Learning the Word by Heart

To know something so well you can recite it without struggling, without hesitation or pause.

It's taken into your soul.

It becomes a part of you.

Some call it memorization; my grandparents' generation called it learning by heart. 


You visit with those who knew what it meant to take God's word and learn it by heart, and despite aged minds and bodies, their hearts are full. I pray that one day when my mind and body began to slow, that my heart will be full of God's word. That a verse, a hymn, a truth will come to mind, and I won't be alone. For He who is the Word will be with me.

The ancients referred to this process of memorization as "furnishing the mind." 
Using memory to furnish the mind was viewed as an expression of the soul rather than just for the intellect. Fill your mind they said with beautiful and useful language. As a Christian that takes me first and foremost to the scriptures.

Scriptures and catechisms that strengthen my faith. 

Life sustaining verses. 

Hymns that will feed and nourish during trials.

Memory tends to be thought of as static. We store. We recall.

But to the Hebrews memory was alive and continually working in you to change you. The initial experience was not the most transformational. It's in the remembering that one is shaped over and over again.

When our minds are furnished with God's word, we can meditate readily on what is true and beautiful all day as we go along.

Time memorizing Scriptures is perhaps more important than quiet time — because when we fill our hearts with His Word, we can fill all of our hours with His Word —  and “quiet time” can then become all of our time.  ~Ann Voskamp, The 1 Habit More Important than Quiet Time

We hear the word memorize and have associations like rote, boring, dry. Yet a flourishing memory leads toward creativity and inspiration. Your memory is like a library or a treasure house full of inspiration to be drawn upon.

Young children are wired with a natural inclination for repetition and memory, and when their minds are deprived of the opportunity to memorize what is true, beautiful, and good, they'll memorize whatever is readily available. Perhaps that's true of all of us. How easily my own mind absorbs the latest jingles, song lyrics, and advertising lines.

For most of my Christian life, scripture memory was a cycle of learn, forget, learn, burnout, repeat. I really didn't know how to memorize well and had accepted that I just wasn't good at memorizing. I treated scripture memory like I did my school exams. Just get the A. Do what you need to get the A and move on. 

Over the past several years out of a deep desire to help my children hide God's word in their heart, I begin to really seek to understand the process and benefits of memory. I was hiding behind the lie that I wasn't wired to be good at memory and missing out on some of the fruits of hiding God's word in my heart. My capacity for memory may not be as high as others but I've learned it's not about "getting the A" but about faithfully applying the following principles. 

Principle 1: Find resources that work for your family.

Principle 2: Create a space in the daily routine for cultivating the habit of memory.

Principle 3: Learn at your own pace.

Principle 4:  Cultivate an atmosphere.

Here are how those principles have fleshed out over the years in our family.

Find resources... 
We pull from the Truth and Grace Memory Book. I use it to help me decide what scriptures we are going to memorize. This book also contains our catechism questions. These theological questions are rooted in the Word yet the language is clear and understandable for a child.



Catechism is learning theology through a question and answer format. It helps us understand why we believe what we believe. When going through catechism, each of the children daily reviews the last few questions he's learned plus his new one. Every other Friday, we go over all the ones we know. So my two year old will start and answer the first three questions. Then the four year old takes it from there. Wherever he stops, the six year old picks it up. Then the seven year old picks up where the six year old left off. This way everyone hears them all during review time. This naturally allows the younger children to pick up new catechism questions very quickly.

Our church is going through the book of Romans and the series is currently titled "Sanctification." When my seven year old read the series title on the screen one Sunday morning, he leaned over and whispered "so it's about how God will make us 'holy in heart and conduct' ?" What a gift when the Holy Spirit allows us to catch a glimpe of Him at work in our children's hearts making connections in their minds.

Scripture memory for my littles.
I start by reading or quoting the scripture to them repeatedly for several days.
Then later as I'm reciting the passage will pause to create "blanks" for the child to fill in. 
Eventually, I'll hear, "Mama, let me say it!" 

But how easily we learn, move on, forget. As the verses are planted inside, I realize those seeds needed regular care to continue bearing fruit and not wither away. So as our treasure house grew, the next tool I needed was the scripture memory box. It looks intimidating, but once put in place, this system has proven extremely beneficial for consistent memory review. We're reviewing every single verse we've learned every single month, yet it only takes five to ten minutes a day. We move past the intimidation motivated by the truth that there is abundant joy in the fruit of establishing His word within us.

Step by step tutorial for setting up a scripture memory box.

This past year my oldest son's scripture memory box became a memory notebook. I still use one scripture memory box for my six and five year old who learn at about the same pace.  The binder is put together exactly like the scripture box above. I transitioned him to a binder because I use it as a help for more than just memory verses. It's a part of our day that we call Morning Time. The binder holds other things he's learning and things he wants to "remember" such as hymns, catechism lists (Books of the Bible, Ten Commandments, etc), and poetry. The idea is that the notebook acts as a central treasure hold of beautiful furnishings for the mind. 

Create space... 

I've found if I don't nail a peg somewhere in our daily routine on which to hang the cultivation of memory, it just doesn't happen very consistently. Even with homeschool I've found myself caught up in skill subjects and other extra curricular activities and unintentionally allowing them to absorb all our time so that what we hold most dear falls through the cracks. I realized in our current context I needed to create space for first things... first. 

Breakfast and Bible. Chores. Morning Time.

I call this space morning time because it's the first chunk of our homeschool day and memory work is only a part of that time. For other families this space could be similar to morning or evening devotion, family time, etc. You can call it whatever you like and fill the time with whatever is most important to your family.  The key is to purposefully carve out space in the day for what you think is most important and needs intentionality to happen.  When it happens at the same time every day, it becomes easier because it's expected, and it's just what we do. When starting out, short and simple is always a win. 

Learn at your own pace... 

Every child is unique in his mental capacity, neurology, and processing. What really matters is that he is making progress.  It's not a race but a pathway along which we are filling our minds with beautiful truths. Learning His word by heart is a process that is suppose to nurture our souls. 

One of us reads the reference of the verse we're learning aloud. The rest of us either listen to the new verse being read, or each person jumps in where he can until we are all reciting the entire verse or passage together. I'll often put hand motions with scriptures to help my little guys focus on the words and engage their body in remembering with their mind. We hear this verse every day until it is hidden away. We intentionally do not go phrase by phrase but hear the verse or passage in its entirety each time. Our accountability is not to learn a verse or a passage by a certain date. For us the goal is daily consistency to hear the words we're wanting to impress on our hearts, and when we do that, the progress comes naturally. It may take a week or maybe a month. It's not about checking off boxes or keeping up with the church, the school, or the "book's" recommended pace. The important thing is that we get His Words rooted in our hearts and that we're cultivating a life long discipline. 

As much as possible we learn the same verse or passage as a family, so yes, this does force us to take things a bit slower. Usually the younger ones are faster than me! But this gives opportunity to encourage each other and keep things simple. It also gives our family a common language as we're all discussing and seeking to flesh out the same truth within our lives. Intermittently we take a break from all of us learning the same scripture and pick a specific verse or passage for each child. 

Atmosphere...

As parents, the atmosphere starts with us loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. The atmosphere is essential for truth to not merely be taught but caught as well. 

Joy is the keynote of all the Disciplines. In one important sense the Spiritual Disciplines are not hard. The primary requirement is a longing after God. 

- Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

The motivation of our efforts has to be a genuine longing in our hearts for more of Christ in us. Instead of simply being a drill sergeant I have to be in there learning with them. If they see the value being played out in mom and dad's life, they'll know the practice of learning God's word by heart is not just for kids but for Christ followers. 

I think the atmosphere when we come together around God's word is as important as the actual learning process. There are days when I quickly begin to get snappy; I just want them to pay attention and lose the whiny or grumpy attitude. Those are not good days. The Holy Spirit reminds me that their flesh is weak like mine, prone to pride, laziness, and distraction. How bumpy has my own journey in scripture memory been! Hiding God's word in our heart is a discipline but for it to flourish and bear fruit in these little persons it has to be developed in an atmosphere of grace, patience, and love. 

One last application that has been helpful in our "morning time" context is giving little hands something to do. It may seem counter intuitive but if their minds are not engaged elsewhere - such as they would be reading a book or working a math problem - the mind is listening and absorbing while the fingers work on activities such as coloring, legos, stickers, or puzzles. These "busy hand" activities also help keep this a time we look forward to each morning. 

We do our best to plant the Word within the small people under our stewardship knowing only God can work from the inside. We pray for the Holy Spirit to breathe on those seeds and bring forth life and life abundant.

And we rest 

in His faithfulness.