Money talks, and sometimes money or the car keys are the only languages a teenager will hear. But is it right to reward them for reading the Bible? You bet!

Teaching Scriptural principles to young people Motivating Teens to Read God's Word

Shoud we pay them to read the Bible?

My father suffered many emotional difficulties. He didn't want me to grow up, and when I did he dealt with it by rejection.

I had been the apple of his eye as a young child. But during my teen years and most of my adult years until his death, he rarely acknowledged me except in a negative way.

I share not in bitterness, for I cared much for my dad. But that small bit of my past is necessary to introduce the rest of this story.

The pastor of the small church I attended as a teenager became a father figure to me in many ways. He taught a young people's class, and challenged us to complete a checklist of items each week. He always bragged on those who completed all the items on the list.

Most of them were simple items like: "Brought Bible to church." "Attended worship service."

But one item required a little more effort. "Read Bible daily."

My conscience would not allow me to lie about reading the Bible daily. So I decided it would be worth the effort to begin a daily devotional time just to win my pastor's favor. Being rejected at home, I craved his acceptance.

I attribute so much of my Spiritual growth, both then and now, to this wonderful man who had the insight to challenge a young teenage girl to read God's word daily. What a treasure I found there.

As I read the suggested daily Bible readings each night before I went to bed, I soon found myself searching the Scriptures with a hunger that could not be satisfied. I am so thankful that someone cared enough to pay me by bragging on me when I made 100% on a simple checklist that included reading God's word daily!

When my own son was a teenager, I used a different type of reward to get him interested in reading God's word.

He received a small allowance, but he often came to me asking, "Mom can I have a dollar?" He needed the extra money for something he wanted to purchase, or for "coke" money, or perhaps to put a bit more gasoline in the family car so we would allow him to use it again.

I developed a plan. After prayerfully researching the Scriptures for Bible verses that I felt would be most beneficial to him at this stage of his growth, I typed out some pages of verses. Then I told my son that whenever he needed an extra dollar all he had to do was read the verses out loud to me. I made sure I kept extra dollar bills so I could provide them as needed.

No matter how busy I was, I did my best to make time to listen to him read God's word when the urge hit his empty wallet! I knew that over a period of months, some of what he read was bound to "take."

As he read, I claimed God's word for my son: "So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11 NIV)

I established a limit of how many times a week he could be "guaranteed" that he could read the verses for a dollar (based on the amount of dollars I could come up with.) But if I had extra money I would allow him to read more than the limit.

After we'd used the first set of verses for awhile, I typed two more sets of verses and we began to rotate them.

I've typed the verses I used in a simple format with no graphics so you can easily print them to use yourself.

I've also provided a handy chart like the one we used for rotating the verses as well. Simply write in the date as each item is used. This way you can always tell which set is next.

God bless you as you seek innovative ways to get your own teenagers interested in reading God's Word.

NOTE: I typed some of the verses in NIV (New International Version) for my son, but most were in the KJV (King James' Version). I've decided to leave them in the same versions here. I'm not sure if copyright laws would permit multiple pages of nothing but Bible verses from the NIV translation of the Scriptures.

Each set of verses is divided into sections by series of astericks ********** . Verses between astericks should be read in one setting. I established the rule that if we were interrupted by something such as the phone, it would be necessary to start reading again from the last set of astericks in order to maintain continuity of thought.

Youth Verses Set 1
Youth Verses Set 2
About the Riddle included with Set 2
Youth Verses Set 3
Chart