One of our goals this year was to really begin incorporating God’s Word into our everyday lives more. The girls’ nana had already taught them several “stand alone” scriptures; both Lulu and Louise have quite a few in their repertoires already. I knew from this that the girls were capable and ready to learn even longer passages of scripture. Our first memorization challenge as a family is Psalm 1. The way we approached this was to begin each day at breakfast with a reading of the chapter. Then, we focus on one verse at a time, adding a new verse every other day. We always go back and say the whole thing over again when we practice the new verse instead of just learning each verse alone. Repetition is the key. We do this again at lunch time, and then we do it again at supper. I will often just start quoting the chapter at random times during the day, also. We end our day with a recitation of our new chapter after stories and prayers. We eat every meal together (except Steady Eddie, who only gets to be with us at supper during the week), so this seemed like a natural time for reinforcing God’s Word. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is actually God’s idea to do it this way:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 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. Exodus 6:5-7 NIV
When the girls get a little bored with the normal recitation, we’ll do something fun, like saying our verses in a high voice or a deep voice. I am so excited that my 3 1/2 year old and 2 year old have learned almost a whole chapter (of six verses) in just two week’s time. Praise the Lord! This definitely works for me!
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