Scripture Memory

I LOVE the Word of God.  Although I struggle at times to keep up with the daily reading of it (I'll post on that some other time), lately we are NOT struggling with memorizing it!  Our music and our Memory Box have us memorizing more than I ever imagined.  Let me share...

With our homeschool curriculum this year we got a great CD called God Our Provider that sings the Word.  The voices are of  young children but not the annoying nasal voices you often get on CD's!  It's beautifully done and very catchy.  I woke this morning singing Psalm 24!  The kids easily memorized ALL of Psalm 24 and several others by simply listening to it every morning.  Someday ask Elijah to recite Psalm 24.  There is nothing cuter than a toothless 7yo saying, "and vindication from the God of our salvation."!  I love when God's Word is set to music.  I use to help with our church junior choir and I still, years later, will be reading my Bible and be able to finish verses because of songs we did.  Often I didn't even realize they were Scripture!  Honest, how many of you can sing, "This is the day that the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it."  Psalm 118:24 my friend.  I think I will use music for memory long after my children are out of the house.

Now our Memory Box is AWESOME.  You can do this for yourself, your kids or your whole family.  I was going to put a link but after searching I see it's everywhere and I have no idea who actually started it!  Basically you get an index card box, blank index cards and dividers.  You need dividers 1-31, Monday-Friday (or Sunday-Saturday if you plan on using the box everyday of the week), and 3 you can mark yourself that say odd, even and daily.  This will sound complicated but I assure you once it's together it is easy peasy.  Put the dividers in front to back in this order: daily, odd, even, Mon-Fri (or Sun-Sat) and then 1-31.  If today is your first day ever and your going to start with say John 3:16, write it on an index card and put it under daily.  Review it everyday until you feel you know it.  Once you got it pretty good, move it back behind odd or even and put a new one in daily.  Everyday you do daily but on odd or even days of the month you'll also review John 3:16.  Now as you add more cards and are confident with them you keep moving them back.  So for awhile you'll practice John 3:16 everyday, then only odd or even days, then you'll move it back to the weekly and only practice it on Mondays.  As you go it will move back behind a number divider and you will only review it once a month.  The whole idea is to not memorize something and then completely forget it three months from now.  It's the easiest system I've ever used.  We sit down at the table and go through it everyday or at least every week day. 
If your kids do Awana or an Upward Sports program you can put their verses right in the box.  Then they're not just memorizing to move on, your helping them retain it. Sometimes we'll have to get jump started by reading it a bit.  Like if it's a verse behind say #31 that we don't even hit every month I may need to get us started with the first word or two but then the memory kicks right in.

Give it a try.  Between music and a Memory Box you'll be amazed at how easy it is!

Why Memorize Scripture