from milk to real food

One of the greatest takeaways from my reading of Beth Moore's books and her Bible studies is the importance of memorizing scripture and declaring it  -out loud. I'm still working on the out loud part.

The memorization part is something I've been doing for a while and it's a discipline I've wanted to grow in our children. Ever notice how easily children can memorize their lines of their favorite books or movies and how they delight themselves in doing so? That's what I want for our children when it comes to the Living Word.

Two years ago, Beth Moore started a year-long Scripture Memorization Team on her blog. When she re-introduced it this year, I knew I wanted to involved my children somehow. This is what I came up with:

Inside this decorated infant formula can are 24 pieces of index cards (Beth has the SMT memorize two verses per month). Most cards have verses I selected from the Bible that I felt would be helpful to memorize. A few verses are from Brie's Missionettes class and a few are blank - awaiting new verses from Brie's class or my own additions.

Each day, our kids rotate who gets to choose the Bible verse for that day (I love this part since Ben, who's almost two, can participate and understands the thrill of getting to pick a verse). Then we read the verse at each meal of the day. If it's a new verse or kind of long, I sometimes read it twice.

And that's it. I figure if we do this (almost) every day for a year, then we should have a good number of those verses memorized, if not all of them. The best part is that the kids look forward to choosing the verse and often remind me that we need to pick one on the days that I've forgotten. :)

Making the container was simple, too. I used plain brown wrapping paper to cover the side of the formula can and cut a circle to tape on the inset of the can's lid (glue wouldn't stick to the plastic). I printed out the words on a label and then added a trim of 1/4" red rickrack.