Putting God’s Word to Memory
Our oldest son is 3. He has this amazing personality and is very intelligent. It simply amazes my husband and I of just how much he knows. He has learned alphabets, numbers, colors, planets, contemporary gospel songs, how to spell his name and other simple words, his address; can identify any animal you can think of and has learned books we’ve read.
I am such an advocate for reading that when I found out that I was pregnant with him, I knew I wanted to build him a library. So, when he was born, we did just that. I bought the bookshelf from Amazon and we begin building, “Grayson’s Library”. Although it is not nearly complete, he has a ton of books. We read to him just about every night. We learned last year that he had remembered some of the books we’ve read. I mean, he can literally recite the book during a conversation as if those are his words. Now, being a therapist, I can understand that they may be a sign of nervousness, but we can work on that later. After hearing him recite books, we noticed he started singing little songs we listen to while driving or listening to music at home. SN: I am honestly glad we changed up the type of music we listen to haha!
After realizing that our son was capable of learning songs, books, ABCs, numbers, colors, etc., I decided it was time to learn scripture. My husband is always saying, “don’t limit him because of what other children are doing.” I believe learning scripture is vital in this world. You need it, when you need it, and I want our children to have it when they need it. Scripture will give our boys guidance, to live a life that is not dominated by sin and provide them with strength. I want them to know what the standard is, and, in our home, we believe that God sets the standard.
Here are 3 ways to help your children put scripture to memory.
1. Put bible verses in words they can pronounce. Some scripture has words that may be difficult to say for a 3-year old. Colossians 3:23 has the word “heartily”, change it to “with your heart”.
2. Recite them several times throughout the day. (When they wake, after they say grace for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and when they say their prayers at night for bed).
3. Make it fun! Do fun things with the verse you all are learning to help it stick. An example could be finding the words of the scripture in magazines, newspapers, etc. and glueing them to construction paper.
Remember, by helping your child put God’s Word to memory, you’ll be putting it to memory as well.
Xoxo