Family Bible Study – Words and Speech – PDF Printable

I think every parent has a moment (okay, more than one) when they realize that the words and conversations at their house are not the kinds of words and conversations they want to be hearing around their home.

Sometimes it’s because there is a child who is testing out whether lying will be beneficial to them or not. (Age 5, anyone? Developmentally appropriate, but can be SO challenging to navigate in a loving and effective way as a Christian parent.) Sometimes it’s because there is a lot of potty-talk. (No? Just my house? I am a #BoyMom, after all.) Sometimes it’s because they realize their own words are sounding angry, harsh, unkind, and the younger members of the family are starting to copy what they are hearing. (I know it can’t be just me that has had moments of noticing this.) And sometimes there’s a stage of intense bickering between siblings, or of tattling, or of angry flare-ups over silly things. 

While this Bible study won’t address all the underlying factors for WHY those things happen (and they are worth looking into!), I hope that the discussions that happen around these verses will help bring awareness to the whole family of just how powerful our words are, and of how God wants us to use our tongues in our conversations.

We will be starting this study by going verse-by-verse through James chapter 3 to provide a solid foundation for the WHY of controlling our tongues. 

The second section of this study takes a closer look at verses throughout the Bible that involve the tongue, speech, and conversation – the HOW of it all.

Feel free to use this study in the best way for your own family. You may choose to read only one or two verses each day. You may decide to work through 5-6 verses each day because you have older kids with longer attention spans. My personal recommendation is to spend 10-15 minutes, leaving plenty of that time for discussion about the verses and about how it applies to our lives.

I have purposely not included much (if any) personal commentary, as the point of this study is to help YOUR family dig deep into Scripture. One of the main reasons Ruby’s Rambles exists is to provide tools and training for HOW to study Scripture. This family study is no exception. The questions are intended only as prompts to encourage a closer look at the verses, to provide discussion points, and to urge personal application of God’s Word.