How to Help Children Memorize Bible Verses

Have you ever noticed that things we memorize as children stay with us?

Why Scripture memory matters for kids

Children will memorize something, whether it's song lyrics, ad jingles, or memes. I'm amazed at how many trivial things I can remember from 30 or 40 years ago. That's because ideas are food for the mind. What we store in our minds matters a great deal. And there are no better thoughts and ideas than God's, spoken in His Word.

When we encourage and even require children to memorize Scripture, we're helping them put their memory to the best use. We're helping them fill their minds with the richest food—the very Word of God. Jeremiah 15:16 says, "Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became a joy to my heart, and they were the delight of my heart."

In Deuteronomy 32:47, Moses read the law to the Israelites. Then he said, "For it is no empty word for you, but your very life." The Word tells us the truth about ourselves and about God. The more children know by heart, the more those truths will shape their thinking.

Scripture is an ever-present protector

The Word of God is an ever-present protector. Parents today seem obsessed with always watching over their children—we call it helicopter parenting. As hard as we may try, we can't be with our children all the time, nor should we. But when the Word of God dwells in them richly, they are never alone. They have counsel that is wiser than our counsel, and it’s always with them. God's Word is a shield to them. The Spirit can bring to mind verses that fit their situations, whether they need to flee temptation or danger, speak up about something wrong, or pray for a friend. The Word is effective and powerful to do what we as parents and teachers can't.

Scripture is the best counselor

Many parents are worried today about their children's mental health. There’s a reason Jonathan Haidt's book, The Anxious Generation, is so popular. Children have very real fears and anxieties. This isn’t new, though the technology that’s so prevalent has made those fears and anxieties more amped up in our day. More than ever, children need God's Word to counsel them. They need to know verses like the one in Psalm 46:1, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling." And Psalm 56:3, "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

Scripture offers help for trouble

God is an ever-present help in trouble. The way we experience that help is by meditating on His promises when fear and anxiety come. The most helpful way we can protect and prepare children to live in this world is to fill them with God's Word.

Scripture shows the way to obedience

When kids memorize verses, the Word can lead them to love and obey God. It's more powerful than nagging. I remember begging one of our kids to stop whining—basically whining in response. And I had a good friend who said, "We’ve been memorizing Philippians 2:14 where God says, 'Do all things without disputing.'" I thought, "Well, that's brilliant. I need to teach my children what God says about whining and grumbling and then appeal to His authority when I ask them to stop doing it."

Giving your children and the children in your classroom and churches Scripture verses to memorize is a means for them to learn how to obey, but also why obedience is good. The more of God's Word they have hidden in their hearts, the more they are helped to obey. And the more I appeal to God's authority in what I require of them, whether at home or in the classroom, the more effective my parenting and teaching will be.

Fruit bearing is a slow process

In Isaiah 55:10, God compares the effects of His Word to the fruitfulness of a farm. Isaiah says,

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

We often look to this passage for comfort that God's Word accomplishes God's will. It is powerful and effective. But this morning as I was reading this passage, it struck me that the timeline of this process is an agrarian one. It's slow—much slower than we're used to in our instant gratification society.

We must plant the seed of the Word, then tend to the work with patience. It’s often a slow and hidden work. We must trust God for the fruit that will flourish in His time.

Overcoming obstacles to memorization

You can overcome the things that make memorizing harder.

1. Make a plan. Children are greatly helped by structure and by a plan. If you let your kids know, "Here's what we're doing," whether it's at home or in the classroom, they're much more likely to jump in and join.
   
   
2. Take away distractions. We all naturally do what's easiest, but children need the adults in their lives to carve out tech-free places and times where they can have the mental free space and focus to memorize the Word. It takes undistracted attention.
   
   
3. Protect time. Before school, at the table for meals, and before bed—those are great times to put away all the screens and focus on analog things like memorizing Scripture. It's hard to do this all by yourself. Kids benefit from the positive peer pressure in Sunday School and knowing that their friends are doing it, too. You might offer a pizza party at the end of the year if they get all of the verses memorized. Having that camaraderie is a big help to children.

Practical tools for Scripture memory

There are things you can do to help the children in your life after you've gotten rid of the obstacles.

1. Make it a habit. If we don't have something in our routine, it's not likely to happen, so we need to put Scripture memory on our calendars. Have a time of day or a time of the week dedicated to memorizing the Word, and then go back to practice the verses you've memorized. Practice will never make perfect, but it does make proficient.
   
   
2. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repetition is essential for children to learn the verses and then remember them. Just saying a segment of the passage and having kids repeat after you ten times—doing that through the whole verse—it’s amazing how quickly they can get that verse in their head, and by God's grace, into their hearts.
   
   
3. Explain difficult words in a passage. Make sure children understand what they mean, and that they know who the promises are for and who the pronouns are referring to. Look back as far as you need to go in the surrounded verses to understand who the verse is talking about.
   
   
4. Pray. Ask God to help the children remember; ask the Spirit to make the verses come alive in their hearts and lives, to apply them. Pray the verses you've memorized. Undoubtedly, they will recognize you’re praying what's in their mind: you're praying God's thoughts after Him. That’s a powerful way to teach children how Scripture can change their lives.
   
   
5. Sing the verses. I can't believe how many psalms I know by heart. My husband will tell you that when we’re doing family devotions and he reads a psalm, almost always I start singing a song, probably from the ‘70s or ‘80s. I’m so excited to realize that I’ve got these verses already hidden in my heart through songs, which make it really easy to remember even the most complicated passages. 

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