10 Bible Stories to Talk About with Your Kids
"These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." — Deuteronomy 6:6–7 CSB
"We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a generation yet to come the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, his might, and the wondrous works he has done." — Psalm 78:4 CSB
In Deuteronomy 6, Moses exhorts the Israelites to weave God’s word into their conversations with their children. Every aspect of life, Moses says, is an opportunity to teach our children about God. We teach them what He wants from us and we tell stories about what He has done. The goal is not that children would know the stories as facts to recall. It is that they would grow up with a sense of God’s centrality to their lives. They’ll be used to God being connected to every part of their lives, so that when God shows up in their own lives they already recognize Who He is and how He works.
Why Bible Stories Are More Than Moral Lessons
Even though Bible stories often convey moral lessons, their most important quality is what they convey about God. We can teach our children to ask, “What do we learn about God in this story,” while we are asking them, “What does this story mean we should do?” We give our children a wonderful gift by teaching them from a young age about God’s character. When we emphasize God’s character in the stories we tell—His love, his justice, His mercy, His power, and so on—we teach our kids who the God is that they’re serving. They’re learning about Who God actually is. That is the story worth telling.
I could make a lot of lists about stories to tell anyone, including kids. These are a great place to start.
Stories That Show Who God Is
Creation (Genesis 1–2) — God spoke the universe into existence and called it good. On the sixth day He made human beings and said they were very good. Children need to hear this story because they need to know that they’re important to God. God didn’t have to create us, but He did! He did it because He loves us. This story sets up that God is happy with us. The baseline of believer’s relationship with God is that God loved us enough to create us The creation story teaches our kids that they were made on purpose by a God who loves them beyond their wildest dreams.
Noah's Ark (Genesis 6–9) — God takes sin seriously, and He provides a way of rescue. Children often hear this story as an adventure about animals on a boat, and it is that. But it is also a clear picture of a theme that runs through the entire Bible: people continue to rebel against God, but God provides a way for them to come back into relationship with Him. It also gives us the opportunity to tell our kids that every time they see a rainbow, they can be reminded of God’s patience and love. There are horrible consequences for sin (the wages of sin is death, as Paul says) but God has made a way to deal with our sin forever. His mercy is new every morning.
Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus 3) — God noticed a people who were suffering and said so specifically. "I have observed the misery of my people," He told Moses. "I have heard them crying out." (Exodus 3:7 CSB) This is one of the most important stories to tell children early, because it establishes that God pays attention to suffering rather than ignoring it. He is not a distant God who looks away when things are hard. He has never forgotten us. It also gives us an opportunity to teach our kids that God wants to speak to them.
Stories That Show How God Works Through People
David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) — God used the youngest, smallest, least-expected person in the story. Everyone looking on would have chosen Saul or one of his armor-clad soldiers to fight the giant, Goliath. God chose the shepherd boy with a sling. Children who feel small or overlooked need to hear this as a description of how God tends to work: through people whose qualifications do not match the problem, because the strength comes from Him rather than from them. We don’t have to be strong or powerful or a leader in order to be used by God. He just wants us to say yes Him in whatever circumstance we’re in. He’ll provide whatever we need. Our bravery should be rooted in God. When we are weak, He is strong.
Elijah and the Drought (1 Kings 17-19) — This is a long one, and you don’t have to tell it all at once, but it’s magnificent. First, Elijah announces a drought, then he has to go hide from the king, and God sends ravens to feed him. Then God sends him out of the country to be taken care of by an impoverished widow, whose son Elijah eventually raises from the dead. Then there’s a famous showdown between God, working through Elijah, and the false prophets of a false god, which ends with God sending fire from Heaven. Elijah then prays that God would end the drought, which He does. The story ends with Elijah being incredibly discouraged and running away into the desert. God meets him there in a still small voice and teaches him that (among other things) not only is God the God of the pillar of fire, He is the God Who meets us right where we are physically and emotionally, and He deals with us gently and personally, often in a still small voice.
Daniel in the Lions' Den (Daniel 6) — Daniel prayed three times a day even when it was made illegal. He was arrested for it, and thrown into a den of lions. But God closed the lions' mouths. The story is genuinely exciting for children. It’s important to emphasize what Daniel did before the lions' den. Daniel kept praying, not dramatically or to make a point, but because prayer was the ordinary rhythm of his life. The habit of bringing things to God regularly is one of the things that made Daniel who he was long before the crisis arrived.
Stories Jesus Told and Stories About Jesus
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) — A lawyer and Jesus agree that the Bible says we should love our neighbor as ourselves. When the lawyer asked Jesus who counts as his neighbor, Jesus answered with a story that turns the question around. We shouldn’t try to define who a neighbor is so we know who we have to (and don’t have to) love. Instead, we show this love to everyone we meet. The lesson for children is not only "be kind to people who are hurt" — it is that Jesus taught us to be neighbors to everyone around us instead of asking, ‘who do I actually have to be kind to.’ Jesus was consistently more interested in what was coming out of people’s hearts than their ability to make up and follow rules, and this story shows children that early.
Jesus Calms the Storm (Mark 4:35–41) — The disciples were in a boat in a violent storm, terrified, and Jesus was asleep. They woke him and asked if he cared that they were about to die. He stood up and told the wind and the waves to be still, and they were. The disciples asked each other, "Who then is this?" That question is the point of the story. Children can understand that something extraordinary happened, and the right response to it is to discover who Jesus actually is: Jesus is God made man. Not only that, but Jesus, who is God and man, cares about us personally. The answer to the disciples’ question, “don’t you care?” Is a clear, ‘yes, and you can trust me.’
The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32) — A son took his inheritance early, spent it on terrible choices, and came home expecting to be a servant instead of a son. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran. He didn't walk. He ran. He threw a party. Children need to hear this story specifically because it shows them what God's response to returning is: not reluctant forgiveness but running and celebration. The God who accepts His children completely is the Father in this story. He isn’t in Heaven scowling at us. He longs for relationship with us, and we’re never too far gone or too sinful to ask God for forgiveness and press back into relationship with Him. There’s no need for embarrassment. Just run to God your Father.
The Most Important Story
The Death and Resurrection of Jesus (John 19:16-20:29) — The whole Bible points to this moment, and we need to teach it to our children. Jesus died for our sins. He paid the consequence for all the wrong things we have done and will ever do. But He didn’t just die. God physically raised Him from the dead so that if we believe in Him, His death will be in our place, we will be forgiven, and we will live with God forever.
What to Say When You Tell These Stories
I want to offer some practical encouragement to every parent reading this: you do not need to know all the answers to tell these stories well. You do not need a theology degree to teach your children. Imagine sitting with your child after the Prodigal Son and saying, "That's what God is like with us. When we come back, He runs." You can ask after the storm story, "What do you think about someone who can tell the wind to stop?" God has given you your children to lead and to disciple, and that means He will equip you as you share these stories with your kids. No one loves your kids more than Him, and no one wants them to meet God more than God Himself.
Deuteronomy 6 describes a way of life, not a program. It imagines these stories woven into the ordinary moments of a family's day — in the car, at the table, at bedtime, on a walk. The children who grow up in that environment experience God in a different way. Life with God is a built in part of their lives. They learn that God is supposed to be a part of every moment. The accumulation of ordinary moments when someone they trusted said: let me tell you what God did, and what that means about who He is. That is what you can do, and God will help you do it.
If you haven’t started yet, start now. It might feel strange at first, but it will become normal as you make it a normal part of your family’s life.