Out of the Darkness with Ruth Hovsepian

Setting an Example: Parents and Bible Study with Karen Sherrill

• Ruth Hovsepian/Karen Sherrill • Season 2 • Episode 81

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In this episode, host Ruth Hovsepian interviews author Karen Sherrill about her passion for helping young kids develop a relationship with God through Bible study. Karen shares how her own childhood experiences inspired her to write children's books focused on Bible study. They discuss the importance of relying on God and the impact of taking God out of schools. They also emphasize the need for parents to set an example of studying the word of God and provide practical tips for teaching children about Bible study.

Takeaways
✔Bible study is a lifelong pursuit that can begin as young as three with simple stories and verses.
✔As children grow older, they can read and mark verses, discuss their meaning, and learn about the context and historical significance.
✔It is important to read the Bible as a whole and understand the threads and connections throughout.
✔Parents can introduce Bible study to their children by reading favorite sections, identifying keywords, and discussing what they learn about God.
✔Teaching children about Bible study helps them develop a strong foundation in their faith and equips them to discern false teachings.

✔ Website faithandfeet.com
✔ Instagram @faithandfeet
✔ Facebook @faithandfeet
✔ LinkedIn @karensherrill



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Ruth Hovsepian (00:03.959)
Welcome to another episode of Out of the Darkness, the podcast where we explore faith, transformation, and the journey to finding light in the darkest moments. I'm your host, Ruth Hovsepian Today we have a special episode lined up for you. We are talking about helping young kids know God through His word. And joining us is Karen Sherrill. Karen is an author and is passionate about Bible study.

Because as she says, we can know God from His word and knowing Him impacts how we face the circumstances of life. Karen, welcome to the show.

Karen Sherrill (00:44.301)
Thank you, I appreciate it.

Ruth Hovsepian (00:46.327)
Well, I'm excited to have you here today. And I, I really am curious to find out what inspired you to write children's books focused on Bible study. And how do you believe these books help young kids develop a relationship with God?

Karen Sherrill (01:07.436)
I think I was inspired by my own life and my own childhood. For me, there was a disconnect between what I heard in church and what I experienced. I always heard that we could have a relationship with God. I didn't experience that. Everyone has the circumstances of life, certain challenges, be it friendships, home life.

We all have them and there was no sense of relying on God or that I could. And that could have been my own disconnect, but as I became an adult and I learned a Bible study method, I really wished that I had had that. And I began to write stories. Jesus taught in stories a lot.

And I think it's because we can identify with the characters in the story. But he also taught God's Word. He would rely on it heavily, bring it to the people. And so for me, when I learned the inductive Bible study method, I realized had I had that, it would have made all the difference in the world. And then I began to hear studies about our own children.

The CDC came out with one recently that said children as young as three are suffering from anxiety and depression, something we've never really seen at this level before. We saw the World Happiness Report that came out just last month during Mental Health Awareness Month, and we see that for the first time in history since they've been doing this research,

happiness and well -being among children has dropped. And so I don't think it's any coincidence that this is happening as we've begun taking God out of schools and making it something that we can't talk about. I think we've got to bring God back into the lives of children.

Ruth Hovsepian (03:22.167)
Let me say, let me go back to something that you said that connected with me. I grew up in the church. I, the, the joke running was that Ruth was literally born in the church. I was maybe seven days old, 10 days old when I made my appearance in church. And I had always heard about read your Bible and you have to go to Bible study and Sunday school. But.

The disconnect was that I had never been shown or explained what a Bible study was. And Bible studies typically were for me taking a book, someone else's book and using that to follow and, and do a Bible study, you know, air quote Bible study, you know, fast forward.

50 plus years, you know, and my journey into Bible studies really has been the last eight, nine years. I finally understood in my fifties, what really Bible study was. And it's so different than just reading your Bible. And that was a disconnect that I had in.

In, in the last few years, as you know, through my podcast and through talking with other people, I realized I'm not unique to that. Many of us, many of us, especially those of us that have grown up in the church or in the church community have never been taught what a true Bible study is. And I encourage everyone whenever I have a chance, there's a time to read your Bible.

There's a time to do a devotional. And then there is that time where you sit and study the word of God. And I love Bible studies. I've got one of my own that I've written. I'm working on other ones, but I want people to learn how to study the word of God on their own, using tools, using what's out there.

Karen Sherrill (05:21.414)
right.

Karen Sherrill (05:46.246)
Right.

Ruth Hovsepian (05:48.599)
But really making that time, and I think that starting at a young age is when you develop those core muscle memories, those, I mean, the muscle that you do, right, the habits. So I think it's wonderful what you've done here, encouraging parents to.

you know, read these books to their kids or give these books to their kids.

Karen Sherrill (06:20.485)
and hopefully they'll participate. I was telling a friend of mine that as I write these, you know, it's causing me to remember what I know about the character of God, the characteristics, that he's with us, that he hears us, that we can pray, that he answers our prayers.

Those are muscles for us that are so, so important. And you talk about being raised in the church, I think as parents, listen, life is crazy. And it's all hands on deck. And so when we start talking about discipling your kids, that can seem like we're piling on.

But in fact, so much of what goes on at church is crowd control when you've got so many children. It's also limited time and you can't answer their questions. And so as a friend of mine says, we tend to leave it all on the felt board, the stuff that really impacts kids.

But if we can bring them into a situation through a playful story, and then we can show them the scripture and have them mark, first of all, we can read together the verse that tells us that God hears us. We can mark the reference to God.

We can talk about what that verse says about Him and then talk about the life application. Well, what does that mean to you, Ruth? Does that mean that if you're at school, He hears you? Does that mean that if you're outside playing, He hears you? I mean, those kinds of concepts, it gives them something to hold onto when they really need to be heard, when they need to hear God.

Ruth Hovsepian (08:26.295)
Yeah. And they need to see as parents, your example of you setting aside time for, for Bible study, for reading, for prayer. And I think those are examples that are even stronger examples than, you know, get, you know, just telling them about it. We, we really want.

Karen Sherrill (08:34.37)
That's huge.

Ruth Hovsepian (08:51.991)
our children to see that we apply these things in our own lives. And I know that as a child, there were two examples that always stand out in my mind. My grandparents on a daily basis, morning and evening, sitting together, reading the word of God, no fancy, no fancy tools. I mean, they were of that generation that

There really weren't that many tools, especially in the language that they read and they read in Armenian. And at the time you wouldn't have found too many tools. But really what they did was they each held their Bibles. They went right through it in the order that it was, morning and eating, not to say that they didn't have their own time to read. This was just.

sort of like the two of them coming together and if we had sleepovers, we were part of it. And then they prayed together twice a day. And my parents do the same thing. My parents to this day, in their mid 80s, every morning, and mom has dementia, sort of in the middle of her journey, but this is one thing that

Karen Sherrill (09:58.016)
Yeah.

Ruth Hovsepian (10:15.991)
they do on a regular. They have their prayer time, they do a devotional, and they read the word of God. So those were examples that were set, you know, as you said, muscle memory. And did it work for me personally? No, I was the rebellious child, but it set a great example. And I think that that's what is important. Setting an example.

Karen Sherrill (10:36.575)
You

Ruth Hovsepian (10:45.303)
to our children and teaching them how to do it. You started by telling us, you know, how we can do this with our children. And can you give us a little bit, you know, maybe some tips on how we can teach children, especially younger kids, what Bible study is about? And then I...

I'm going to ask you this and then on the back in the back of your mind, I'd like you to think about this one area. Recently, I've come to see many times we take scripture and see what it says to us rather how I can apply it to myself rather than what God is telling us.

Karen Sherrill (11:41.469)
Ruth Hovsepian (11:42.679)
So I just want that there. I don't want to forget to ask you, but let's start off with how do we train or how do we show our children young, especially young ones that don't understand Bible study, how they can do it on their own or how do we guide them through that?

Karen Sherrill (12:02.781)
Yeah, and I think I can answer both of those questions by saying that Bible study is a lifelong pursuit and it can begin as young as three with a story and a verse that they can hold on to. As they become young readers and kids are learning to read because of the internet and home school and private school, they're beginning to learn much, to read much younger these days. And so they can begin to

read with their parent and mark and talk about the verse as they become older they can actually apply the verse in conversation with their parents. Once they become teenagers they really need to learn about the context. Where did the verse come from? What was the setting for it? Who was Jesus talking to?

And once they begin to build a reasoning of context, then they can get older and they can begin looking at the historical perspective. What was going on in society? You know, if Jesus was speaking, the Jews were in captivity, right?

And so there were certain rules that the Romans had put on them. And so they need to know that so they can understand the application, especially when Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer. I mean, these are people who are oppressed. And so when he begins the Lord's Prayer and he's saying, this blessing is for you, he's not telling us to become oppressed. He's telling us that it's for the oppressed.

That's probably a long explanation, but I do think that it's incremental. It can begin when they're very young by introducing them to what a verse looks like and how God reveals himself in his word and he wants us to know him and then begin to build on that as they're older and older, digging deeper. I'm sure that you're probably where I am. I'm in my mid -60s.

Ruth Hovsepian (14:20.919)
Yeah.

Karen Sherrill (14:26.042)
And it's exciting to me when I begin to dig into all the historical significance, the societal significance, so I can really draw out the truth of what was being said.

Ruth Hovsepian (14:42.199)
Yeah, I agree with you. The, the applications that you've given are true to any age. And this is what I talk about all the time as well for how we ourselves can dig into the word of God. We need to take what we are reading the scripture we are reading in context, whether it's the sociopolitical, the geographical.

What was happening in and around it? Why was he referring to something or you know? What did he mean by you know the camel can you know the eye of the cat the I? Just forgot the example the example of the camel being able to go through the eye of a needle or the you know the doorways well that's because of the gates of of the the cities that had the smaller doors and

I think that is so important and we forget to do that. And I think that is what is important in Bible study is not just reading it, but really looking at it as a whole and not just verse chapter, but the whole book. And you know, I think that is what we miss out very often.

The danger of only doing topical Bible studies. And I know this sometimes, you know, people don't want to hear this. I think there's a place for topical Bible studies, but it's also very important to do a Bible study, a study on a whole book of the Bible, because that gives you so much more.

context of why that was said, when it was said, and how it was said.

Karen Sherrill (16:45.143)
I agree, one of the most impactful topical Bible studies I've ever done was on worship. And all the way back to the first use of the word worship was when Abram took his son up to a sacrifice. And so all on the altar, right? And so the study was very, very good. But if I study the entire book,

Ruth Hovsepian (16:52.087)
Hmm.

Ruth Hovsepian (17:04.247)
Right.

Karen Sherrill (17:13.014)
then I understand the journey and how it connects together. I love the idea of a parent being involved in discipling their child through just a small storybook that has verses and activities in the back, simply because I don't know where they are in their Bible study.

Ruth Hovsepian (17:16.151)
Yes.

Ruth Hovsepian (17:36.151)
Yeah.

Karen Sherrill (17:36.213)
journey themselves. And if they could learn a nugget that would get them excited, then they might pursue Bible study themselves. So it's exciting for them as they work with their child and it becomes a household built on Bible study.

Ruth Hovsepian (17:48.343)
Yeah.

Ruth Hovsepian (17:56.727)
And the more you do it, the more excited you get to dig even deeper into the Word of God. That has been my experience. The more I learn, the more I'm hungry for it.

Karen Sherrill (18:07.829)
Thanks.

It's almost like stepping into the supernatural realm, isn't it? I mean, because you begin to hear God speaking to you personally through that, and it's almost impossible to then not engage.

Ruth Hovsepian (18:22.839)
Yeah.

Ruth Hovsepian (18:28.599)
Yeah. It's, it, it takes, you know, I have to say it's, it's not easy. It takes discipline. I've had in time. Yes, it is an investment in time 100%. And I think this will make, since we're talking about parents and children, I think this will make parents aware that it's great to have your children in all kinds of extracurricular activities.

Karen Sherrill (18:36.66)
and time.

Ruth Hovsepian (18:58.647)
but there is a lack of time given to focus into the word of God. And I know that that's a whole other subject, Karen, to talk about, but I think that each parent, each household has to balance that. It's great to have your kids in activities, but just as much the activities of the Holy Spirit, the activities.

That will draw our children closer to the Lord are just as important. And it takes more commitment from a parent's point of view, but wow, is it ever worth it? Now let's go to this other area where I had some pushback and some. Discuss heated discussions. Let's put it when, when I talk about.

The way that sometimes we take a verse and look at how I can use this for myself rather than how God is intending it to be in my life.

Karen Sherrill (20:13.905)
Case in point, I can do all things through Christ. I mean, how often do you hear that? There was a gymnast who was talking about her pursuit of, I think it was the Olympics, and she used that verse. And I just shook my head because the author's talking about contentment in tough circumstances.

Ruth Hovsepian (20:20.567)
Yes.

Karen Sherrill (20:40.433)
So yes, taking it out of context could be so dangerous. And we really miss the power of God when we are focused on ourselves as the beneficiary. You know what I mean? If we're not seeing Him as the resource in the context, if that makes sense.

Ruth Hovsepian (21:03.255)
Yeah, I do a hundred percent. And in today's society, in the culture, in this woke culture that we live in, we have taken verses so far out of context. It is mind boggling how we have done that. And there are too many examples to give, but I just want to alert people to that.

when you hear something, when someone gives you a verse, if you don't know the word of God for yourself, if you don't know the context that that verse was given to us, you will not know that it is being used in the wrong way, you know, in the wrong instance. And also I strongly believe that we need to know the word of God to

to be able to identify.

Ruth Hovsepian (22:11.922)
I'm always careful. Heresy, yeah, thank you. I get a lot of push. No, no, listen, I've said this and I get comments. Anytime that I speak up against false doctrine, heresy, pastors coming and sheeps coming.

Karen Sherrill (22:12.623)
Heresy. Is that a podcast no -no?

Ruth Hovsepian (22:35.095)
clothing and they are not preaching the word of God. They're preaching what is their message. If I, let me talk about myself. If I sit in a church and I'm listening to the pastor speak. And if that pastor says something and I'm like, okay. That fits what I want to believe and walk my agenda. Yeah.

Karen Sherrill (23:00.814)
My agenda.

Ruth Hovsepian (23:04.535)
We are, we are wrong. The pastor is wrong, but how do you know that unless you know the Bible for yourself? And one of the things that I have become very, I've been talking about, because I'm really excited about is I took a challenge for myself, a personal little challenge back in December of 2023.

I saw, I wish I had kept the link because I'd love to give the person credit for this, but I read something where someone read their Bible in 30 days. And I thought, wow, I bear, you know, like I struggled to do it in a year. I've tried it and sick in all of these things. And I was convicted. The Holy spirit convicted me on that little blurb that I read.

Because I'm a voracious reader. I love to read. I love I'm in the season of my life where I want to learn so I'm just absorbing and I also watch videos because I I'm a visual person and I thought Lord you are convicting me if I have time to read all of these other books and watch all of these videos I certainly can make time every day

Karen Sherrill (24:27.659)
See you.

Ruth Hovsepian (24:32.279)
to read my Bible in 30 days. Now, to be transparent, January 2024 was hard. It was hard to get into that habit. What is a 28 days to make or break a habit? Well, let me tell you, it took a lot, okay, it took a month or more for me to get into that habit. And there were days I didn't read, which meant I needed to scramble because I really am goal oriented. I wanted to finish the Bible.

in in 30 days. Well, I did it. Was it a good 30 days? No, but I did it. And I thought, OK, I'm going to do this again. If I can do it once, I can do it again. So the following month, I did it in another version. I've done it now six times. I'm in my seventh month. And I don't say it for a pat on the back why I'm saying it is because it's doable. If I can do it.

You can do it if that is what you are led to do. But what it gave me and what I have seen through it is the connection throughout the Bible and little things. And okay, so I may have read the Bible and whole maybe once before, like reading it here and there and wherever. And I'm a PK. So imagine that what shame.

Karen Sherrill (25:43.338)
us.

Ruth Hovsepian (25:59.319)
But but having read it now six times through and into my seventh

I am humbled and the magnitude of what I realize I have missed is great. And you know, I've read it the way it is written in the way the books are laid out. And I have also read it in chronological order. I have to admit my favorite way of reading it is by taking a book, reading it in whole and picking another book.

At this point, I know what the chronological kind of order is. So I just pick books and I read them. The toughest though is Psalm 119. I leave that for a day like a weekend where I don't have a commitment because I want to read the whole book in one day, but I digress. So the reason I'm saying this is because unless we see the book as a whole,

the Bible as a whole. And then we don't look at the books within it as a whole. We miss out on what the Holy Spirit has to say to us.

Karen Sherrill (27:19.208)
We miss out on the threads, which are so exciting to see throughout. And I come from an inductive study method where we actually will mark a word. And so it may be circumcision of all things to mark, but you begin to see the threads all the way through the New Testament, or it may be the blood, and you see the thread through.

Ruth Hovsepian (27:22.391)
Yes.

Ruth Hovsepian (27:42.583)
Hmm

Karen Sherrill (27:48.743)
the entire Bible. And I think that that's exciting. You can miss so much.

Ruth Hovsepian (27:56.823)
Yeah, I agree with you. I think that this is something that we really need to introduce into our own lives and then into the lives of our, of our children. So, you know, as, as a way to recap all this, can you give us your maybe top three ways of introducing this?

to our children and implementing this with our children. Maybe a favorite Bible or something that, you know, the parents listening can implement into their day -to -day lives.

Karen Sherrill (28:36.454)
And I would offer this for grandparents as well as a way to connect with grandchildren. I publish a few books and we'll publish more through Faith and Feet. So if you go to faithandfeet .com, that's gonna be for a very small audience of children three to seven. Precept Ministries does a fantastic job.

Ruth Hovsepian (28:39.479)
Mm.

Karen Sherrill (29:02.214)
in the seven to twelve and then twelve to sixteen just K Arthur and

And I can't remember who she wrote with, it just escaped me, but I can see her face. Just did a terrific job. The way they engage children in Bible study. And Kay is the queen of context. So you'll get real truth there and kids will learn how to dig it out for themselves. And then I think focus on the family and navigators also have resources. And so...

Ruth Hovsepian (29:35.319)
Mm -hmm.

Karen Sherrill (29:39.526)
But it could be as simple as taking a favorite section, maybe three verses that you just love, sitting down with your child, and it's four simple steps, right? It's read it, identify what the key word is, you know, what's being talked about, and mark that. And then what do you learn about that word from those verses?

Okay, why did God put this in there? What does he have for me and for you because of these verses? What did you learn? And so for small children, we take them directly to what we can learn about God.

and those are great things. In our Christmas book that we're about to publish, it'll be God as the gift giver. He didn't just give us his son, but because he gave us his son, we have reconciliation with God, we have life forever with God, he's with us, and so he's the best gift giver. And that's something that children can hold on to. God never meant for us to live in bitterness or anxiety or depression.

He just never meant that for us, but instead Jesus said I bring you my peace Not as the world gives it and real peace comes from knowing God and following Jesus

Ruth Hovsepian (31:05.943)
Thank you, Karen. I really am grateful for you for talking with us today. It's been a pleasure discussing the importance of helping young children and teenagers getting to know God and creating this habit of having Bible study in their lives. For our listeners who want to connect with Karen and explore her wonderful books for children,

Karen Sherrill (31:11.814)
Thank you.

Ruth Hovsepian (31:33.655)
be sure to visit her website at faithandfeet .com or you can find her books on Amazon as well. Don't forget to subscribe to Out of the Darkness with Ruth Hovsepian for more inspiring conversations and stories. Until next time, keep seeking the light and sharing it with others.

Karen Sherrill (31:56.902)
Thank you. Beautiful.