4 Tips for Gifting a Bible to Kids

Earlier this fall, I was in a Kids Club where the large group teacher was introducing the children to Crossroads and the purpose of the club. They were told that in Crossroads, they would be learning stories from the Bible each week.

One child raised her hand and said, “What’s the Bible?” I was reminded that for some children, Crossroads can be their very first introduction to God’s Word.

One of the amazing opportunities our leaders have in Crossroads is to be able to give a Bible to a child for the very first time. While a Bible is a valuable and precious gift in and of itself, there are a few things that you can do to make a gifted Bible meaningful to kids.

    1. Give a Bible in the context of a relationship. If you are giving Bibles to all the children in your club, allow each small group leader to give the Bibles to their own students. Children will value it more if it feels like it was a gift from someone they know and care about as opposed to something free they received from a group or organization.
    2. Personalize it for them. Write a note in the cover of the Bible for the child. Mark the date and the names of the person who gave it and the child receiving it. You might write a short note or include your favorite Bible verse. Small group leaders, consider sharing with your students how you learned to read God’s word and how it has helped you come to know God more.
    3. Teach them how to use it. Even though you are teaching them throughout the year, you may even consider spending a whole day of club teaching kids practical ways to read the Bible themselves – why reading the Bible is important, how it is organized, where to start reading – and then end the day by sending them home with their own Bibles.
    4. Make it a special occasion. Mark the Bible giving as a special event, either around a holiday like Christmas or Easter, the end of the Crossroads school year, an individual child’s birthday, etc. You might even have a special ceremony where the leaders give Bibles to each student with a blessing or a word of encouragement.

The reality is that you never know how a gift like this can impact a child’s life, so my encouragement is to treat it with the importance it deserves. As the prophet Isaiah said, “The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”