Some of you have asked for suggestions on Scripture passages to memorize with your children.
When my children were all young, I found a blog of an experienced homeschool mom who wrote about teaching her children to memorize. She shared a list of the passages they learned over the years. I loved the practical suggestions on that list. She inspired me by saying that working a little every day, plodding along, would some day result in a whole list of Scripture passages.
Maybe to some I've become that experienced mom, but I still feel like I don't have my act together. But I too have found that doing a little every day, even when it is done imperfectly, does count up.
But I fear that by sharing a list like this you'll get the idea that every morning my children stand in a neat row saying their verses with angelic expressions.
That couldn't be further from the truth. Some days my children complain about Scripture memory. Sometimes they quote the verses in silly voices and refuse to stay together. Some days we are interrupted five times and I think we'll never finish three verses. Sometimes I'm tempted to abandon Scripture memory all together.
But by now my children know that we always do Scripture memory, bad attitudes or not. We might skip science. We might rush through history. But we always do our memory work.
And of course it is far more important to live out one verse than to have one hundred verses in our mind and not live them in our heart. This isn't a contest. This is an effort to know God.
Here are the passages in our Bible memory review notebook. They are listed in somewhat the order that we learned them.
But just because they are listed in the review notebook doesn't mean it always gets reviewed. Some of these verses we have not reviewed in quite a while so please don't embarrass my children (or me) by testing them on these verses.
John 3:16
Psalm 23
Matthew 6:9-13 - The Lord's Prayer
Luke 2: 1-16 - Birth of Christ
Psalm 1
The Ten Commandments
Psalm 8
Psalm 100
Matthew 28:1-7 - The Resurrection Story
Matthew 7:24-27 - The Wise Man and the Foolish Man
1 Corinthians 13 - The Love Chapter
Psalm 119:9-16
Matthew 5:13-16 - Salt and Light
Psalm 139:14-16
Ephesians 6:13-17 - Armor of God
Psalm 136:1-9 - Thanksgiving Passage
John 14:1-7
1 Peter 3:8-12
John 10:1-10
Isaiah 53:1-7
Psalm 19
Ephesians 6:13-17
Psalm 91
Matthew 6:25-34
James 1-5 - (Our present project that will probably take two years or so since we are only on chapter 2 right now.)
This only the beginning of what I hope is many more passages. Often I read a chapter of the Bible and think, "This is the next verses we should memorize." The Word of God is life-giving, and I hope that my children will learn to appreciate the time we have spent hiding it in our hearts.
What passages would you add to this list?
We set up this system and it works quite well, even though we aren't perfect about it. If you can't see the link, search for scripture memory system simply charlotte mason and it should come up. https://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot to say that they also have a verse link on the website for the Scripture Memory system (Simply Charlotte Mason). Here is the link for the verse list: https://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/verseslist/
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting these and the encouraging words, my oldest loves memorizing but my second gets frustrated. We will keep working on it day by day!
ReplyDeleteHi Gina,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for being real! My children went to Awana when they were young. One loved memorization, and one hated it! They also did scripture handwriting lessons for homeschool. Now it is my turn. You've inspired me to begin a little memorization of my own :).
Marney
"Doing a little every day, even when it is done imperfectly, does count up." Now there's a life motto. It's so tempting to give up when things aren't perfect! I guess wanting perfection is good but not idolizing it.
ReplyDeleteI'm laughing at the thought of a line-up of angelic verse-lisping children.
Have you heard the (also Jewish) story of the two praying men, one who prayed for two hours in his closet each day and came out feeling refreshed, the other who was so busy that he only had time to rush through some memorized prayers barely aware of what he was saying? The second man found especial favor with God because he got nothing out of it himself but was doing it all for God. Different but interesting.
We did the book of James, in 2 school years. That was well worth it. We also gave a prize for saying all 5 chapters at one time!
ReplyDeleteI also have a bible memory chart, to mark the progress of a passage, weekly. I have older students, but marking progress helps keep the goal visual.
Hebrews 12:2-3
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great post, Gina! We're also memorizing passages of James this school year! We, too, have a 3 ring binder with all our previous memory verses. It is so rewarding to look over them and try to recall from memory. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the encouragment! I needed this scripture memory motivation! My 5 year old memorizes quickly and i know I'm missing opportunity. This gives me some good ideas to get going.
ReplyDeleteThese Scripture posts have been so good, Gina. Memorizing Scripture as a child was formational for me and something I want to give my children; but I've fumbled on the practical hurdles. Thanks for speaking from your experience.
ReplyDeleteYou and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. Wishing you blessing and strength.