The following is a guest post from one of my best and longest friends, Mandi from Its Come 2 This. Enjoy…

“Repeat them again & again to your children”

In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 God gives this word to the Israelites and He is reminding us that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the commands that He gives. But when He spoke about teaching the commands to our children He said “repeat them again & again”. He even went further to say ” … talk about them when you are getting up.” Why? Because He knew that our five year old, our eight year old and even our eighteen year old would need it!!

I know as a 30-something year old adult God is constantly having to remind me of the same truths. So why should I be surprised when I have to remind my five-year old of the same thing?

We’ve just started a great new series at church and I’ve been reminded once again that our children will be inconsistent, but that doesn’t mean we, as parents, should be! We have the perfect example in our Heavenly Father as a consistent, loving, parent.

James 1:17 – “He never changes or casts a shifting shadow”

I cannot allow myself to drop down to a five year old level. Even if I’ve repeated myself over and over and over {insert many times over} again. Even if he deliberately disobeyed or did something he knows he should not have. I must stay consistent – in discipline and in unconditional love.

After all, we have the most perfect example to follow!!

Romans 5:8 – “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

“While we were still sinners”. In the very act of our disobedience Christ died for us! He didn’t wait until we cleaned up our act on our own. He didn’t wait until we were back on perfect behavior to show us his love. While we were still sinners, Christ showed us the ultimate love, the ultimate patience, the ULTIMATE!

Love and discipline can be a very tricky balance to find. But I can say, I’ve failed many times!! It’s hard to show the consistent love and patience in the very act of my children’s disobedience. But it’s in those moments that I need to think about my relationship with my Heavenly Father and most importantly His relationship with me!

While Evan was throwing a tantrum, Mandi remained patient and calm.

While Megan refused her nap and bedtime, Mandi continued to show love and grace to her daughter.

:: :: ::

Mandi is the author of “it’s come 2 this …” – A life blog detailing her personal story from double dates to play dates, business meetings to potty training. Along the way she realized she used to be a really good Mother before she had kids! Now, she’s trying to eat healthier, exercise more, save more & drop her desire for perfection! Because 2 kids later … it’s come 2 this!

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?

You can learn a lot from me. Not because I am so amazing and creative. Nope. Because I learn (and mess up) as I go. And might as well learn from my mistakes instead of making your own.

Here’s our letter “C” verse from way back when. And apparently the hard-c, soft-c, c-h combination thing didn’t even cross my mind. I picked CAT and a verse that begins with CH. Which doesn’t help Lydia learn her letter sounds whatsoever.

But at least I drew a cute cat, right? Right?! And Lydia did do some nice matching of the black and pink pipe-cleaner whiskers. Just lovely!

I cannot for the life of me remember what else we did with this craft. I’m sure we checked out some “C” books and talked about cats. Or children. However, this verse is ingrained into Lydia’s head. This is one of those we say over and over again. Well, really, my husband and I don’t say it. We ask Lydia, “What’s our ‘C’ verse?” And she’ll say it back to us. Then God’s Word reminds her of what she should be doing and how she should be acting. So, even though it wasn’t a great phonics choice, it was a good choice for my little girl’s heart!

Anyway, if you’d like some cute (and phonetically accurate) alphabet crafts, you MUST download No Time For Flashcard’s Alphabet Crafts ebook. It’s only $8 and totally worth it. (Look at the cute “V” craft Lydia and I did from it!)

See more of our ABC scripture crafts!