I grew up in church – memorizing Scripture, singing worship songs, learning doctrine. I am blessed to have parents and grandparents who value Scripture and who taught me along the way to apply it to everyday life. The first verse I remember memorizing is Genesis 1:1 - when I was about 2 1/2.
So it might baffle you that it never dawned on me to begin instilling this Christian discipline in our son at about the same age that I was. In the busyness of life I just didn't think about it. Then we attended a workshop at church. They showed a YouTube video of a real family doing devotions at dinner time.
Family devotions always seemed like something that wouldn't work for our family...too stiff and structured. This was different. It wasn't pretty and serene and peaceful. It was loud and hectic. There were screaming kids and food bribery. (No judgement here!) But that preschooler KNEW his the Bible! It was amazing!
And you know what, that's what I want for my boys. I want the Word to be alive and active in their hearts...sharper than a double-edged sword. (Hebrews 4:12)
But it still seemed hard and overwhelming. Where do we begin? (Just being transparent here!) We went home and decided to jump right in. We started where I started...Genesis 1:1. He wasn't too excited at first, but with encouragement from both of us he was able to say his first verse all by himself just a few days later. He was so proud of himself! And I was amazed at how easy it was!
And the kicker is I have to know my Scripture before I can teach it to my boys. How about that for some motivation?!
Tommy took this video of Levi one night before bed and it's currently a favorite request at bedtime. (Isn't he just so cute?!)
>>iPhone users: use this YouTube link.
I'd like to say that we have a plan now for what this looks like in our family and that we work on it every day. But we don't. We are far from having it figured out and every day looks different for us. We just work on things that come up throughout the day, at dinner time or bed time and use things like take-home papers from Sunday school or one of the children's Bibles we happen to be reading that night.
So this is what I'd like to know: Do you work on Scripture memory with your kids? If so, please share with me how your family does it!
And in honor of our new adventure in Scripture memory, I plan to put this one on the wall in Levi's room. It's also available for purchase here.
Two more color variations:
YAY LEVI!!! He did a great job with those verses! Our kids like listening to the seeds CD's (at breakfast, while doing chores, in the car) and the older ones copy verses and hang on the fridge (so we see them and remember to practice) :)
ReplyDelete- Laurie