I read this in our monthly Home School Banner……thought I would pass it on…..

“Hiding the Word in the Heart”, by Dean May

“Martin Luther said years ago that he feared that unless the schools diligently taught the Scriptures, they would become the very gates of hell. Unless we are intentional in our home educating, that could happen in our school, too. I’m not going to talk much about the techniques of memorizing Scripture today, because that is not the real problem. Kids memorize everything! My kids watch a movie one time and they are quoting lines from it. The problem is not that it is hard for our kids to memorize. The problem is that we parents just don’t have enough motivation to lead them in memorizing Scripture. (that is speaking to me in particular!!)

Why should we memorize Scripture? Does the Bible command us to? We find our answer in Deuteronomy 6, where we are commanded to not only memorize Scripture, but also to home educate our children. These commands are to be upon our hearts. Impress them on our children! Talk about them when we sit at home and walk upon the road, when we lie down and when we get up. Tie them as symbols on our hands and bind them on our foreheads.

To ‘impress’ the commands means to pierce the heart. It means we must infuse our children with the Word of God! That’s your command – to teach your children to memorize Scripture. Then the way to fulfill the rest of this passage is to have your kids with you as you go through the day, teaching them how to interpret everything you encounter through the lens of God’s Word. That is homeschooling at its best.

I’ve been to a lot of memorization workshops in the past. I was always looking for some gimmick, something that was going to make it easy for me. There are the various mnemonic devices…there are dozens of them out there.

I have found for me that the problem was not that I did not have the right technique, I just did not have enough ‘want to’. It wasn’t important enough to me. You know what? We always take the time to do the things that are important to us. If I were to follow you around for 2 weeks, I could tell you what’s important in your life. One of my pastors has a quote on his wall. It says, “We practice daily what we believe and the rest is just religious froth”.

What’s the most important book in your school’s curriculum? If your children were to make the effort required to memorize important speeches or poems, what would you say would be the best material for them to memorize?

You’re probably like me. I really wanted my children to be able to quote large passages from the scripture. I wanted them to be intimate with the Bible, with God’s Word so infused in their minds and lives that they would know His character. I wanted them to be able to think God’s thoughts so they would know in an instant what his will was in any given situation.

But how can we teach our children the will of God? Romans 12:2 gives us the answer. “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” We can know his perfect will as we transform our minds by His Word.

We are what we eat. What we eat, we internalize and it will transform us. If we eat a diet of trash TV, we start to think like trash TV. If we eat a diet of destruction and killing in Nintendo games, we become desensitized to the killing and destruction going on in our world today. If we want to develop a heart that embraces God’s heart, we have to eat His Word.

Scripture tells us the mind of God. It’s the handbook for this created world. It’s the history of the universe. It tells us the beginning. It tells us the middle. It tells us the end. As we read, feed on it, digest it, and ruminate it, it changes us, but we have to DO IT!!!

Take 15 minutes a day for the most important thing you can feed your children. Put the Scriptures at the center of your home education experience. It will be the most rewarding curriculum change you could ever make in your home school.