Bible Memorization Made Simple

Like me, you probably want to help your children to hide God's Word in their hearts, but when it comes down to actually making Bible memory a regular part of our lives, sometimes we hit some roadblocks. We get bogged down with questions like...

  - How do we choose from so many important verses and passages?

           
 - How can we become more consistent?

          
 - How do we help our kids retain the old passages as they move on to newer 
   ones?


Here are two things that have greatly simplified the whole thing for us:


1. Use or create a long-term big picture plan

A few years ago our church's Christian Education Committee came up with a three year rotation of Bible memory passages for all children aged 4years-6th grade. Yes, this means the kids will cover these passages several times during their grammar school days. Junior high and senior high students have different passages.

Rather than individual verses, this plan focuses on longer selections. Most of the time we memorize in the New American Standard version, but we use the beautiful King James for certain traditional passages such as Luke 2. 

Here's what it looks like for 2014-2015:

Psalm 103, KJV (June 1-August 31)

1 Corinthians 13, NAS (September 7-November 2)

Luke 2:1-20 KJV (November 9-December 21)

Psalm 119:9-16, NAS (January 4-February 15)

Isaiah 53 KJV (February 22-March 29)

1 John 4:7-21, NAS (April 12-May 31)

So, if you happen to have a 4 year old-6th grader at ClearNote Church, Bloomington, the whole decision making process is already done for you! (If not, you are welcome to use these selections, too, of course.)

Occasionally we still add in personal passages that seem particularly relevant for our family or an individual. But we rely on the multi-year plan for the core.

2. For Consistency and Review - Use a Scripture Memory File Box

I borrowed this idea from the Simply Charlotte Mason website.   


For each of my youngest sons, I bought an expandable file card holder and set it up with various dividers. (An index card box would work equally well. Choose something that your children will find attractive.















We use these divider labels:




DAILY - Place your newest verse or passage here.  Recite this one every day.





ODDS
           and

EVENS -

        These two spots hold the two most recently mastered passages.  
        Practice these cards on odd or even-numbered days.

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY




And these verses, obviously, get practiced once a week on the correct day.


When you start, you will only have a card in the daily position. As you move on to a new verse/passage,  the mastered card graduates up a step to Odd or Even. Once those places are filled, you can start placing cards in the M-F zones. You can even go further and have 1-31 divisions, but we haven't made it that far yet, and I'm not sure we will. Every day we work on the Daily card, either Odd or Even, and the correct day of the week. 
Simple and systematic! 

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.