This Sunday Northside Church will present Bibles to our third graders. We pray that the young people will become lifelong students of the Scriptures.

Children who are born and raised in our church family actually receive FOUR Bibles at various stages of their lives.

• Newborn infants are given a “Children’s Bible” designed for toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary students.
• The boys and girls receive a more “grown up” Bible in third grade. The content matches their intellectual and spiritual growth.
• At the conclusion of the Confirmation experience, our sixth graders receive yet another Bible to use during middle and high school.
• On “Graduate Sunday” in May, we give our matriculating high school seniors a fourth Bible to carry with them into adulthood.

During kindergarten, my grandmother gave me a King James Version of the Bible that I still treasure. However, I never could understand the Elizabethan English. Then my church presented me a Revised Standard Version of the Bible in fourth grade. It looked like an encyclopedia on steroids and weighed about a gazillion pounds.

During high school, I discovered The Living Bible, a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments in contemporary English. Later in college, I “graduated” to the New International Version of the Bible before using the New Revised Standard Version in seminary.

A young person who was exploring God’s call to ministry once asked me: “What did you do as a teenager that prepared you the most for the ministry?”

Without forethought, I replied: “I read the Bible. This spiritual discipline laid the foundation for my spiritual growth and pastoral ministry.”

The Psalmist wrote: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. If you want to know the Lord’s will and way, spend time in God’s Word.

You are never too young—or too old—to start.