This week I was convicted on the luke-warmness of my heart toward putting emotional effort into my relationship with the Lord. It's not the first time it's happened. Slowly, other things and the business of life distract me from what is really important: loving Jesus and living a life that is completely sold out for him. Being willing to sacrifice all, if necessary. It's always a gradual fading, so slow that it's not noticable at first. Then I see someone else's life, and I realize the state of my own heart.
This week I've been motivated in many areas of my spritual relationship. One of them being verse memory: storing God's word in my heart, where it can grow my love for Christ, for the lost, and where God can use it to change my responses to what they would not naturally be.
In the same way, I've let it slip with my children. A few years ago I filled notebook pages with some verses for them to memorize, but we didn't get very far. Yesterday we picked it back up again - inserting it into our breakfast routine, and trying to remember to review them at dinner for Dad.
These notebook pages are the way my Mom helped us kids memorize growing up, and is quite effective - especially for little children that can't read yet. Plus, kids think it's really fun.
Many of the pictures are ones from my own childhood (if you can't tell). The favorite for them so far, is this one:
I love it when my 2-year-old looks at the picture on the page, draws her own conclusion, and says, "God wants you to be happy when you have to go to bed!"
I just find pictures out of magazines, books, and old birthday/christmas cards, then type up verses on paper, glue the picture down, slip the whole thing into a clear page protector, and store them all in a
3-ring binder. Nothin fancy.
We learn the verse first. Then as we flip from page to page, I cover the verse up, and whoever raises their hand first gets to say it. Sometimes... I even step out of my I-get-all-my-creative-ideas-from-others nature, and attempt to think of a simple tune to put to the verse. Promise you won't laugh. =)
Beginning is the first step. But endurance (and God's grace) is what will complete the work He has begun in all of us. I'm praying for that. =)
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