Tuesday, February 02, 2010

The Most Important Thing…

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is

old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Lately, this Bible verse has been RINGING in my ears. It’s so easy to get nervous about how our children will end up. We (or at least, I) have this long list of things that we hope they will “be”…that they’ll love Jesus, be respectful of their mom & dad, be a sweet friend, be responsible, loyal, trustworthy, passionate, strong, remorseful when they do something wrong, and on and on…BUT, when I hear this verse, I relax a little.

God tells me that I am to train up my child in the way he should go, and if I do this, he’ll never turn from the Truth. So, that’s what I feel compassionate about doing. I feel the need to spend quality time with Quinn so that I can have true opportunities to teach him right from wrong and plenty of opportunities to teach him about God.

Now, don’t get me wrong…I don’t sit at the table with my Bible open all day! I feel that these moments can happen when we’re eating, taking a bath, watching Cars, or learning our Letter of the Week. The more time I spend with him, the more opportunity I’ll have to “train him!”

So, when we had a speaker at our church’s mom’s group that spoke on scripture memory with your children, I couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say!!! Caroline Boykin wrote a book called The Well-Versed Family, and it basically talks about the importance and ease of teaching your kids God’s Word.

Obviously, it starts with me!!! I need to be consistently immersed in God’s Word to be able to “train” Quinn…and, then, I can take a verse, make it fun, and apply it to all of our lives. The point is not to teach him to memorize, but to teach him to memorize AND apply! The verse that I choose is to be a part of our days and should come up OFTEN in conversation.

So, let me share how we started…

First, I felt that we needed to get Quinn a REAL Bible. He has plenty of picture book Bibles, but he needed one that had ALL of the words and not so many pictures. It’s not that he’ll really use it for years, but I wanted him to have HIS Bible…one that looked like a Bible that “grown ups” have.

So, we went on a date to the Bible book store and Quinn helped me pick out the perfect one! He was SO proud!!! {Here he is in the phone picture we sent to Daddy!}Quinn's BibleThen, I chose a verse from our Steve Green CD. He’s been listening to these songs for over a year, but I’ve done very little more with them. So, I felt that it was perfect to have a song to help him learn!!! … For the first verse I chose…


Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

His love endures forever.

Psalms 118:1

I thought it was a great choice since lately Quinn hasn’t really been wanting to pray at night. I’ve hated that he’s wanted to omit this sweet ending to our day and thought that the words from this song might help. After listening to the song 2 or 3 times, Quinn was singing along and wanted to hear it AGAIN and AGAIN! Over the next few days, he’d sing it EVERYWHERE and LOUDLY! It was precious.

Later, we got out his new Bible and found the verse. I pointed to the words as I read. Then, I let him help me highlight the verse using a yellow crayon. He thought this was SO cool! I Week, SOS and more 036We continued to listen to the song in the car and sing it around the house. One of the best parts was the dialog at the beginning for the song. It talked about how we should think about FIVE THINGS that we could thank God for today! As soon as Quinn heard that, he’d hold up his little hand to show me his five fingers, and it gave me the perfect idea. Start of N, around the house and Ps. 118 020That night, I showed him the glove that I had made. It had the verse in the palm and a number on each finger (out of foam stickers). I put the glove on and had Quinn tell me one thing for each finger that we could say “thanks to the Lord” for. He’d excitedly tell me something for each finger! And, was TOTALLY ok with praying this way as we sat together in his bed.Start of N, around the house and Ps. 118 017Start of N, around the house and Ps. 118 012Since then, we use the glove each night. And, since then, Quinn can quote the verse all by himself! He doesn’t even need to sing it! Also, it’s amazing how God will remind me to use this scripture as we go throughout our day. And, I’m so in awe at how he has used Quinn’s verse to speak to me this week, as well!

I wake up singing the song and am constantly reminded to say “thanks to the Lord'” in my own heart!

So. all of this to say…I am so encouraged and excited about this new “tradition” in our family! But, this is so much more important than the ‘Muffin Tin Munchies’ or ‘Letter of the Week’ that we do together. Even though those are great and provide the perfect quality time with my little man, it is NOTHING compared to teaching Quinn to hide God’s word in his heart.

I never want to stop doing this with Quinn. Granted, I don’t expect it’ll always include a silly glove, but I want it to be something that we ALWAYS do as a family. And, I’m trusting that God will help me carry this one to completion! (Philippians 1:6)

And, go get Caroline Boykin’s book! I promise, you will be inspired and encouraged!

13 comments:

The Prosper Russells said...

love it!! thanks for sharing!!

Laurie said...

I love this! I myself am at a crossroad with Religion, but I want to teach my kids about God and the Bible, and have that love and understanding for it as I did as a child. This post came at a great time, I will definitely get that book.

Jennifer said...

Thank you so much for sharing this. This is something I've struggled with myself. I'm always asking how I can teach my daughter and train her and this is the perfect idea. I'm going to buy the book this week and start memorizing AND applying verses! This is just the encouragement that I needed! Thanks again!

Ginni said...

This is such a great idea! Quinn will so appreciate this when he grows up!

Kimberly said...

I have been teaching Creighton the same verse for quite some time. {Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is good. Ephesians 6:1} He caught on so quickly. Then Griffin came and well, everything went!

It's been my hearts desire to continue teaching him new verses. Infact, this week, with our Letter of the Week, we found a verse that started with the same letter.

Creighton LOVES to pray and your book suggestion came at the most perfect time. I'm going at lunch today to get the book and the CD. am going today to get the CD and the book.

The Rowe Crew said...

Love it! I'm totally going to use the glove idea when I teach this one. We do the highlighting too in her "grown up" Bible...she may love that the most ;). Have y'all done the "heart chart" thing? She loves that too!

Jen said...

Thank you for sharing!!! I LOVE THIS!!!!!

Jennifer said...

I need to find the book. Sound great! We've learned the verse you mentioned along with these http://babylandree.blogspot.com/2009/08/memory-verses.html Also, we were having a little trouble with monsters at bed time so we learned 2 Timothy 1:7

I love the one Kimberly mentioned. We've been having trouble with first time listening. I guess that one needs to be next on our list. :)

Thanks for sharing!

Jen said...

P.S. Have you tried Songs for Saplings or the Seeds Family Worship CD's - both really really good. The Songs for Saplings goes through the ABC's with a verse for each - Lauren is too young still, but we play the Seeds Family Worship songs (bible verses put to contemporary music) a lot and she LOVES to dance to them!!! We got ours off of iTunes.

Megan said...

So, I have to admit I have been stalking your blog for quite some time now. I LOVE it. I love the activities you do with Quinn. (I keep promising my 3 year old we will give his cars a washing!) I have never posted a comment until today though. This is an awesome idea. It can feel so hard to teach kids the bible at this age. I think this might be another idea to steal (ahem, I mean borrow) and do with my family.

Jill said...

I absolutely want to make sure I do this with my daughter, too -- thanks so much for posting this!!!

V-n-J said...

what an awesome idea! thank you so much for sharing. I'm definitely going to use this with our 3yr old.

My {Oh} My Musings said...

i was looking for a valentine's bag i thought you had made a year ago or something...they looked like heart people? was that on your blog? i am looking for ideas for my class i thought i had seen it on yours...but could not find it in your archives...? it was such a cute idea! :) lindsay