Introducing the Memorization of Scripture to your Family.
 

It is my goal, not only to learn to be diligent and successful at the memorization of scripture myself, but to encourage and teach others to do the same. I would like to see my family and friends learn to love memorizing scripture. I would also like to encourage people to memorize scripture through the availability of this Internet book.

Once I have built consistency into my own life, I can be free to encourage others to do the same.

Memorizing Scripture as a Family

When I introduced the idea of memorizing scripture to my family, they were positive about it, although my wife was concerned about how we would find the time and energy. I think it is important to introduce good habits to your children as early as possible. This applies to all areas of life and learning and not only spiritual things.

Here are a few different things I have tried with my young children.  You can change your method from time to time so as to keep it interesting.

 

 Try to be creative with your teaching.

"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.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

                                                                                    Deut 6:6-9

Teaching of spiritual values should  follow two rules: 

  1. Be a model of what you want your Children to be.  "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts".    
  2. Teach them in the context of everyday life.  

For example, here is something that I am working on.  My son is interested in playing hockey. One of the important things is to be in good physical condition. We are trying to get into the habit of doing push ups each morning.  This increases the strength of the upper body and assists in more powerful shots with the puck.  

I put up a chart on his bedroom wall.  The chart is 50 squares high (number of pushups)  by 250 squares long (days of the year).  Each day we put a dot indicating the number of pushups we did.  If we did not do any for that day, we do not put a dot.  Over time, we can see a graph developing (or not).  On the top of the graph I have printed the following verse:

1 Timothy 4:8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

As time goes by we occasionally forget all about doing pushups, even for a few weeks.  Then we would get back to it.  This tool serves several purposes:

  1. An aid to encourage us to do the pushups.
  2. A visual teaching aid to see what we could have accomplished if we had discipline compared with what we actually did do.
  3. A teaching aid to compare physical training and spiritual growth.  Spiritual growth is a slow process over time, but you can stay still or even go backwards if you neglect your spiritual disciplines for a season.

As time goes on we can learn a lot from this exercise, and every week or so, you can spend a few moments talking about these things:

  1. That if you work at something a little each day, you will accomplish a lot.  
  2. That spiritual growth is similar and as important to physical growth.
  3. That if you lack discipline that you accomplish less than you could if you did have discipline.
  4. How many pushups could we be doing today if we did not forget to do them each day for the last six weeks?  (How many verses would we know now if we did not forget to do them each day has we have during the last six weeks?)

Be creative, make it fun ...

At this point I would like to ask you to share with me your experiences with scripture memory and your family. Send me an Email and tell me about the tools and routines you use. What do you do to motivate your children? Do they actually want to do it? How do you teach them about the importance of spending time at memorizing scripture? How do they respond? What works and what does not work? Tell me what you have learned so that I can use this knowledge myself and then add it to this web site so others will know too.

Memorizing Scripture and your Small Group

Many Christians meet regularly in small groups for fellowship and Bible study.  It is very hard to keep to a scripture memory routine if you are working at it alone. But, if you are a member of a small group which has similar interests, you can support and encourage each other. It may be of value for the group leaders to encourage the members to dedicate some time each day to memorizing and reviewing scripture. You probably would not want to do much with scripture memory at the actual group meetings because of the amount of time it would take. But each member could have a buddy whom he/she meets with at different times during the month so they can discuss how to best memorize scripture, to review verses and to encourage each another to be steady.


Give me your feedback.

   ssimpson@memoryverses.org

 


Copyright (c) 1997-2017 Stephen Simpson. All rights reserved. You may use the material on these pages freely,
 but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION,
Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by
permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers