I love the verse we learned this week! It’s an easy one that is a staple in Sunday Schools and Children’s Church and for good reason! In fact, this was one of the first verses I learned as a kid! It’s a scripture that reminds us of the importance of reading, knowing and using God’s Word:

I have hidden Your Word in my heart so that I won’t sin against you. Psalm 119:11

I thought a scavenger hunt would be a good connection to this verse, since it says “hidden”. {You get the connection, right?} Anywhoo, I wrote the verse on a piece of paper and put a little picture prompt to help her remember each phrase. Then we cut it up (actually, I drew lines on the paper and let her practice her scissor skills!).

I hid the papers around the house and let her hunt for them. Once she found them she had to put them in order. Asa got in on the scavenger hunt and they both loved it! You would have thought we were searching for chocolate covered gummi bears!

It was so fun, Lydia wanted to take a turn hiding the scripture strips. She did such a good job she never found “I have hidden…” again!

This is a fun way to help kids memorize and to get them excited about God’s Word. And for this verse it was the perfect visual for how we should seek God’s laws and desire them in our lives! I was impressed at how quickly she memorized the verse and put it in order by the pictures. She even said it to her Daddy last night at dinner. So, I’d say she’s got it hidden in her heart!

I’ve been somewhat chronicling my 8 month journey to GET UP EARLY AND READ MY BIBLE on my personal blog. Yeah, it’s the same New Year’s Resolution I’ve had since I was 15. And finally, this year, I’ve figured it out. Well, I’m in the middle of figuring it out anyway.

The last few weeks, I’ve been reading my Bible daily. In my closet. Hey, what can I say? It’s the most quiet place in the house! I’m not doing a big Bible study. Just reading.  A few days into this new habit, Zondervan contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing a new Bible. Not a “new” Bible, really, just one with some new devotions and a new package. And oh, the packaging! It’s purple!!

This purple Bible is called the New Mom’s Prayer Bible. I’ve been a mom for 4 years but I consider myself a “new mom”…I mean, every single day is something new! I’ve never been the mom of a 4 and 1 year old. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing! I figured this Bible was perfect for me…and hoped it would be something great to share with you.

Besides the fact that it’s purple, what I really like about it is that the devotions are divided into time increments. So, if you have 1 minute, you read one scripture {that is printed, you don’t have to look it up} and one little paragraph of application. If you have 5 minutes, they suggest reading the scripture in context and praying. And if you have more time, there is a link (no, that’s not the right word…it’s just a page number that you can flip to…hmmm, these old-fashioned things called ‘books’!) for more scriptures that are appropriate to the topic.

The coolest part is that there is a one word idea to take with you for the rest of the day. There’s no pressure to remember history, or memorize a scripture. Just take one word with you. The first day was LIFE. Then FATHER. The third day is the one that has stuck with me the most: SANCTUARY.

As a stay-at-home mom, I’m used to having NO sanctuary. I don’t even get to take a shower without someone pressing their nose against the glass or sitting on the bathmat asking me to read a book. So, a sanctuary? A place to be alone? Quiet? Refreshed? Satisfied? That is attractive…and something I need.

The devotion began with Ezekiel 11:16, then pointed to 3 other scriptures (feel free to look them up if you have a sec): Psalm 22:9-11, Psalm 139:7-10 and Acts 17:26-28.

As I read all these verses I was deeply impressed with how intimate God desires to be with me and my life. I wrote this in my journal:

As a mother

Isolated

Alone.

Satisfy me with Your Presence.

Always Near.

Always Enough.

I really wasn’t trying to poetic. (Believe me, I know that’s not poetic!) It was just my shorthand for the themes that stood out in those passages. But it stood out to me like a big promise AND prayer. That even though my days may be isolated, my decisions misunderstood, my attitudes unreadable, my thoughts imperceptible—God is always near. Not just in a magisterial overlord position. But in a way that is Always Enough.

And for this new mom? It’s what I needed. A sanctuary with the One who is enough. A sanctuary in my closet with a purple Bible.

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Would you like to win a copy of this purple New Mom’s Bible from Zondervan? All you have to do is leave a comment with your favorite scripture {say John 3:16 if you can’t think of anything else} and I’ll pick one winner via random.org on Saturday.

If you’d like an additional entry update your twitter, facebook or blog with a link to this post: http://bit.ly/purpleBible then leave me a comment for each.

Thank you, Zondervan!

see my disclosure policy

Kids (well, all of us really) are continually compared to others–older siblings, peers in class, kids on their ball team. It can be very easy for children to think of themselves in terms of what they can’t do. 1 Peter 4:10 “Each of you has received a gift in order to serve others. You should use it faithfully.” It’s important for kids to learn and realize that God has given ALL of us gifts and talents. And these gifts are to affect others around us–we can serve others with them!

To help Lydia memorize this I made a cute little gift. I wrapped a shoebox with brown paper (my fave!), let her pick a ribbon (pink-of course!) then wrote the reference on the front…with a few dotted lines…which led to more of the scripture and more dotted lines…

We flipped the box around following the lines and saying the verse until she could say it by herself! I did have to draw some picture prompts to remind her of what the words said. It was the perfect visual tie-in since the verse is about gifts. But you could easily do this with any verse and I can see a long verse wrapping around the box several times. It would be a cross between a rubicks cube, a maze and scripture memory!

Memorizing scripture is so important. And with kids? It’s easy!! Here are some of my favorite ways to do it—some I’ve done with my daughter and others are from the archives of my Children’s Pastor experience!

1. Motions

Make up motions to each word (or phrase) in the verse. They don’t have to be real sign language–just whatever prompts your memory. Here’s Lydia doing motions to 2 Timothy 1:7.

2. Giant Dice (thanks to Kris for reminding me of this one!)

This was one of the kids’ favorites at church. I found a square box (probably 4-6″) and wrote instructions on each side: act like a chicken, hold your tongue, say it fast, spin around, stand on one foot, etc. Kids roll the die and then have to say (or read) the verse doing whatever the die tells them to do. It’s hilarious.

3. Bookmarks

For your upper elementary students, simply print the verse on a bookmark. Or have the child write it and decorate it. Place in a Bible–or maybe even more helpful–among their regular books. This is also good for daily Bible reading; you can list several scriptures on one bookmark and check it off as you read.

5. Song or Rhythm

Put the scripture to music! If you’re not musical you can always just find some scripture CDs like Seeds Family Worship or Scripture Rock. You can also easily do a rhythm–a basic pat your lap, clap your hands rhythm is easy for kids of all ages.

6. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.

Just say it all the time. While you’re making dinner, when you’re getting in the car, cleaning the house or going to bed. Hmmm…sounds kinda familiar…

7. Fractured

If you’ve been around children’s ministry–especially if a puppet was involved you’ve seen this one. It’s when you start quoting a verse like…

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, Batman created…”

Well, you don’t get very far before a kid corrects you on that one. So you try again:

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created popsicles and oreos…”

Again, your kids won’t let you go too long with a crazy mixed up Bible verse. It gets you (and them) repeating the verse but more importantly actually listening to it!

8. Take It Away

This is by far one of the most effective for your elementary aged kids. Write or print the verse with one word on individual pieces of paper. Read the verse once while pointing to each word. Then let your child take one paper away. Read the verse again, continuing to point to each word–including the empty space. Continue taking one word away at a time until you are saying the entire verse from memory while pointing the blank spaces the words used to be!

9. Hang It Up

If you’ve been around this blog for any amount of time you know I’m a big fan of making signs and banners with scriptures on them. My daughter can’t read the verse yet, but we still see it hanging up around the house. And it gets it into MY mind and into MY sight so I can do one of the above techniques with her! I want God’s Word to be everywhere in our lives–even on our doors and walls!

What’s your best memorization technique?

When I started Impress Your Kids it was because I wanted a place to record the scriptures I was teaching my daughter and the activities we were doing along with them. I began with a scripture for each letter of the alphabet. But didn’t even start the blog until we were all the way on the letter N.

I just ran across all the scripture papers we made and thought I’d share them and try to remember what other activities we did along with them. There is nothing special about the crafts–usually just paper and glue. But for a toddler? It was the highlight of her day. And the highlight of mine as I saw God’s Word being planted in her heart.

So, here we go with the letter A. I’ll try to get B through M up in the next few weeks, too. Of course, you can check out our other ABC verses (the ones I blogged from the letter N through Z and all of them Leigh did) by visiting our ABC Scriptures page.

This is one of those scriptures I remember from a kid. My mom made my brother say it back and forth if we were fighting. I wanted Lydia to know it, too.

The easiest word for the letter A was “apple”, so this is what we did! This was really my first attempt at a craft with Lydia. She was probably a little over 2 years old when we did this. I just drew the apples, then tore the paper, put down some glue and let Lydia stick them on.

I remember we also did some apple stamps in all different colors. That was a big adventure! Then we went to the library and checked out lots of books about apples and Johnny Appleseed. That reminds me, I should have taught her the Johnny Appleseed song. Do you know it?

The Lord’s been good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun and the rain and the appleseed.
The Lord is good to me!

And the thing you’re really wondering? Yes, Lydia still remembers the verse!

I struggle with finding good Bible resources for my three-year-old. Usually, the things I see are beyond her developmental stage or are just really boring!

So, I was excited to come across this site the other day: ABC, I Believe Christian Homeschooling and More. It offers a comprehensive set of activity ideas, lessons, and printables to go along with a Bible verse. Each verse corresponds to a different letter of the alphabet.

This is not simply a “print out a worksheet” sort of site. Each letter has a set of detailed instructions and explanations for various activities in the areas such as penmanship, art, science, math, etc. There are even lists of recommended books that go along with each animal. (You know I love that!)

The lessons are divided into different age groups, so you can focus in on your child’s specific needs and abilities. This appeals to me so much because I rarely do something the way it is suggested in a book. I love having options, taking them all into consideration, and then crafting something specifically suited to my daughter’s interests and abilities. This site makes that process so much easier!

I have to tell you, I was super excited when I first started looking through the site, but then was a little disappointed when I realized that only the first four lessons are free. After that, you have to pay for the rest. The cost is $12.95 which seems to be a bargain for the massive amount of printables, crafts, and step-by-step instruction provided. I don’t know yet if I will buy the rest of the series. I’m waiting to see how Juliet responds to the first four lessons.

At any rate, I wanted to share this great resource with you. Maybe you’ll fall in love with it like I did and buy the set, or maybe you’ll just enjoy the first four lessons! There’s enough in those to keep you busy for a few months, I think!

Do you have any great online Bible resources for kids to share with me?

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I have been trying to choose books about love for my daughter, Juliet, and I to read together each night. I want her to know how deeply and unconditionally I love her and also how God’s love for her far surpasses my own great love.

As I looked at our shelves the other night, The Runaway Bunnyby Margaret Wise Brown jumped out at me. “That’s perfect!” I thought to myself. We’ve read this book a million times before, but we’ve never had a conversation about how God loves us as unwaveringly and as fiercely as the mother bunny loves her little bunny.

If you’ve never read the book, it begins like this:

“Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, “I am running away.” “If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”

“If you run after me,” said the little bunny, “I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.” If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother, “I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”

The story continues in this way with the little bunny coming up with another and yet another thing to turn into and his mother responding with how she will chase after him and find him NO MATTER WHAT. It’s a beautiful story of unconditional love.

As I thought about the picture of love presented in this book, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the love stories of the Bible such as the book of Hosea, the story of the prodigal son, and the greatest love story of all: Jesus coming to earth and becoming human just because He loved us so much. No matter how far we ran from him, and no matter what we became, He was willing to leave heaven behind and give up His life because we are His children and He loves us.

I thought to myself, “This is going to be great! We’re going to read a great book together AND have a meaningful spiritual conversation!”

It didn’t exactly turn out that way. Here’s what happened:

As we began reading the story together, Juliet asked me, “Mommy, why is that bunny running away? and I said, “Why do you think he is running away?” and she said, “To join the circus!” (Towards the end of the book, the bunny tells his mother he will join the circus.)

I took this moment to tell her that I was like the mother bunny and that if she ever ran away, I would always go after her because she was my little bunny. She just sort of nodded and then we continued reading.

A few pages later, Juliet suddenly jumped up, and exclaimed, “I’m the little bunny!” and ran away. I put the book down and proceeded to chase her down the hall and tackle her in my room.

I again reminded her that I would always catch her because she was my little bunny. She smiled, giggled, and then announced, “I’m a butterfly, I’m going to fly away from you!” and ran down the hall. I responded with, “I’m a net and I will catch you!”

We played this spontaneous little game over and over again—she was a little bird; I was a nest. She was a lady bug; I was a little girl with a bug-catcher. She was a roley poley, and I was a pile of dirt. Again and again, she ran away from me, and again and again I caught her.

Then we sat down, finished reading the book, and got ready for bed. As I tucked her in, I said, “God is like the mother bunny, too. No matter what you do, no matter how far you run away from Him, He will always come after you because you are His little bunny and He loves you.”

And she said, “Hey. You have hair in your nose.”

So maybe we didn’t get the meaningful spiritual conversation in, (we did have a discussion about the benefits and purposes of nose hair) but we did make some memories and invented a fun, new game! Even though she wasn’t really ready to talk about God’s love for her, I think the seed was planted.

And like that mother bunny, I’ll keep chasing her down and telling her tirelessly about God’s love, over and over again. And the best part is, I don’t have to do it on my own. He won’t stop His pursuit of her either.

Vanessa is a regular contributor to Impress Your Kids. She is a stay-at-home mom to an energetic three-year-old, Juliet. They spend their days together reading books, attempting crafts, and occasionally beating tree trunks with large sticks. You can read more about their adventures at Silly Eagle Books.

It has taken me a whole month to even begin my New Year’s goal of waking up before my kids. Asa regularly wakes up at…wait, he doesn’t REGULARLY wake up. Some days its 5:30, sometimes 6:00 and when we’re really lucky it’s 6:30. Nonetheless, I was feeling grumpy regardless of when he woke, I was taking showers at 5:45pm and not getting my day started until naptimes!

So, I bit the bullet and decided I had to wake up early. I wasn’t so deluded to think that I’d shower, exercise and make breakfast before the kids woke up. Oh no, I just decided I had to get up early enough to do ONE of those things. I didn’t care which one.

I’m going to be completely honest and say that this is only the 2nd day I’ve woken up early. I was staring at my clock at 5:59 this morning. Begging it to stay there. Finally at 6:02 I crawled out of bed, grabbed a blanket, my Bible and a notebook and sat at the kitchen table.

I wrote a little, read a little and then decided I’d make a list of people and situations to pray for. Then I remembered! I have a calendar of prayer points—to pray for your children. And who else do I want (NEED) to pray for than my kids? You’d think as a mom, you’d pray for your kids all the time, right? Sure, I pray for them. But mostly it’s, “please let him stop crying.” OR “please help me figure out how to help her obey” and “God is great, God is good…”.

Today’s prayer was labeled: SALVATION.

*sigh*

Isn’t that my goal? Isn’t that the reason I stay home? Teach my kids Bible stories? Do crafts? Play games? Sing songs? I do these things to show them Jesus so they will look for and receive SALVATION from Him! And I thought this getting up early thing was going to be so I could get a shower in! The prayer was a simple one based on Isaiah 45:8 and 2 Timothy 2:10…

Lord, let salvation spring up within my children that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

So. Now my goal in the morning is not to get a shower, to make breakfast or to do yoga. It’s to pray for my kids. It’s to read that little prayer, get it into my heart and mind so I can focus on it the rest of the day. So I can do my “job” of being a mother with the leadership of Jesus.

And for the record? This morning I read my Bible, exercised, took a shower AND made breakfast before the kids got up!

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More amazing and totally worth your time resources to help you pray for your children:

Prayer Calendar from Mom and Loving It {scroll down, it’s a pdf on the bottom of the page}

The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian {her blog is filled with resources, too!}

Inspired to Action blog and free ebook, Maximize Your Mornings {you MUST click and look around. such good stuff.}

Seven Prayers a Day at Bring the Rain

Lifting Hands {a prayer-a-day blog. it’s not updated daily this year, but you can use the previous years!}

Praying for Our Children by The Other Mama

i encourage my kids’ imagination year round. Halloween is an especially fun time of year for dressing up because everyone is doing it. however, there is a lot of other junk that everyone else is doing this time of year that we don’t do. we keep the focus on dressing up, pretend play, painting pumpkins, and good, clean fun.

the only ghost we speak of is the Holy Ghost. there is no such thing as witches or goblins. pumpkins are friendly, skeletons are human bones, bats are nocturnal, and spiders eat mosquitos. Halloween, in our home, is a time for dressing up and eating candy with friends. no evil connotations. no spooky stories.

God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear but of power, love and a peaceful mind. (2 Tim 1:7)

this is Bubba’s 2nd Halloween and i’m taking full advantage of his inability to tell me what he wants to dress up as on the occasion. for as long as i can get away with it, i’m dressing my kids in {relatively} themed costumes. they make such a cute little duo!

last year, Bubba was a puppy and Big Girl was a giraffe. theme = sweet animals.

at a costume party last weekend, Big Girl was a princess and Bubba was a dragon. theme = storybook fairy tale.

on Halloween night, when we take them out to collect sweet treats, Big Girl is dressing up as Jasmine and Bubba is dressing up as Abu. theme = Disney’s Aladdin.

can’t you just see my little monkey wearing this? it was custom made by Kiki’s Things on Etsy.

and that’s how the Halls do Halloween.

how do YOU do Halloween?

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MamaHall is a wife and mama of two, sister and friend, daughter of the Most High, writer and reader, Jesus follower, dessert eater and coffee drinker, Gorbella’s founder, marketing gal, craft-aholic, homeschooling mama, picture-taker, coupon clipper, hugger, glass half full, easily distracted, Bible believer, and queen of her domestic domain. She is also a fabu blogger who is “making the most of motherhood” (Ephesians 5:16). She blogs at MamaHall.

Lydia and I love audio books. When we go to the library we hit up the picture books, the I Can Read Books, any books the librarians have put out on the top of the shelves for easy access AND the audio books. We’ve listened to so many “classics” that I never read as a kid. It just makes driving in the car more fun when we have an exciting book to listen to.

We live right in the middle of two different libraries, so while we were at one of these libraries the other day, I noticed a slew of Adventures in Odysseycds in the audio section. SCORE! As I was deciding which one to get I found another Christian book–NIrV Little Kids Adventure Audio Bible. I was curious to see how a 3 year old would respond to an audio version of the Bible. And even more curious to see how cheesy the recording might be. (You know its true!)

However, we are onto the THIRD cd and we both love it! The other day she said, “Mommy can we pleeeease listen to the Bible?” Here’s what I like about it:

1. It’s read by several actors. They are all children. I know it sounds weird to have Jesus be an 8 year old boy, but for some reason it makes for nice and easy listening. Plus some of their little lisps are just cute!

2. It’s organized well. Is that weird? What I mean is they say the chapter headings and chapter numbers. And since most of the Bible is separated into small sections, it’s not hard to follow along.

3. There are some cute extras throughout. For example, during the story of Jesus’ dedication at the temple, there was a little ditty and an adult’s voice came on to explain why Mary and Joseph offered a dove for the sacrifice. It kind of breaks up the story and gives some good insight. They also do book intros to let you know what each new book is about.

4. We just started the book of Romans today. They aren’t reading the entire book because honestly, how long would that take? But they are hitting the high points. I clicked through the rest of the tracks and I could tell they were taking the BIG and FAMOUS passages: love chapter, fruit of the spirit, etc.

5. It is in chronological order. For example, for the story of Jesus’ birth, the chapter heading was Luke 2 and Matthew 2. Great idea!

I’m really surprised at how much we like it. I think I’m going to buy it because today we skipped ahead and listened to Galatians 5 where Paul talks about the Fruit of the Spirit and Lydia was amazed! I think it will be great to stick in the car and listen to when we’re in between audio books or when we are trying to learn a verse or when she is particularly interested in a certain Bible story.

Get thee to the library and see if you can find an audio Bible of your own!