Memorizing Scripture
A Joyous Legacy

by Jonathan Lindvall

Copyright 1988 Jonathan Lindvall

First Published in The Teaching Home Magazine
Re-published in The Home School Manual, Pub. Ted Wade
(Current issue Copyright 1996 Gazelle Publications, Bridgman MI)

Contact us for permission to re-publish this article. (We're fairly easy to get along with.)
You are permitted to print out individual copies of this article for yourself
or for a friend as long as you print the entire page and notify us that you have done so.

Article are reprinted by permission

I can honestly say that Scripture memorization is one of the most enjoyable parts of my children's home school experience. Many others have confided that, for their families, it is, instead, a dreaded duty. I readily identify with their dilemma because Scripture memorization hasn't always been such a delight for us either. Let me share our secret.

Is it Really Important?

I am the administrator of Pilgrims School offering an "Independent Study Program" to home school families. We provide such services as record keeping, curriculum counsel, and accountability. Occasionally the accountability factor becomes a sticky point because we require several distinctive commitments. One of these is daily work on Scripture memorization.

From time to time some parent will object to this requirement to memorize Scripture. "We want our children to enjoy God's word," one sincere Christian parent said, "and forcing them to memorize Scripture will cause them to resent it instead."

Another suggested, "We want our children to focus on the content, not the form. We want to study and discuss the meaning of Scripture passages instead of working on rote memorization of the words. Remember, Paul said, `The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.'"

Although I have found such appeals well-intentioned, reasonable, and rather compelling, I have gently but consistently insisted that daily Scripture memorization is a distinctive of Pilgrims School that I believe the Lord has asked of this particular ministry. Rather than modifying our expectations on this point I have helped parents find other home school resources if they felt strongly that they should not submit to such requirements.

A Biblical Injunction

On one occasion I was challenged to show a mandate in the Bible itself directing us to memorize Scripture. I confidently quoted Psalm 119:11, "Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." My friend responded, That is a testimony not a command. I returned with Joshua 1:8, "This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate in it day and night." . . . He remained unconvinced, That says to meditate in Scripture not to memorize it.

Temporarily stymied I was certain it would be a simple matter to find a proof text to validate my position. I went to Strong's concordance and looked for the word "memorize." To my consternation the word was not to be found in Scripture. All my life I had been taught that Scripture memorization is important for growing Christians. Now, however, I was unable to verify this notion from the Bible itself. Perhaps I had been wrong all along. What was I to do?

It just happened that my family was, at that time, working through Deuteronomy 6 as our memorization project. As I was doing a bit of word study on verses 6 and 7, I became quite excited and grateful for the Lord's timing in providing an answer to my dilemma. After giving the command which Jesus later quoted as the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:37, 38), Moses continued, "And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up."

In studying the text I found first that the emphasis was on the words themselves and not just on the concepts. Then I found that this is the only case where the Hebrew word shanan is translated teach. Its general meaning is to pierce. It is usually translated "sharp" or "sharpen." Here translated "teach diligently," the idea is to inculcate or insert the very words of Scripture themselves into the child.

Then I came to the next phrase, in which Moses commanded fathers to talk of them (the words) in various lifestyle situations. I found in this passage a mandate to not only discuss the principles of Scripture with my children but to actually talk of the words themselves. When we individually contemplate the words of Scripture and consider their meaning in our lives we are fulfilling the Biblical exhortations to meditate on the word of God (Joshua 1:8; also Psalm 1:2). When we do this aloud together in our family it becomes effectively a form of corporate meditation.

While this passage is certainly a mandate to instruct children in the meaning of the Scripture, we also take it as the scriptural reason for regularly rehearsing the very words of Scripture "when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Such recitation would likely require previously memorizing the passages repeated or would, at the very least, lead to their effortless memorization, through verbal repetition.

The Emphasis

It was at this point that an insight began to dawn on me. The emphasis in this passage is clearly on the frequent review of the words of Scripture more than on the act of memorizing them. Moses clearly taught that we should soak our children's minds in God's words by saturating their environment with Scripture. In verses 8 and 9 he continued, "You shall bind them [the words of verse 6] as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." The emphasis throughout is specifically on the very words of the commandment and not just on the meaning behind them.

I was intrigued by this idea of repetition. Moses had told Joshua (Josh. 1:8), "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. . . ." Perhaps an emphasis on oral recitation would be a key to success for my family as well. We had already begun a family tradition of quoting one or more Scripture passages as we sat down at our meals. Now I began a conscious plan of leading in rehearsing Scripture passages at times when the family was together riding in the car, at bedtime, and when we first got up in the morning.

The Pleasure of Recitation

Quickly I learned that children (and adults) rather enjoy quoting things they already know. When we emphasized memorizing new material the process took disciplined effort that admittedly was sometimes less than a delight. But, when the emphasis shifted to rehearsing together what we already knew, it actually became a delight. Young children, especially, love repeating words and phrases they are familiar with.

We have all experienced having our early talkers drive us to distraction with the constant repetition of their most recent verbal acquisition a radio or television commercial, a cute saying, a rhyme, and so forth. They seem like broken records repeating the same thing over and over. Children do this because God has given them an inclination to enjoy what they are familiar with and have thus mastered. As we tap into this inclination our children find great joy in rehearsing Scripture with us.

When I taught fifth grade in a government school I enticed students to memorize the Preamble to the U. S. Constitution. They would groan and complain about how hard it was until they actually had it committed to memory. Then they would, all of a sudden, change their mind about it. Students would compete for opportunities to recite the words. They would even come up to me at recess asking me to listen to them recite the Preamble. Why was this? Children simply love repeating what they have memorized.

Togetherness

Another key to the delight our family finds in Scripture memorization and recitation is that we nearly always do it together in unison. Thus, the burden is not on one individuals shoulders. What a joy to quote with others, helping them when they get stuck and being helped in turn. Your children will enjoy even the task of the initial memorizing if you do it together. They will not likely be as motivated, though, if you simply assign memorization tasks to them individually.

We completely avoid any sense of individual pressure to complete a memorization assignment. Each memory project is a family project in which we, the parents, are helped by our children to memorize the selected text. The older children enjoy memorizing right along with us, without ever having to recite by themselves. The younger children chime in as a matter of course just as they do with anything else the older ones do. We are very careful not to make this a source of stress to them.

More Than Isolated Verses

Also, we memorize whole passages rather than isolated memory verses. This lends itself more readily to recitation. And children gain a real sense of accomplishment when they can point to a whole chapter they have memorized. You might start with some Psalms that are fairly short.

Initially it took only a minute or two for us to quote everything we knew. In time, though, our family had memorized more Scripture passages than we could generally quote in one sitting. Now we will spend about a half hour in the morning rehearsing Scripture together, taking turns selecting the next passage to quote. Although we do not take the time to quote them all each morning, we keep all of them fresh by making certain each is rehearsed at least once every few days.

A Dream to Pass On

Let me perhaps pass on a dream for your family. Isaiah 59:21 says, "As for Me, says the LORD, `this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, says the LORD, from this time and forevermore.'"

Imagine that! The Lord Himself is saying that our mouths and our children's mouths are to be continually occupied with His Words. God wants us to pass on a heritage to our children, our children's children, and all future generations. This heritage is to result in continually speaking Scripture. I'm convinced God is calling us to develop lifestyle patterns traditions if you will that enable us to pass on godly routines to future generations.

Imagine the spiritual benefit your family might be reaping today if, for the last two years, you and your children had been memorizing a conservative average of two verses each week and could recite all of them today. Imagine the benefit after four years, or ten years of such a pattern. Think of the reward for a lifetime, and the for future generations. This is my dream for my children.

A Delight and a Blessing

I began by saying Scripture memorization was the most enjoyable portion of our home school experience. As you can see I should really revise this to say Scripture rehearsing is delightful to us. Not only is it a joy but it allows us to fulfill the command referred to earlier (Joshua 1:8), "And this book of the Law shall not depart from you mouth." God promised in the same verse that if we obey this command, meditating in His word day and night to observe its mandates, we would prosper and our lives would have good success. May this be fulfilled in each of our families as we, by Gods grace, memorize, rehearse, and apply the Scriptures together.