Plans for January

Starting in October of this year, I began more purposefully teaching my sons God's word. I played off the holiday in the month: Halloween, and prayed in advance about what God would have me teach them. We went with a theme on the resurrection of the dead for those who are in Christ. I'll go into what we did in Oct., Nov., and Dec., in future posts, but all that to say, October got me started on teaching in themes for my kids.

Since November and December both have great holidays to focus around, the themes were easy to come up with. But now we're going into a new year and I don't want to loose the momentum and great times we've been sharing in the past months learning God's word just because January doesn't have a top favorite holiday to focus Bible-teaching on. So through much prayer I've come up with this plan for January:

Theme: God makes all things new!

Memory verse: Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." -Revelation 21:5a

Song to sing together daily: All things new by Steven Curtis Chapman (here are the lyrics)

Daily readings and just talk about what's being said in each verse with great emphasis on repetition, such as, " 'He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the LORD.' ~ Psalm 40:3. So what kind of song has God given us to sing boys?" Answer guided to, "a new song mom." Here are the daily readings (there are 30):

He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the LORD. ~ Psalm 40:3


But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

"Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth – so wonderful that no one will even think about the old ones anymore. ~ Isa.65:17

But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day," says the LORD. "I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. – Jer. 31:33

And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead,~ Ezekiel 11:19

And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. ~ Ez.36:26

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. That way both the wine and the wineskins are preserved."- Matt.9:17

After supper he took another cup of wine and said, "This wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you – an agreement sealed with the blood I will pour out for you.- Luke 22:20

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven.- John 3:6

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.- John 13:34

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God – all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God. – Romans 5:11

And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life.- Romans 6:8

Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. – Romans 6:13

Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.- Romans 6:18

We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.- Romans 8:23b


Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.- Romans 12:2

Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life.- 1 Cor.15:22

And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a dry little seed of wheat or whatever it is you are planting. 38 Then God gives it a new body – just the kind he wants it to have. A different kind of plant grows from each kind of seed.- 1 Cor.15:37-38


He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.- 2 Cor.5:15

What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!- 2 Cor.5:17

So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.- Galatians 5:16


You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness – righteous, holy, and true.- Eph.4:24


Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power.- Col.3:1

In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you.- Col.3:10

In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.- Col.3:11

He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit.- Titus 3:5

For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.- 1 Peter 1:23

But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world where everyone is right with God.- 2 Peter 3:13

All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write my God's name on them, and they will be citizens in the city of my God – the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And they will have my new name inscribed upon them.- Rev.3:12

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.- Rev.21:1

And for the craft I plan to make a wind chime with each boy using that clay I've picked up at Walmart. I'll try to come up with a symbol or something they think of when they hear the reading for that day to make.

So what are your plans for teaching God's word to your kiddos or grandkids in January? Any tools or thoughts, things that have worked for you or something new you're trying? Love to hear from any of you who read this blog.

Happy New Year! And may you experience a new work of God in your life this year!

*Image found on Google at this site.