This morning, some of my children were looking at a piece of mail from my alma mater. Besides advertising for the annual Homecoming and reunion activities, it also ran the words to a cheer I was forced to learn on the first day of new student orientation. My university has a tradition of saying a chant after every touchdown and other points of celebration. It was written 100 years ago, and has been part of the university culture ever since. The chant is made up of almost all nonsense words (orky porky dominorky), which seems perfect for my boys! They even shared it with their friends who came over to walk with them to school. My oldest son probably has it just about memorized by now.
How easy was it to memorize a silly song of 33 words? It took my 11-year old about 5-10 minutes. If I say it more often today, post the words on our whiteboard, refrigerator and mirrors, how long would it take my whole household to remember this cheer? Proably not very long at all.
If it would not take a very long time to teach my kids a nonsense cheer, it should not take too long to get my kids to memorize something that was truly important: Scripture. If I showed them the Word all over the house, discussed it with them during breakfast, and challenged all of us to memorize something God wants us to know, could we do it in just a few days? Could we learn more than one verse, and could we have understanding on what we memorized?
I have never really been in the habit of memorizing Scripture. I know I could do it, though. And I know my family would do it with me. I recently downloaded a list of 66 short verses of the Bible (one verse from each Book). Here are 7 of those verses. I want to start memorizing these together as a family.
Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (NIV)
Exodus 14:14 "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." (ESV)
Leviticus 19:18 :Stop being angry and don't try to take revenge. I am the LORD, and I command you to love others as much as you love yourself." (CEV)
Numbers 6:24 "May the Lord bless you and protect you." (NCV)
Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." (ESV)
Joshua 1:5 "No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or forsake you." (HCSB)
Judges 6:12 "When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." (NIV)
I hope this encourages you to do something similar! Even if you do not have children in your home, memorizing Scripture has never been a bad thing!
8 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 11:18-19
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