My family has a yearly tradition of reading a chapter a day of the book of Luke, leading up to Christmas. It has been such an enriching experience that helps center our holiday season on what is most important to us. If you’d like to join us in these readings, I’m providing questions to talk through with your kids to help spark conversations and meaningful engagement with what you read. I hope it’s helpful!
(Here is where you can find background information or to start this project at Chapter 1.)
Before you start each night, think about the environment you’re creating for this experience. Check your heart. Lower your expectations. Here is where you can find more ideas on how to set yourself up for success.
Questions before you read Luke 7:
How many of the twelve apostles’s names can you remember?
Who did Jesus heal and why was it controversial?
Who did Jesus command his follower to love?
Is there anything in particular you learned from Chapter 6?
I ask my kids to listen for this information while we’re reading and I’ll ask about it after we’re done:
Who was sick?
Who did Jesus raise from the dead?
What did a woman do with her jar of perfume?
(Asking them to look for the information before you start reading is super helpful in keeping little learners engaged. They tend to listen pretty hard when they’re listening for something specific. I might even write the questions out so they can hold them and look for the information while we read. I will assign these questions to my youngest kids and target the longer discussion questions to my older kids. If my younger kids need to go to bed while we’re deep in discussion, they still had a chance to participate.)
Questions after you’ve read Luke 7:
What did the centurion understand about authority? Why was Jesus impressed with his faith?
Why is it important that the dead young man’s mother was a widow?
Jesus tells the widow not to cry. Is that because crying is sinful? How do we know Jesus doesn’t think crying is wrong?
Jesus tells John’s messengers to report what he is doing, not just what people are saying about him or what he says he says about himself. How is this in keeping with what we learned in the last chapter about a tree and its fruit?
How did Jesus respond to being touched by a sinful woman? Jesus repeatedly says he came for those whose need is great. Do we recognize our own need for a savior? Do we put ourselves in positions where we can share the good news of Jesus with other people who know they need forgiveness?
Was there anything else that stuck out to you or surprised you?
(We might get through all of these questions, or just focus on one or two, depending on how deep the discussion is getting. And some nights, we might listen to the chapter in the car and not have a chance for a great discussion at all. Be flexible.)