Last winter I ran across an old video of my now eight year old daughter. She was three, in braids and fuzzy footed pjs, and she was sitting on her bed reciting the entire 13th Chapter of 1 Corinthians from memory. She has learned the entire passage without our knowledge, merely listening to us work with her older brother everyday on his memory assignment. Amazing, and so very sweet. As soon as I saw this video I felt the need to repent. If I had been diligent in daily memory work with her over the past five years, she could have probably learned the whole New Testament by now! I decided right then and there that we would, one verse at a time, learn an entire chapter of scripture during our second semester of school. I choose James 1 and guess what? With God's help we did it! And do you know what else? It wasn't that hard!! No fancy " Bible memory system" was required. No one moaned and groaned. We just sat down everyday at a designated time (before history, in our case) and recited what we had already learned a few times. Then we said a new verse a few times. Then we said it all together a time or two. Finally, I would pick one person each day to say what they could by themselves, with prompting from Mom when necessary. There was no pressure associated with any part of the process. I figured that even if they for some reason didn't/couldn't learn it ( and our 4 year old doesn't know it all), it was certainly a benefit to all of us to just hear those first few verses of James 1 read every day!
Over the past few months verses from James have been frequently quoted from our church pulpit. Even my littlest one has noticed and has smiled knowingly at me, mouthing that he just heard a verse from James. (Don't think for a moment that those little wiggly boys aren't hearing what is going on around them!) I have had the privileged of hearing my older children remind one another about truths from this passage. I have been richly blessed as I have reminded myself to "count it all joy" in the face of trials. With the beginning of this school year we are moving on to James Chapter 2. I would highly encourage you to take a few minutes each day and work on a passage of scripture with your children. Keep it light with no pressure, but do it everyday at a designated time. You will be amazed at what can be accomplished in a short time. God's Word is living and active. Pour it into your children's minds and hearts today!
This post is linked to Our Simple Country Life's "Hearts 4 Home". ***** Special Note! Esther is featuring Pleasantburg Blog this week in her Hearts 4 Home Link-up! If you have never visited her blog, stop in and say hello! She's a country girl and I'm (currently) a city girl, but we have lots in common! I am honored to be chosen as this week's feature blog! ******
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