Lamp Unto my Feet

"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It's words will I hide in my heart that I might not sin against thee." 
~The Bible

"I'm gonna hide God's Word inside my heart
                          and learn each word from   memory --

 I'm gonna hide God's Word inside my heart
                          until each word's a part of me!"

 

These words are from the chorus my parents taught me when I was a little girl. Of course it sounded more like "...each word f-wom mem-oar-wee..." since "R" was extremely difficult for me at that time! But it doesn't really matter how you would pronounce the words - they still can convict me. His (God's) Word needs to be a part of me. For me, it's easy to know what the Scripture says, but totally another to actually take it to heart and lean upon it.

In 2008, I  began helping my boys memorize Scripture. When they completed a verse they  placed a sticker beside the reference I jotted down on construction paper. (Somewhere along the way I became slack and we stopped.)


 Fast forward to 2010. Their Sunday School teacher had sent a laminated book mark which had Scripture printed on it. We have memorized some of those. Sometimes it's fun to do a theme. Christmas? Memorize about the birth of Christ. Valentine's Day? Memorize about love. (Or you could turn it into a craft like we did (here)  and just familiarized ourselves with 1 Corinthians 13.) 

Easter? Jesus' death and resurrection or John 3:16. ...and so on and so on.
We put a little funky twist on memorizing around here. Since I grew up in Leonard Sankey's church, I learned to love tying a song to the theme of a particular verse. (His song-tagging was done with testimonies during a service.)

Example

Verse:
Psalm 36:7 "How excellent is thy loving kindness, oh God;
therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wing."

Chorus:
"Under His wings, under His wings -
 Who from His love can sever?
Under His wings, my soul shall abide -
 Safely abide forever." (Add motions, too.)


 I have added a clip of my children saying verses they have memorized to give you an idea of how we go through the Scriptures.

Do you think they can remember these verses later on in life? Certainly! I remember hearing about Jimmy (a family friend who had attended an ACE school where he memorized a Scripture for each PACE and also memorized 12 verses or so each month from a section of Scripture)... He graduated, married, and pursued his goals, only to encounter some very difficult circumstances; on one occasion while sharing his heart with his mother, and he told her what an encouragement those many verses of God's Word he had hidden in his heart during those school days had been to him.


Let me leave you with this book: Discipleship in the Home.  Excellent Scriptures in the back of the book just waiting to be memorized!

God will honor your time and sacrifice in memorizing His Word and teaching your children, grandchildren or whomever you come in contact with...Just make sure you put those words into practice! Let His Words comfort you, call you closer to Him, and cultivate a yearning to learn more. Oh, that they will be your lamp and light to guide you until His faithful return! That is my desire - will you let it be yours as well? Now get memorizing!

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