I Made A Book.
None Of The Content Is Mine.
I think it started in Grade 3 Sunday School. I had teachers who would pay us to learn scriptures.
Ok…that is a misrepresentation.
I had teachers who would offer prizes if we memorized all of the memory verses. The first one bought us little model plane kits to put together. One got us a gift card to the Christian Bookstore. One offered to buy us an album of our choice. You remember record albums, right? Truth be told, in grade 6 I think one of my friends asked for and received Van Halen’s 1984 album which no one would ever mistake for a Christian album (not sure that choice would have been approved by the elders). I remember my friends and I having a competition to see who could say the books of the Bible in order the fastest (I think we got down under 13 seconds). But the end result is that over the years we learned a lot of scripture verses. At this point, I have no idea what music I got or whatever happened to the model plane I built. But I still remember a lot of those memory verses. Perhaps not perfectly, but a lot of them are mostly still there in my brain.
A few years ago, I made up a memory verse book that I intended to use with my kids. I gave it to them, and we started on it, but it kind of fell by the wayside. However, when my daughter came home from camp this year and started talking about memory work at camp, I remembered the book that I had made, and I found the computer file a couple of weeks later. I thought I would share it with you.
The only thing that guided my choices of which verses to include was my own experience of having memorized scripture, and verses that I continue to see as important. Someone else would include different choices, and it might be better. But this is what I came up with, such as it is.
I think it helps you navigate scripture when you know the books of the Bible in order, so I included that list. A modified list of the 10 commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 are the longer sections that I included. Christians down through the ages have found those to be helpful, and I completely agree. From there, I have included passages from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 21. Most are verses I remember memorizing myself. Some are verses I have come to believe are important as an adult.
We are making some copies available at your site, or you can call or email the office for a digital copy if you like. It is important to take some care with what we put in our minds. We are bombarded with messages from all kinds of sources in the media we consume. Why not intentionally plant some seeds that you know will bear healthy fruit. If you memorized everything in my little book, you would have over 125 verses of God’s word planted in your mind.
But don’t’ let the number intimidate you. I bet some of you already know more than you think you do. And even if you don’t, just begin with 1 or 2. Here are a couple verses I included to get you started:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 – 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.