Memory Verse Routine that Works!

Memory Verse Routine that Works!
(or Raisins and Verses Time)

by Abby Fleming 

 My Inspiration
My kids are smarter than I am. Well, they have a better memory at least. It's always amazing to me what they can remember. Can you relate to any of these?


“Mommy, yesterday at lunch you said that I could have a special treat today!”
When reading a favorite book, “Wait, you didn't read that right. You skipped some words.”
After her second ever Veggie Tales, “and now it's time for silly songs with Larry...”
Any kind of slightly annoying kids' songs are engrained in their little minds after only one or two times of listening to them!
Potty songs, anyone??


Even before I had kids, I knew that I wanted to take this uncanny ability of theirs to remember EVERYTHING and use it for something beneficial to them... memory verses. This decision was inspired by two families.





I worked in an Awana Club with the first family when I was back in high school. For those of you who don't know, Awana is a children's club with a huge emphasis on Bible memorization. It's a great program, but at the time I didn't fully understand how important it was that the children were memorizing Bible verses. At a leadership meeting one night, we were discussing whether we ought to include more “fun” things in lieu of some of the memory verse time. I was all for it, but the Mom of this family disagreed with me. She talked about how her children were like sponges, soaking up everything and how she wanted to use this time in their lives to help them soak up as many Bible verses as they could hold. The value she placed on this was contagious.


Later, when I was working my first teaching job, a fellow teacher invited my husband and I to his home for a family dinner. At the time, he had two very young children. After dinner, they told us that they needed to practice their family memory verses together. I was sitting there expecting something to the extent of “God is love” when they started reciting the entire chapter of Genesis One (motions included)!! I was blown away at what they could do at such young ages. I was also inspired to higher my expectations for my kids one day.

How we made it work
Today, I am “Mommy” to a 3 year old daughter and a 1 ½ year old son. After several hiccups and failed attempts, we have come to a memory verse routine that works well for us. I hope it can help you find a system that works for you!

 The first thing we did was buy a highly recommended CD, “Hide 'em in Your Heart” by Steve Green. It is a CD composed entirely of verses set to music, but in a kid friendly (and amazingly not annoying to parents) way. There's just something about music that can help our minds remember things.

I decided to use this to help my daughter memorize the verses on the CD. After owning and listening to it for a while, we started practicing. Our practicing revolves around three words: consistent, rewarded and relaxed.


Consistent. I established a certain time every day when we practice our memory verses. For us, it's in the morning right after breakfast, while we are still at the table. We break her verse down into very small phrases (2-4 words) and repeat them to her with the same exact intonation every time. Then, she repeats the phrase back to us until she can do it on her own. The next day, we review what she already knows and pick up practicing where we left off. Now that she's used to it, she can usually add a new phrase on every day or two.


Rewarded. We all need some sort of motivation, and our kids are no different. We've somehow convinced our daughter that raisins are a special treat, so that is our token bribery... I mean reward. We actually call it “Raisins and Verses Time” now. When she first started, we would line up the raisins, one for each word, and she could eat them as she said the words.

Now, we break it up into two piles of raisins. First, she says all her previously learned verses, we give her lots and lots of praise, and she eats her first pile of raisins. Then, we work on her new verse, sometimes reinforcing the phrase she learned yesterday, sometimes adding a new phrase, always with lots of praise.


Relaxed. We've learned that our daughter learns her verses much quicker and happier if we keep it a fun and relaxed time. There is no pressure. Sometimes, she gets on a roll and can do a new phrase every day. Sometimes, we take a week on a two word phrase. There is no rush. No one is keeping score. We're thrilled for every verse she can hide in that little heart of hers.


With this routine, our daughter has learned 6 good sized verses and is now working on the Lord's Prayer. It's not quite Genesis 1, but we're pretty proud of her!

I mentioned I have a 1 ½ year old son too. He can't talk much yet, but he was feeling a little left out during “Raisins and Verses Time” and very jealous that she was getting extra raisins. So, he now has his own verse that he tries to say every day, too. One day, it will sound like “God is love”, but for now it sounds more like, “Dg!! La!”. He gets a couple raisins and lots of praise, and he gives us a big grin. It's a pretty good trade off.

I hope you can use this to find a system that works for you!! 

--- --- ---

Abby graduated from Emmaus Bible College with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and Biblical Studies. Also at Emmaus, she met and married her husband, Dan, who is currently pursuing a PhD in Theological Studies - Historical Theology. As you read, they have a daughter and a son with another son expected in either January or February, 2015. Abby is always thinking of creative ideas to keep her kids learning and exploring, and she always makes time for having people over to chat!

This blog post was first published on Abby's family's blog, Around the Table.

Our Perspective in Suffering

by Renee Gowler

Part 3 of a 3-part series on the hope of Christ. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

(source)

It’s the week before final exams and 15 days until Christmas.

Feeling stressed? Me, too.

Can I share something encouraging with you? Read 2 Corinthians 4:18 -

“So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

There’s a lot going on in this familiar passage. We see the contrast between the seen and unseen, and between the eternal and temporary. There’s irony, too, as we’re told to fix our eyes on what we can’t see (thanks for that, Paul).

Many things could be said about this single verse, but as we come to the end of this 3-part series on suffering, and as we are all probably feeling a little frazzled, there’s one thing I want you to notice: You can choose your perspective.

Read that Corinthians verse again, my friend. See the choice implied there?

We can actively decide where we will hold our gaze, and we can pick our focus. Our two choices are the visible, temporary things or eternal and unseen things.

Now, I think it’s clear what the temporary, “see-able” things are in life. For Paul, it was the floggings, the slander from false accusers, and the shipwrecks (plural!). For us, maybe it’s the stress of seminary, the cancer diagnosis, the gossiping friend, or in my case, the potty-training toddler.

Paul tells us NOT to fix our gaze on these things, so what are we looking at instead? What are the
eternal, unseen things?

Ready for the “Sunday school answer”?
Jesus.

He is the eternal and unseen One, and we can choose to fix our eyes on Him. Christ. The image of the invisible God, the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His being.

He is our sovereign creator, our great high priest, our spotless lamb who knew no sin, the One who was wounded so we could be healed. He is everything that was promised. Eve’s offspring who
crushed the snake, Abraham’s seed with blessing for the nations, David’s son with an eternal throne, the Suffering Servant, who knows what pain feels like.

And by God’s grace, we can look upwards at Him and the incredible promises in His Word. His resurrection power inside of us enables us to see Him, and He will open the eyes of our hearts to behold Himself.

But first…we must choose our perspective.
So, make your choice.
Because you can.

You HAVE an option here, my friend. You may not have control over anything else that happens to you today.
But you CAN choose your perspective.
Pick Jesus.

Love Forgives

by Laura Bazal



This chapter...talk about uncomfortable conviction. 

Should we ever expect conviction to be comfortable?  Of course not, as anything convicting points out a flaw that we need to deal with, and usually that flaw, or sin, makes us feel comfortable in the first place.

What place does resentment hold in your heart, mind, and spirit?  Do you go about quickly pursuing the wise way to forgive and forget, or do you hold on to the flaws of the past, present, or projected future and make yourself an idol of superiority over someone else's error?  If you lean more toward the second, then you're not living out Christ's love. 

It's very easy for me to find comfort in resentment.  This is because I really do not like confrontation; if I've been wronged, it often(regrettably) takes me too long to forgive the person, people, group, or organization - whatever it may be.  In all that waiting, I end up doing them wrong, too, and sinning in my own heart by holding onto all that unforgiveness.

Ryken illustrates for us how love is not resentful.  He points out that Jesus, when wronged in a multitude of ways by Peter during the most sensitive of hours, not only confronted and forgave Peter for his betrayal, but He made a point to show his love to him and give him renewed purpose by participating in Christ's life and mission.  Jesus freed Peter from his guilt and restored the relationship Peter had tarnished, and we are called to do the same. 

Forgiveness is freeing - that's was a resounding theme espoused in our small group on Monday.  It's freeing for the person who did wrong, and it's freeing for the person who was wronged.  How are we to live if our life is fueled yet also enslaved by anger and resentment?  No, life comes from those things - only sin and death do. 

Christians are to live in the freedom of Christ, and that's the freedom that gives a person the ability to be fueled by God's love and extend that freeing forgiveness to others. 

Our group also touched on the theme of restoration.  What relationships in your life need to be restored?  I will tell you that this chapter made me think good and hard about who I needed to work with in my life.  It also made me think of the people I need to receive forgiveness from, too. 

Forgiving is hard, but it's mainly hard because hurt can give us an excuse to hold onto pain like a lifeline.  Our life comes from Christ, and we live - and love -  because of his forgiveness.

Finally, Ryken used an example of what it looks like to forgive from the testimony of Kim Phuc, which can be read here. It's poignant, to say the least, and really shows how we should live out forgiveness the way 1st Corinthians calls us to do.

May we all forgive because of the love, the forgiveness, of Christ.