The best gift I could give my son

I am so excited! Our oldest son is 8 - although he would correct me and say 8 & 3/4! Ever since before he could read we've been sitting down in his room at bedtime and reading a story from a children's Bible. In fact, we used the Early Reader's Bible to teach him to read. It's really great and I highly recommend it. We don't do it every night because sometimes we get home late and stuff like that, but me and the boys read a story together more often than not. Anyway, now that he's in third grade and his little brother is the one learning to read, he's not so interested in a story Bible designed for kindergarteners. So last week I had an idea. I told Elijah about it and I think he's as excited about it as I am.

Starting tonight he and I are going to read one chapter of the New Testament together every night. That's all - just one chapter a night and then spend a few minutes talking about what we've read. Most of the chapters are 2 pages or less. We're going to use the NiRV Bible that I bought him a few years ago. It's a complete translation of the Bible that is written so that it's easy to read and understand. There are 260 chapters in the New Testament. So if we can do this at least 5 nights a week, then we will read and discuss the entire New Testament in 52 weeks. I told him that when we finish, he will have accomplished something at age 9 that most adults haven't done in a lifetime.

I've had a lot of Bible-reading partners over the past few years, but I've never been as excited as I am about this one. If I continue to invest in my son like this, then by the time he is 18 we will have read and discussed the entire New Testament 10 times. Wow - I can't wait! I believe that really is the best gift that I could give my son.