Memorizing God's Word.

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I learned the art of deeply meditating on God's Word a few years ago. It is different from memorizing scripture, but you must memorize the scripture to meditate. Repeating a verse to myself many times a day really helps us take up what the words are trying to tell me. It comes alive. I am constantly amazed at how I can read and know a verse, but when I meditate on it, I take ownership of it. Think of how many times we have read Psalm 23. "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." We know it. We read it. What happens if we read it 10 times a day? What if you set a timer for every two hours you are awake and you said that verse to yourself aloud? Read it slowly, deliberately. Look at each word and ask God to open your eyes to it. 

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall  not want."

My four year old has been memorizing God's word for years. I print out Bible Verse color sheets for her. We learn the full verses. We don't make them short or chop them up for her. I find that when you expect alot, children deliver. The most important thing is to have fun with it. Color. Sing songs. Say it out loud when you are on a walk or in the car. They are also great child training tools. Instead of getting angry at your children, ask them if they are fulfilling a particular verse they know. The ones about honoring parents (Ephesians 6:1, Colossians 3:20) and doing things without complaining (Philippians 2:14) are great places to start. This helps them mature in Christ and they are making the choice to act like Him instead of you demanding their outward behavior. I try to come up with many things throughout the day that help us meditate on our verses. Look at nature. Talk about how people you see at the grocery store are interacting. When you see kindness or charity or love, remind your children of where that is in the Bible. That means you have to know it. I think that is where the verse about putting it on your doorposts and the frames of your houses comes in. We have verses everywhere in our house. They are inside cabinets, on doors, painted on walls, and in our journals. We do this with great hope that as we constantly read them and know them that they will end up written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. 

Do you think that God made us aware of the deceitful state of our hearts and told us to hide His word there so that we would lead our hearts instead of it leading us?

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