I’m a huge fan of listening to stories – I listen to books myself and my children listen both individually and together when we’re in the car. I don’t feel it’s better or worse than traditional reading, and it definitely means we get more read.
Let’s apply this to the Easter story:
If you read the story from Palm Sunday to the empty tomb from Mark’s gospel, it will only take about 30 minutes. You can listen using Biblegateway here:
Mark 11 – 16 read by David Suchet
In the Easter Week Journal and Easter Storybook (which comes in the sharing packs of Easter Week Sticker Calendar), I’ve used an abridged version which gives less than 2 minutes a day to read, or around 15 minutes if you do it all in one go – which is one of the options with the sticker calendar. It’s a simple well to tell / recap the Easter story together, adding one sticker for each part of the story. The journal also have open-ended questions to help you explore the story and what it means for you, plus lots of space to draw, write or doodle.
The abridged stories can be listened to here, however the NIrV audible is not available for free, so these are from the NIV (very similar) read again by David Suchet (other Bible versions and readers are available but David is my fave):
1. Jesus arrives Mark 11: 1–10
2. Who’s in trouble? Mark 11: 15–19
3. Who’s on the coin? Mark 12: 13–17
4. Who gave most? Mark 12: 41–44
5. Jesus’ last meal Mark 14: 12–25
6. Jesus dies Mark 15: 1; 15; 22–25; 37; 39
7. Jesus is buried Mark 15:46, 47
8. The tomb is empty Mark 16:1–8
You can choose your own Bible version and preferred reader by copying the references below and paste them into www.Biblegateway.com:
Mark 11: 1–10; Mark 11: 15–19; Mark; 12: 13–17; Mark 12: 41–44; Mark 14: 12–25; Mark 14: 12–25; Mark 15: 1; 15; 22–25; 37; 39; Mark 15:46, 47; Mark 16:1–8