Hiding God's Word in your Heart

For a few years, the kids and I have learned weekly memory verses. Their little minds soak up so much information that I decided now was the time to fill their hearts with God's word. Psalms 119:11 says,  "I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." I don't want my kids to memorize the Bible just to be able to say they can. I want them to KNOW GOD so that when they are faced with sin they will be able to recall God's word and fight temptation. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil himself and all three times Jesus answered Satan with scripture and did not give in to temptation. That's what I want for my kids. I want God's word to flash across their mind when they are put in the middle of the temptations of the world.

We started with a list of scriptures and began learning one each week. We would go over the scripture each night and by the middle of the week they had it down! The first couple of weeks went smoothly because we would review the previous scriptures while learning the new one. As we added more and more scriptures, it became a little hard to keep up with in my mind!! I didn't want them to just memorize the verse for the week and then forget it. I want these verses embedded deep inside their hearts!

I began searching for ways to memorize scripture and came across Charlotte Mason's system. At first, I thought, "That is entirely too complicated." However, I kept coming back to it and finally decided to try it and it is working great! We are remembering more of the scriptures and are able to add some harder, longer passages! I just keep the box in my car and we work on memory verses in the morning on the way to school! The key to sticking to anything is to make it as easy as possible to do. If we tried to work on our memory verses at home, the box would end up broken, cards would be scattered everywhere, and we would be hit or miss on finding the time to sit down and memorize. For us, the car is perfect, because we are in an enclosed place, where the box can stay safely and in eyesight!

To set up the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System you need the following supplies:

An index card box

index cards

index card dividers (you can buy them or make your own tabs)

On the index cards, you can write out several cards with memory verses you want to learn and keep them in the front of the box OR you can just write down the memory verse each week.

On one of the tab dividers you write Daily, this is where you will put the memory verse for the week. This one you will practice everyday until it is memorized.

On the next two tabs you write Odd and Even, when the Daily verse is memorized you move that card back to the Odd tab and add a new verse to the Daily tab.  When the next Daily verse is memorized you move it to the Even tab.

 On the next tabs you write the days of the week. This is where it starts to get a little more complicated!! When you have a card in Daily, Odd, AND Even, and it is time to add a new card to the Daily, you move the Odd card to Sunday. When you need to add a new Daily, you move the Even to Monday. When you need to add a new Daily, you move the Odd to Tuesday, and so forth. This process takes a long time, because you are only memorizing one verse per week.

On the next tabs you write the numbers 1-31. Once all of the days of the week tabs are full, you begin moving cards to the number tabs one at a time.

To use the memory verse system you start with your first verse. Learn it, memorize it, hide it in your heart! Then, begin learning new scriptures and moving the old ones back in the tabs. So, the second week you would practice EVERY DAY your new DAILY verse. On ODD days you would practice the DAILY verse and the verse that is behind the ODD tab. On the third week you would have a card behind the EVEN tab, so you would work on the DAILY verse EVERY DAY, AND on ODD days you would work on the verse behind the ODD tab, and on EVEN days you would work on the verse behind the EVEN tab. By the third week you would know three memory verses and be working on TWO EACH DAY!

When you have learned enough verses to have cards behind the days tabs, you would work on the Daily verse, either the Odd or Even verse, and the verse behind the tab for the day of the week.

When you have learned enough verses to have cards behind the number tabs, you would work on the Daily verse, either the Odd or Even verse, the verse for the day of the week, AND the verse for the number of the day.

For example, today,  Monday, February 24th, I would work on my Daily verse, the EVEN verse because the 24th is even, the MONDAY verse, AND the verse behind the 24!! Easy right??!!

It does seem very complicated, but once you get it set up and start using the system it is amazing!! You are working on memorizing a new verse, while continuing to keep those other verses fresh on your mind and on your heart!!

Some verses that we use include:

1. Ephesians 2:8-9
2. Matthew 6:33
3. 1 John 4:7
4. Mark 12:30
5. John 3:16
6. Hebrews 11:1
7. Psalms 119:105
8. Genesis 1:1
9. John 1:1
10. Psalms 143:10
11. Galatians 3:26-27
12. Psalms 19:1
13. 1 Peter 4:8
14. Colossians 3:12
15. Proverbs 16:24
16. 2 Corinthians 5:17
17. Ephesians 4:32
18. Romans 11:32
19. Isaiah 1:18
20. Matthew 5:44
21. Acts 2:38
22. Matthew: 5:13, 16
23. Philippians 4:8
24. Romans 12:2
25. Matthew 7:24
26. Ephesians 6:1-2
27. Colossians 1:15-18
28. Matthew 22:37,39
29. Proverbs 3:5-6
30. Exodus 34:5-6
31. Colossians 2:10
32. 2 Corinthians 9:8
33. Ephesians 3:20
34. 2 Peter 1:3
35. 2 Corinthians 3:4-5
36. Hebrews 2:1-3a
37. 2 Corinthians 2:14
38. Phillipians 2:13
39. Isaiah 41:10
40. Numbers 13:30
41. Psalms 100
42. Psalms 23
43. The 10 Commandments
44. The Beatitudes
45. The Fruits of the Spirit