events all belong under its authority.
The Key Question
When your child meets a claim about identity, truth, or what “love” requires, the first question is not: “What does the culture say?” It is: “What does God say?”
You do not need a theology degree. You need a habit.
Open the Word before you open the lesson plan. Read it with them. Ask simple questions:
- What does this passage reveal about God?
- About people?
- About how we should live?
Then carry that same filter into the rest of the day.
The Goal
Contrast unbiblical ideas with the unmatched wisdom of Scripture. Teach them to be “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).”
The goal is not children who can recite Bible stories.
It is sons and daughters who—because they have learned to see everything through the firm foundation of God’s Word—understand the times and know what to do (see 1 Chronicles 12:32).
His love,
Stacy
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About the author
Surprised by Jesus, Stacy went from an unmarried, childless, 30-something career woman to a Christ-following wife of 30+ years with two sons she homeschooled K-12.
Author of 20+ books—including the award-winning Philosophy Adventure, Good Manners Guide, Food Prep Guide: A Plan for Money-Saving, Self-Sustaining Abundance in Hard Times, Character Through Classics—she loves to equip and encourage homeschool families. Visit her at HomeschoolAdventure.com and FoodPrepGuide.com, and get free homesteading tips at our Food Prep Guide YouTube channel.
Help Your Family Study God’s Word Verse by Verse [Freebie!]
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The Old Schoolhouse Resource Guide: Literature and Language Arts Curriculum
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David West
The Best Anchor in Educating Your Child
Distractions spring up around us like mushrooms in a dark damp field. Trivialities vie for our attention, and our time. Curriculum options abound; methods proliferate. And so, we must be diligent to keep the main things central as we educate the next generation. Christian homeschoolers, to keep from drift and drain, must anchor themselves and their children. And the best anchor is the Word of God.
God’s Word, the inspired Scriptures in the Old and New Testament, provide the means to moor ourselves and our children to the eternal. The Scriptures anchor our hearts to proper affections. They anchor our hopes upon the coming kingdom of Christ. They anchor our souls as we abide in the Vine. They anchor our minds by filling them with the knowledge of God. They anchor our emotions by providing peace beyond understanding.
When oceans rise and mountains fall into the sea, God’s Word remains true. When evil gains ground in society, wise Christian parents use an anchor to fix themselves and their children’s souls.
God told the people of Israel to teach His Law to their children. This mandate remains today. Other things should be taught as well, but the one thing that keeps our children from drifting away into unknown waters is the anchor of God’s revelation to mankind in Scripture. Nothing else has the power to save and sanctify, and nothing else brings the maturity our children need to glorify God in all things.
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