"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to YOUR WORD. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden YOUR WORD in my heart that I might not sin against you. "

~ Psalm 119:9-11

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Please receive instruction from His mouth and establish His words in your heart.

~ Job 22:22

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I am continually asking the Lord to help me faithfully and proactively encourage my kids to hide God's Word in their hearts {and mine too}. I desire to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. I want to teach them to operate according to the Word which is living and active, to learn to look to Scripture for comfort, guidance and understanding, and to recognize that it's our source of hope, joy, and true riches. I pray that A&A will develop hearts of wisdom that comes from the Lord and not from this world.

Unfortunately it's so easy to get distracted and to start depending on ourselves rather than the Lord. Despite our best intentions, our hearts still tend to wander. This reality makes me all the more determined to be diligent about helping my children develop a proper Biblical worldview and teaching them what it means to abide in Christ.

With this goal in mind, I started Bible memorization with Addie at age 3. And now that AJ is easily taking in Scripture, I realize that kiddos can learn to recall and understand certain verses even at the young age of 2. Toddlers are little sponges, soaking up things left and right! It's really amazing.

These thoughts bring to mind Deuteronomy 6 which contains some excellent verses that signify the importance of teaching our children. Though we now operate under grace and are no longer under the Law, Old Testament passages (like the one that follows) are still "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." {2 Tim. 3;16} The overall idea still applies ~ Impress His Word upon the hearts of your children!

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. IMPRESS THEM ON YOUR CHILDREN. TALK ABOUT THEM when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. TIE THEM as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. WRITE THEM on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

~ Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Along those lines, one of the tools that I've employed is a chalkboard that hangs on the wall near our kitchen table. Its sole purpose is to display A&A's memory verses so that we can talk about them together as a family at each meal. I've found it to be a great visual reminder to engage the kids while we eat and to encourage them to talk about what they're learning.

{One of A&A's Bible verses from last week ~ 1 Samuel 16:7}