A Practical Guide to Memorizing Scripture Together
In November 1979, seven months before our first child was born, Phil preached a sermon giving ten reasons all of us should memorize Scripture. Looking at those notes now, I am more than a little amazed at how God used Phil’s studies to form a conviction that would shape the way our family focused on memorization,
meditation, and Bible reading.
Here is a list of his ten points, well worth taking time to study:
It is commanded: Deuteronomy 6:6
Overcomes temptation: Psalm 119:11
Gives joy: Jeremiah 15:16
Enables giving a timely answer: I Peter 3:15
For help in teaching family: Deuteronomy 6:7
Gives direction for life: Psalm 119:98
Gives wisdom for life: Psalm 119:98
Builds up strength: Acts 20:23
To discover the knowledge of God: Proverbs 2:1-5
Protects you from sexual sins: Proverbs 6:20-24
Not long after Phil preached that sermon, I came across a powerful story that gave us even more incentive to do the hard work of memorizing Scripture for ourselves and with our children. Though I no longer remember the book that held the story, I captured the gist of it in one of my journals from over forty years ago:
Elizabeth Newton must have known her death was fast approaching as she drilled her son on his Bible memory verses. Tuberculosis had confined her to her bed for some time. Her heart trembled at the thought of leaving her seven-year-old son to the mercies of her angry, ungodly sea-captain husband. She left no record of the prayers she prayed in private, but the verses she taught young John before she died were written indelibly on his mind, ready to be retrieved at his darkest hour.
That hour came on March 10, 1748. John had followed in his father’s footsteps, learning the trade of a sailor on a slaving ship which, plied the waters off the coast of Africa, bartering British manufactured goods for human flesh. He viewed the captured Africans as barely equal to animals and he treated them far worst. Raping women, beating children, he believed that God was a man-made lie. For months, he became so adept at persuading other sailors that faith was hypocritical and self was all that mattered, that he could rattle off a long list of names of men who had abandoned their faith because of him.
Until March 10th. On that day John’s ship was barely afloat, lost at sea, with provisions down to one-twelfth a piece of salted cod per sailor— per day. The entire crew, including the captain, blamed John for their plight. “We have a Jonah on board, perhaps our luck will change if we toss him overboard.” The captain’s words kept John from sleeping that long night, afraid that an “accident” would see him thrown into the sea. While he tossed and turned, the Bible verses his long-dead mother had taught as a boy came rushing back to mind. Verses he’d memorized as a boy— verses he’d tried to forget— brought John to deep repentance. In the early morning hours as the Greyhound limped safely into a remote harbor off the coast of Ireland, he surrendered his life to the God his mother had taught him about twenty years before.
Just a few years later, now a pastor in Oley, England, John Newton penned these words:
‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I was once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see!’
As much as all of us wish we could prevent our children from making choices that might damage and scar their lives, we cannot. Elizabeth Newton could not. We cannot command our children into a love relationship with Jesus. We cannot make them obey. But we can tuck the words of God deep into their hearts so that someday, when they are ready, they will turn to the Redeemer just as John Newton did.
Here is a method of memorization that fits into the life of a family:
Commit to a daily time to memorize rather than a certain number of verses. Ten minutes twice a day works great with small children. Mealtime works best, any time the whole family can sit down at the table together.
Rather than force-memorize, have each family member read verses out loud around the table. Do this every day and all of you will learn them through a natural process. If you and your children are new to this practice be prepared for the first 2-3 months to feel like immense mental strain. Once over this psychological hump, all of you will memorize faster and with more ease.
Be sure that you and your kids understand a verse and its context before memorizing it so that later you will use it properly. Talk about it. Apply it to situations that came up that week. Ask questions about what it might mean for each of you. That’s really what meditating is all about.
If your children are having trouble memorizing, help them record themselves reading the verse out loud. Then encourage them to listen to it before bed at night. They will love hearing their own voices read the verses!
Start on a new verse once everyone can quote the current verse daily for several days.
Be sure to take time to celebrate each person’s success. We rewarded our children for memorizing just as most parents find some form of reward for completing chores and conquering hard tasks. “Money to memorize” kept resistance at bay and made it fun.
Once the verses are memorized, file them in a box of 3 x 5 cards so that each day of the week has different verses. On Monday review the Monday verses, on Tuesday review the verses filed under the Tuesday tab, etc. Total recall of any material demands regular review. This overcomes the frustration of memorizing a verse only to forget later.
Each day pass the new verse around the table for every family member to read out loud, then pass around the review verses for that day. Remember to keep it short— 10 to 15 minutes once or twice a day at most.
Eventually you will need to add weekly categories to your review system in order to ensure regular review. Review memorized verses as much or as little as you must to keep them memory-fresh.
Keep it fun. Some children (and some adults) have a harder time memorizing than others. Do not allow this to become a time of embarrassment for the one who is a little slower to get it. Keep talking about the truths in the verses so that it feels like a nugget of wisdom, not a random list of words.
VERSES TO MEMORIZE AS A FAMILY
Psalm 4:3
Psalm 18:1
Psalm 18:32
Psalm 31:24
Psalm 54:4
Psalm 92:1
John 1:1-4
John 3:16
John 14:1-6
Romans 5:8
I Corinthians 3:16
Galatians 2:20
Ephesians 4:29-32
Philippians 4:8
I Thessalonians 4:16,17
Hebrews 13:5,6
I Peter 5:7
1 This is a list we found tucked away in an older journal. Not so much theological in nature as practical. Truths we needed to forge the kind of relationships and attitudes necessary to keep all of us happy, loving, nice, and loving Jesus.
For more specific scriptures to memorize, check out our Instagram page here!