Summer is the season for travel. Countless hours are spent by families in cars traveling to visit families or to see the sights. Here are some ideas you can share with the families in your church to help them put Deuteronomy 6:6-7 into practice on road trips.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Travel time often becomes wasted time for families as each family member entertains themselves with their own electronic device. Instead of being wasted time, road trip hours can easily be times of intentional family discipleship. Here are six car games to help you redeem the drive time and keep your minds focussed on God and His Word while on the road.
1. Bible Character Who Am I?
Take turns describing a Bible character for the rest of the family to guess. You can give lots of clues at once, or give clues one at a time and see if they can guess after each clue. Example… I’m a woman. I’m in the Old Testament. I’m from Moab. There’s a book of the Bible named for me. I picked grain in Boaz’s field. I am King David’s Great Grandmother. I am Ruth.
2. License Plate Bible Book Game
Name books of the Bible that start with the letters on the license plate of the car in front of you. If the license plate has multiple letters, name a book for each letter and then for an added challenge, put the books in the order you would find them in the Bible.
3. Keep the Books Moving
The first person names a book of the Bible the next person names a book that starts with the last letter of the previous book… Example… Joshua– Acts– Samuel– Leviticus– Second Peter.
**Other rounds can be played with Bible character names or attributes of God.
4. Bible 20 Questions
Take turns thinking of a person, place or story from the Bible and the rest of the family can ask up to 20 yes or no questions until someone guesses who or what you were thinking of.
5. Roll The Dice
Bring a large die along with you in the car (you can find inflatable ones or large plastic ones at teacher supply shops and party shops). Take turns rolling the die and naming as many books of the Bible as the number shown on the top of the die. Older kids and adults should name books in order for an added challenge.
6. God is. . . Alphabet Game
Go through the alphabet trying to name truths about God for each letter of the alphabet and trying to remember the previously stated truths. Example.. first person says ‘God is awesome,’ second person says ‘God is awesome and big,’ third person says ‘God is awesome, big and creator,’ etc.
Bonus Ideas for Family Car Time
Other great ideas for redeeming road trip time are:
(1) Listen to audiobooks.
(2) With older kids, listen to a song on the radio and then discuss the ‘worldview’ of the artist based on the song. Talk about how the words of the song differ from the truth of Scripture.
(3) Ask open ended questions like:
– What’s your favorite thing that God made and why?
– What would you ask Jesus if He was here right now?
– What moment in the Bible do you wish you could have witnessed?
– If someone who had never heard of Jesus appeared in the car right now, how would you teach them about Jesus?
– If you couldn’t text, go online, watch TV or play video games for a year what would you do?
– If you could have any animal in the world as a pet what would you choose and why?
– If you could fly, where would you go right now?
– If you could have any superpower for one day, what would you choose and what would you do with it?