“From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15)
Timothy was the son of an Israelite mother and a Greek father. In Israel at that time, Jews wrote verses on their doorframes or on folded slips of paper kept in small boxes bound to their hands and forehead. Timothy’s mother probably did none of that — her Greek husband was not keen on it — but she taught her son to read the Bible.
Anyone who grew up in a Christian home probably heard Bible stories from the moment they were old enough to pull themselves up on the furniture and walk. And as they grew, they heard verses that helped them learn how to behave. It is a simple thing, but it makes a person wiser.
Better still: paying attention to the Bible, a child discovers that God loved them so much that he sent Jesus to die on the cross for them. It is the most basic of basics — and it is wisdom when kept in the heart.
Children will not always be excited to hear biblical principles. But if they learn them as Timothy did, those principles will not only give them faith: they will teach them how to live.