Our Inspired Journey

We are memorizing 100 verses in 2012!  If you're new to our journey, click on the Mindful Monday tab in the header of home page, and it will lead you to all the posts from the beginning of the year.  In each post are two verses what we've worked on memorizing each week so that by the end of the year, our mind and hearts are filled with the Word of God...I've found when I wallpaper the walls of my mind with HIS Word which is true, and profitable for teaching...there isn't a whole lot of room for the lies of the enemy.  When I think about it that way, this exercise goes from being a cute addition to my life to an essential part of the fabric of my being...transforming me more and more into the likeness of the One I love.

The photo at the top is of a lighthouse on an island surrounded by rough waters.  I want it said of my family, of my children, of ME...that we, like that lighthouse...reveal TRUTH to those we're around because of the Word of God that is within us.  The world offers nothing by rocking waves, changing as the tide does.  God's truth offers more, and through His grace and the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, we can be rooted and established as one who displays HIS glory.

When I am in the WORD, it slowly becomes true for my family as well...and it seems that God wanted it this way, since He writes...

Deuteronomy 6:7
Repeat them to your children.  Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

The very first thing that strikes me about this verse is that if I am to repeat His words to my children, I have to know them first myself.  This appears first to be a command regarding my kids, but when you really consider how this happens, you'll realize that in order to "repeat" something, you have to have said it first to yourself.

God gives us times to be be talking about scripture with our kids.  Some of the ways we practice this in our family are...

when you sit in your house...

• reading through our AWANA books and working on our verses for the next week
• even in discipline helping them understand that God's way is meant for blessing if we follow it!
• having a theme verse for the week is also something I know some of my friends do, especially if it relates to issues they'd been having as a family lately.

when you walk along the road...
Listening to CDs in the car that are pure, 100% scripture have been AMAZING for us.  Even if you don't feel like you're in the car that much, scripture put to song is an incredible tool for memory...for us and for our kids!  Some of the best resources for US have been...

• Seeds Family Worship
• Hermie and Friends Scripture Memory
• AWANA CDs that put their weekly verses to song :)

when you lie down and when you get up...
whether you are a night owl or early bird (and I've recently found that it's very hard to be both!) there are meaningful times to be in the word with your kids.  Whether it is a book that talks about the nature of God or a devotional that leads you both through scripture, these are powerful times of the days to clothe those little mind in truth before nightmares can creep in at night, and in the morning so that HIS truth becomes the standard for their day.

• Chronicles of Narnia (our nightly read-aloud with the boys)
• Jesus Calling for Kids (our morning read before school)