Each week, our little church has special music by the young people. Our friends love it. Anna Marie planned a Father’s Day surprise.

It took a lot of work and coordinating, but Anna Marie managed to pull off a beautiful program of Scripture recitations and the song, I’d Rather Have Jesus. With all the children included, it’s amazing, but it really did stay a surprise!

God’s Word came alive with the children’s enthusiasm and heart-felt love for His Word. One portion they shared was this:

“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield:
the LORD will give grace and glory:
no good thing will he withhold from them
that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts,
blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.” — Psalm 84:10-12

May this next generation be strong and faithful followers of Jesus.

Love,
Sarah

A special Titus2 friend, Marilyn, gifted me with this beautiful quilt made by her mother-in-law, who is in her 90’s, and her sister-in-law. The quilt now hangs across the back of our sofa, and I use it as a wrap during my morning prayer time.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her
hands hold the distaff” (Proverbs 31:19). 

Sarah asked me (Anna Marie) to write a post about helping little kiddos with Scripture memory. I don’t feel like I have any revolutionary ideas, or like we are pros at it, but I can share what we do right now.
 
In this post, I won’t go into reasons why we want to prioritize Scripture memory, but I highly recommend the free ebook download titled Whatever It Takes, from Scripture Memory Fellowship. We picked it up at a homeschool convention a few years ago, and it re-inspires me every time I read it!
 
This will be a two-part blog post series. Below you’ll find three of the ways we memorize (the final three later!).

Listening—this one seems to be key with our little ones. Their morning routine includes listening to an audio Bible (free here from Faith Comes By Hearing, or there are others available). They listen to Scripture multiple times a day with family and school Bible times, and we keep a memory passage on a whiteboard in our dining room that we repeat before most meals. Even the littlest kiddos chime in, attempting to quote with us. We are often surprised at how quickly they can rattle off enough to show that they can quote it, although for a two or three-year-old their speech/pronunciation ability seems to lag a bit behind their mental ability! In addition, Scripture Memory Fellowship has a tool called VerseLocker, which makes it easy to play selected passages of Scripture. It’s straightforward to use, and we really like it being able to “turn on” our memory passages to keep them in our minds.

Reading—this is (obviously) for those who can actually read. Joshua learned much of Jonah just by reading and working on it himself, combined with listening to an audio recording that we played a lot while working on other things.

Repeating—ties in with listening but is key! When we are working on a new verse, I will have the children repeat it after me phrase by phrase, usually various times through the day (especially breakfast), discussing it with them and trying to draw out things in each phrase to make it more memorable for them. We try to repeat verses a few times throughout the day when possible.

Sarah will be posting Part 2 in the next few weeks!

Anna Marie

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”
Psalm 119:0