Last year, I looked at my sweet two-year-old and realized if she could memorize short poems, she could start to memorize God's Word. I searched the internet for toddler memory verses, but found only the traditional whole-verse flashcards. I really wanted something to help me figure out which concepts were the most important to start out with, and how to present them to my daughter in a way that would be fun and easy to memorize (like the children's books she could recite from memory).
I ended up coming up with my own. I sat down and listed most important concepts I wanted to teach her at the time, then found verses and put them in my own words. To make the verses more fun, I set them to music. Five flash cards bound on an o-ring was my result; we sing them through like a little book.
These are the verses I chose and paraphrased:
God loves me. John 3:16
God made me. Psalm 139:13
I do good things because I love Jesus. John 14:15
Share what you have. It makes God happy. Hebrews 13:15 (optional jazzy ending "oh, yeah!")
Be kind to one another. Ephesians 4:32
To be honest, we haven't read these as much lately (which is why I put them in the Devotions Basket). But shortly after I first made them there was one shining moment when Kardelen sat down and sang them all to herself. It was one of those special moments of parenting when God blesses you with your heart's desire. I want Kardelen and Sofia to love Jesus with all their hearts, and memorizing Bible verses is a way to encourage this. As Kardelen sat and sang through the verses, I considered it her way of saying she loved Jesus.
Are you getting this, Lord? I asked.
He seemed to smile back.
Note: I'd like to try to put up audio files of our melodies for these verses so you can hear the songs. I'll be working on that, but I'll post this in the meantime. :)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
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6 comments:
That is so neat!!!
oh i love that!!
Have your ever heard Steve Greens kid cd's? There are two that are just straight scripture and one with worship songs on it. He sings, but there are always children singing and also quoting the Bible verse for each song. My kids still sing some of the songs years after theys stopped listening to them... Perhaps you could even check them out through your local library system.
an old family friend--yes, we have Hide 'Em in Your Heart, and I really enjoy it. I should find his second scripture memory cd, though--thanks for the reminder.
Two other excellent scripture cd's for kids and adults are Seeds of Faith and Seeds of Courage. I reviewed one of them back in August. I just can't tell you how good they are and how much our family has enjoyed them.
I've been looking all over for shortened memory verses for toddlers. My almost two year old repeats EVERYTHING, so I'm trying to take advantage of it. Thanks for the ideas!
this is so great! thank you for posting this!
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