Parenting and Scripture Memorization

I can't help but laugh when I think back to a year ago when I started to memorize the entire book of James.  I don't know what I was thinking, but one thing was for sure, the first four verses were SUCH a huge help to me as we went through our miscarriage.  Honestly, it was one of the first things that went through my head when I was driving home from the doctors office with little Jake in the back seat.

"Count it all JOY my brothers when you meet trials of various kind, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

I remember when I "mapped" out how long it would take me to memorize the whole book -  if I memorized 4 verses a week I could be done by September.  Totally doable.

Bahahaha.  I laugh now as it was just yesterday that I finished memorizing the last 4 verses in chapter 5.  I'm only 8 months behind ;)  However, needless to say, it was totally the Lord who kept pushing me to finish.  He continued to remind me that His Word revives my soul, his precepts rejoice my heart, and they are better than gold (Psalm 19) and that man doesn't just live on bread alone, but on every Word of God (Matthew 4).  Because I have memorized scripture, I can have immediate comfort when I go through a situation.  Instead of acting on my feelings, whatever the situation may be, I can be comforted by God's Word which is true and encouraging.

I just started reading a book called "Parenting the Wholehearted Child" by Jeannie Cunnion.  I haven't even finished it, but if you're a parent I would totally recommend you purchasing it on amazon right now.  I bought the kindle edition for only $4.  It was so worth it.  I just finished reading her chapter on scripture memorization and she gives such helpful ways that she has used scripture to parent her three boys. While I knew beforehand this was something I needed to do, God used her book to really show me that I can start now because before I know it, Jake will be able to sit for more than 5 seconds and have a conversation with me.

Already, this age is FULL of sharing issues.  She took my toy.  I want his toy.  I didn't realize how much I wanted to ride my horse until she got on my horse and is loving it and now I'm devastated that I'm not on the horse and she is.  (play dates can be such a sanctifying experience :) )  For situations like this I would love to memorize Philippians 2:3-5 so when Jake is struggling with selfishness (and lets be honest, I'll need it, too) we can be reminded not to do anything out of selfish ambition, but in humility to value others interests above our own.

Another thing I really hope to show Jake through scripture is that the Bible is not just a book of rules.  I don't want to just remind him of scripture when I'm correcting him so that he will somehow equate God to this person who only loves him when he's doing the right thing.  That's why I want him to memorize verses like this (the one below)

I want Jake to know that God loves him more than anything in this whole world, even me (which is crazy to think about!)  I pray that as we read the Bible together he sees that God is 100% for him.  That He has this awesome purpose for his life and that Jake is apart of something so much greater than himself.  And that's why we gave Jake a "life verse" when he was born.  We want him to know that God has a story written specifically for him.  

When we chose 1 Samuel 12:24 "Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with your whole heart, for consider what great things He has done for you" we obviously hoped that it would encourage Jake to fear God and serve Him.  However, during that season of my life God had me right smack dab in the middle of reading 1,000 gifts by Ann Voskamp and He was showing me what an awesome gift Jake was, even in the (at times) difficulty of being a parent of a newborn.  That's why this verse stuck out to me, my prayer is that Jake will see all the little gifts from God that He gives us during the day- from a trip to get ice cream to simply a walk to the park.  I hope Jake has an eye for God so he truly can see all the great things He has done and continues to do for Him.

I know a read a lot of parenting books.  (I wrote another post about scripture memorization here) But just the other day Dan and I were talking about how we could so easily explain the gospel to another 20 something year old/ adult, but explaining the gospel to a 2 year old is a whole different story.  I need all the wisdom and help that I can get in this area and I am so thankful that God has provided great friends, family, and resources (like the Bible) to help us along the way :)