A time to learn.....

I have been involved in a new, women's bible study in recent weeks and have been learning SO much from it! It is a mentoring program where the 'older' women in our church take the younger ones under their wings for 9 weeks to teach them much about being a godly wife and mother. The program is called Apples of Gold, and I have been so incredibly blessed by it! Wonderful...wonderful!

Each week we have a new topic to study, and it was during our topic on 'Loving your Children' that I was inspired to begin teaching Luke to memorize simple bible verses. Bible verse memorization was something we did so much of when I taught 5th grade...my students had a new verse each week and it was always incredible to hear them recite God's word! It was such a valuable tool in their lives to have the Word tucked away in their minds and hearts to be used when a trial or circumstance presented itself. But truly and honestly, I really had never given it much thought when it came to Luke. I guess maybe I just figured he was too young, or maybe I just wasn't sure how to go about it. But through my study several weeks ago, I realized it really wasn't hard at all. Luke IS almost 4, after all. And he has an incredible memory! Truly. He can recall the most minute details of things even MONTHS after they happen! Why wouldn't he be able to memorize a few simple verses????

So I got to work. We decided on a few short verses to begin with and Luke and I dove headfirst into his Bible one day, talking all about what exactly the Bible is, Who wrote it, why it is important, etc. (We've done all this before, but repetition is the key, right?!) And I'll tell you, I was SHOCKED to see how quickly Luke began to memorize his very first verse. It was a matter of hours! We would go over it a couple of times, then come back to it through out the day, whenever it would come to mind and by mid-day, he pretty much had it down! Amazing! Oh how I underestimated him! He LOVES it too! His face lights up in delight when he tells me his verse and I, of-course, clap and jump up and down and go crazy for him too! It's a blast! We end up laughing a lot! :) (FYI...Make sure you pause the music from my playlist on the left sidebar before you play the video!)



After he had tucked away his first verse and was able to recite it to me without ANY prompting, I printed up a special sign with the verse on it for his room, and we moved on to the next. We've now been working on his second one for three or four days now. And this morning, as I sat here at the computer checking my mail, he came in and we began chatting about nothing in particular. Then I asked him, "Hey...do you remember what your verse for this week is?" And he responded verbatim... "Hmmm....(tapping his cheek) Lets think about this....Yeah! 'Be kind one to ano-ter...Ephesians fowa-thirty-two." Seriously...I had NO expectation that he could completely recite the WHOLE thing without any prompting, but he did! There's that good memory again! On to verse three we move!! And just for fun, I think it will be a little longer this week! I haven't picked one out yet... does anyone want to share a few simpler ones that come to mind? Would love to hear your ideas! I can write them down and keep them to use in subsequent weeks.

More to come...busy days around here. But send me your verse ideas if you have any! :)