God's Word--Is it in you?

Scripture memory has never been one of my favorite things. I have convinced myself that I am not very good at it, so I spent years of my life not even trying. Sure, there have been seasons where I've learned verses, but it's certainly not a strength of mine. If you want to know where a particular verse is found, I am not usually the one to ask.

However, as much as I've convinced myself, "That's just not my thing," I cannot seem to forget the time my husband was teaching our Sunday school class and asked people how many songs they had memorized. He reasoned, "If we can learn 10's (or 100's) of songs, then why do we tell ourselves we don't have good memories and we can't learn Scripture?" I have to say, as much as I don't like to admit it, he is right. God has given each of us these amazing brains that can hold a lot of information--more than we'll ever put in there. So, if we can sing songs we learned when we were five, shouldn't we be able to quote verses as well?

In light of this, I am trying something new with my children (and therefore myself) this summer. Several weeks ago, a friend told me that she was going to have her children have a letter of the week over the summer. With the letter, she told me she was going to have her oldest child also have a memory verse for that letter. As soon as she told me about it, it just resonated within me. What a great idea! I decided to form my own version of her plan.

My children are also having a letter of the week this summer. My 3 year old works on writing the letter while my 6 year old writes a story about something that has to do with that letter. Along with that, they gather items into a basket that begin with that letter. But, the most important thing we do is have a Scripture verse each week that begins with the letter of the week, and we work on memorizing the verse.

Last week, we studied the letter J and our verse was, "Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with men is possible with God.'" Luke 18:27. My 6 year old has learned the verse and my 3 year old has learned part of it as well. (He hasn't been able to get it completely right but is really working at it.) Besides being proud of my children, I, too, have learned a verse that I had never memorized before. If we learn a verse each week, then we will have learned 10 verses at the end of the summer (we're taking one week off while they're at their grandparents).

I know that the further we get into it, the harder it may become, but as our verse last week reminds me, it's possible with God. My hope is that not only will I instill a love for God's Word in my children's heart but that we will all truly realize that Scripture memory is both possible and attainable....And that it makes a difference in our lives, for both now and the future.