The abundant life is filled with spiritual rhythms. These are personal discipleship tools and habits that naturally fit into the ‘rhythm’ of your everyday life such as prayer, reading your Bible and worship. 

When we think about spiritual rhythms, we typically tend to focus on our own personal discipleship – and this is natural because it is a struggle just to build in these rhythms for yourself much less to incorporate other people. 

But as we study scripture, we find that much of what the Bible has to say about discipleship and spiritual rhythms has to do with your whole family. For instance:

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:6-9

You see, God in his infinite wisdom knows that we each tend to grow personally a lot deeper and faster when we are leading our families in the ways of the LORD. So, he told us to build it into everything we do. And I have found personally that some of the most spiritually important times in my own personal faith were a direct result of leading my family to the LORD through a spiritual rhythm.

One particular spiritual rhythm my family has incorporated into our weekly routine is that of READING ALOUD. On the nights when everyone is home for a proper bedtime, we take the 30 minutes before bed to read aloud together. 

This rhythm started in our family over a decade ago, when we only had our first child, and she was 2years old. It began as a way to help her get to sleep at night, but it evolved into a very sweet and important family rhythm that we have continued. 

This time has helped us as a family move through many different changes: 

• It was a way to help us incorporate new kids into the family, because as mommy was tending to the baby, daddy was able to give special attention to the others as he read.
• It was a way to help us make new houses feel like home – we have moved 4 times since we began reading, and each time the foundation of reading aloud together helped turn new rooms into “our rooms” when we blessed the home with this spiritual rhythm.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

            Well, for the Morton family it is simple. As I said before, about 30 minutes before bedtime (and yes, my kids have a bedtime…which is also a spiritual rhythm) we turn off the TV, put away the toys, change into pj’s and settle down to read. Typically, in our family, I will do the reading because I like to do different accents and voices for the different characters – however it is not necessary. Becki will often read – minus the accents, but with twice the excitement.

            For us, we choose books in a series as a staple for reading. A series that stretches across multiple books helps us to really build a ‘relationship’ with the characters and invest in the story. But of course, we have often read stand-alone books too (you should have seen me try to read while crying through Where the Red Fern Grows. It was brutal). Then, I’ll read about two chapters or until it is bedtime, while the family sits together in the living room and listens. 

            My youngest daughter (6yrs old) will often sit on the floor and play with some toys as she listens while my son (9yrs old) will sit on the couch with a few Legos in hand. My oldest daughter (14yrs old) will lay on the couch with a blanket; having been a part of this spiritual rhythm for 12 years, she knows how it goes. Becki sits on the chaise lounge and sometimes sips some coffee.

WHY IS THIS A SPIRITUAL RHYTHM?

            Practically anything in your day is a spiritual rhythm if you are intentional to point your children to the LORD. But if we consider for a moment the nature of Our One GOD: has designed history in STORY. He wrote the story of our lives, he spoke and wrote the story of redemption in the Bible, he created us in His image to be creative. Narrative, told by mouth or by pen, carries on the tradition and truth. If you look at the Bible (which is not fiction, but so diverse in literary genre), you can see how ‘story’ is the tool by which God spoke the thread of salvation throughout the Old and New Testament. 

            Reading aloud as a family is a dedicated time that gathers the whole family together in the same room without the distractions of phones, internet, tv, work, schoolwork, or the busyness of your schedule. It is an opportunity for your family to quietly focus together on one thing – the story being read – and creates conversation and discussion around a shared love. Within any given story there are multiple worldviews (values, beliefs and ideas that shape the way one sees the world) and the choices made by those worldviews, which provides starting points for discussion about how these things fit (or don’t fit) within a Biblical worldview. 

            If you are reading a book written by a Christian author from a Christian worldview, it can easily be a tool to point your family to the LORD in worship. 

Also, on a practical sense, reading aloud as a family establishes a foundation of the joy of reading. Maybe your kid doesn’t like reading? Read aloud as a family and help them discover that there are stories, characters and worlds out there that could captivate their imaginations for the glory of God. When Dad is reading and excited about what he’s reading, it gives permission to the kids to be excited about reading. 

NOTE TO PARENTS: you do not have to be a fantastic reader who does accents and voices in order to be able to read to your kids. The willingness to read aloud to your kids covers any imperfections in your ability – because whether they admit it or not, your kids are just excited that you are taking time out of your schedule to be willing to do something for/with them that doesn’t default to someone else (a coach, a tv program, etc.). 

So, with that said, here are a list of 7 Book Series to Read Aloud as a Family. This is not exhaustive, and if you know of any to add to this, please share because I’m always looking for new books. This list is comprised of book series that I personally have read or read aloud to my own family – so this is a list from experience. Most of these are written by Christian authors, but some are not. Also, this list is in no particular order (I’m not ranking them. They are all equally good.). Here we go.

7 Book Series to Read Aloud as a Family

1 BOOK TO ALWAYS READ ALOUD

The Bible, by God – Perhaps it didn’t need to be stated, but it is good to read the Bible aloud together as a family. Not on the same level as the books recommended above…because the Bible isn’t fiction and should be the central truth of your home…but both the Old and New Testaments are filled with God’s narrative on the story of redemption. And sometimes, when both parents and students are having a difficult time reading their Bibles on their own, it helps both to get motivated when you read it aloud together. For this, I would recommend the New Living Translation because it is not too loose with its translation (like the Message) but is also easier to read and understand. I personally am using this version to read through my Bible-In-A-Year plan. 

NOTABLE MENTIONS

The Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien – Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, magic rings, swords, goblins and gold. How can this not be on the list? Well, we have not read through all of these together as a family: we have only read the Hobbit. I have personally read them all several times, but I have held off with reading them aloud until my younger kids get a little older. Not because the books are more adult themed, but because there are a lot of characters with similar sounding names, written in lofty Tolkien language. We will get there soon, though. These stories are rich and vast, and good for your book list due to the great themes of good vs evil, friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, and the temptation of greed, money and power. 

The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques – These are cool books, though I have not read them aloud with my family. Follow the world of Redwall and the many different animal warriors who find themselves as heroes. I believe that the author wrote about 25 of these books…and they are all THICK, and I have only read about 6 of them. However, most of the stories are captivating, and the characters are strong. Heroes and Villains, good vs evil, legends and the like.  Probably best for older elementary aged kids and up. 

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There are plenty of other book series out there, some good and some not so good, that were very popular due to their making blockbuster movies based upon them (The Hunger Games, Enders Game, Maze Runner, Percy Jackson, The Divergent series, Twilight, etc.). I will say that though I have read and enjoyed many of these books, and seen several of the movies, we are intentionally avoiding reading these together as a family. This is for various reasons (intense, gruesome, too many adult themes to process or too sensually charged), but for us we found it more difficult to read through certain books and positively point our children back to Jesus – which turns a spiritual rhythm into something purely academic. Reading for academic purposes is good, but if your goal for that time is spiritual rhythms, then you have to be selective about the resource. 

I hope that your family may enjoy the spiritual rhythm of reading aloud together and pointing your family to the LORD as you enjoy stories that captivate the imagination for the glory of God.