Scripture Memory Practices for Penetrating the Heart The call As


Scripture Memory Practices for Penetrating the Heart The call As...

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  Scripture Memory Practices for Penetrating the Heart The call

As Christian parents we want Scripture to be our primary foundation for raising a Jesusloving generation. Psychological books and techniques for managing behavior fall well short of the discipleship goals and vision we have from the Bible. Impressing God’s commandments on our children so that they learn to love Him with their heart, soul, mind and strength is our call (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). So we strive to bring God’s Word in to our walking, talking, lying down and getting up . . . all areas of our life (Deuteronomy 6:7)! Scripture memory is one of the many great ways we can do this with our children! The caution Unfortunately, Christian parents often fall in to the trap of trying to get the “best of both worlds”. We employ Scripture as a behavior management technique. Scripture verses and commandments are taught, referenced and even memorized as ways to address misbehaviors in our children. This attempt to “baptize” behavior management may work in terms of fixing a problem, but the long-term negative effects are already being seen rather clearly. The National Study on Youth and Religion has found that today’s teens generally have a view of Christianity that boils it down to moralism. They believe that the Bible teaches them that being a follower of Christ is simply about being good, nice and fair. So we have succeeded in raising moralists, but not disciples? The corrective

Every imperative in Scripture is grounded in an indicative! Not too up on your grammar terms? I wasn’t either until I realized how important they are for discipleship. Imperatives are commands – do not steal, love your neighbor, be kind and compassionate. Indicatives are statements of reality – the Lord is One, God so loved the world, Jesus is Lord! Latching on to the more concrete imperatives during the younger years makes sense in light of our kid’s lack of abstract thinking ability. But failure to lay the groundwork for connecting the imperatives to their indicatives will lead to a rather shallow, moralistic faith in the later years when our kids begin to want to know the deeper WHY? God’s uniqueness and authority as creator and sustainer of all things (the indicative – statement of reality) gives Him the credibility for telling us not to steal, lie or murder (the imperatives – commandments) because He knows how his creation is meant to work. Jesus’s willingness to express God’s love to us by dying on a cross and forgiving us for our sins (the indicatives – statement of reality) offers us the foundation for learning to love one another, being kind, compassionate and forgiving as well (the imperatives – commandments). A simpler way of putting it might that God’s unconditional love (the indicative) is designed to accompany God’s authority in our lives (the imperatives).

The challenge Let’s challenge ourselves and our kids to build a robust foundation of memory verses that incorporate both the imperatives and the indicatives! A great place to start is My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God’s Word in Little Hearts by Susan Hunt. This book is about 90% imperatives, but it does have some great indicatives as well. Some Highrock families have memorized all 26 verses with their kids and find them to be excellent connection points between daily life challenges and God’s Word.

Faith Training: Raising Kids Who Love the Lord by Dr. Joe White offers an even bigger challenge. Before his kids can get their driver’s license he feels that they need to have two complete books of the Bible hidden in their hearts, so he has laid out an entire memory verse plan starting very young. Don’t be overwhelmed by achieving his goal. What I really like about his plan is that so many of these verses go beyond imperatives and offer rich indicatives as well! He goes through age 16 by which point he has his kids memorize the whole books of Philippians and James. Here are his suggestions up to age 6. Age 3: Psalm 23 and John 1:12 Age 4: Psalm 1, John 3:16, 1 John 1:9, Matthew 6:9-13 (the Lord’s Prayer), Matthew 5:16, John 10:10, Revelation 3:20 Age 5: Romans 3:23, Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 3:23, I Corinthians 13, Philippians 2:3-5 Age 6: Psalm 100, Matthew 5:1-16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 6:1-3, 2 Corinthians 12:9

Chase’s Verses - My sister and her husband have made their own list for their preschooler who is still three. I’ve included their list of verses that also are a great balance of indicatives and imperatives! And I think he already has all of these down!

The celebration Make memory work fun, encouraging and relational! My brother-in-law makes it a special daddy time each night! We make it a kind of call and response cheer at the dinner table each night. And any time a connection comes up between a verse we are learning and a life situation we celebrate it as we use it to instruct and disciple. “I saw you being a light today!” “Wow, that was so kind and compassionate!” “Isn’t it amazing to see another thing that God created!”