We’re sharing a bit about Scripture memorization for kids, today.
We are celebrating the 50 Days of Easter in our family, which is part of the Liturgical year of our Catholic faith. As a way to symbolize each day, my husband and I hung plastic Easter eggs from decorative ribbon, and strung them along the tops of the 3 large windows of our school room, for the kids to wake up to on Easter morning. After morning devotion, they take turns opening one egg a day, and inside each egg is a small way we will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection that day. It may be a fun activity to do later that day, a new project, a family outing, a treat, etc. But in some of them are Scripture for them to try and memorize. We truly didn’t expect the Scripture eggs to be as much of a hit as say…the treat eggs! But surprisingly, they have been a huge hit. Each day they have gotten a Scripture, we write it on our large dry eraser board and set it up where they can all read it, and use it as they wish throughout the day. They get all excited, and spend the day intermittently studying the scripture, practicing with each other, and all breaking out in laughter when one of them gets stuck or messes up at the same spot, over and over.
Of course memorizing Scripture is easier for our oldest. She’s not only older, but also has a deep friendship she has developed with her Bible. Perhaps unusually so for a 10 year old. She has contently spent hours at time just reading and studying it, and copying Passages into various notebooks she has. She knows more Scripture by heart than her parents! <shame>. She’s inspiring, frankly.
Anyway, by the end of a Scripture-egg day, when they all can recite the scripture by heart, complete with the book and verse, without looking at the board, they are thrilled and proud to get their star beside their initial.
It serves them well to be so determined, to accomplish a goal they’ve each set for themselves, and to take such pride in a dry-board marker star, which they have earned through their own hard work. But it will serve them even better, in the scope of their lives, to have these Scriptures written in their minds, and on their hearts. Are they not some of the most powerful tools, and weapons of armor, one can carry throughout their lives.