Reasons to Study the Bible and Memorize God's word

Proverbs 9:10 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.


Memorizing what God says is commanded in the Bible.  God told Joshua directly in Joshua 1:8  "Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." 


To meditate on something day and night means to think about it all of the time.  Constantly.  Consistently.  Unfailingly. You cannot meditate on something if you don't have at least some of it memorized.  A Christian must deliberately meditate on the Word of God in order to "be careful to do everything written in it."


If Scripture memorization is so essential for Christ followers, then doesn't that inevitably mean that we are also to demonstrate this to our children, and help them to remember His Word (Prov 22:6)?


It is vital that young Christians have key passages for trials in your life.  During times of temptation, testing, anxiety, or trouble it is ideal to have Scripture already hidden in your heart (Psalm 119:11) because you may not have a Bible on hand.  If God’s word is already implanted in your heart, the Holy Spirit will use it during those times, bring it to your mind, and bring you comfort.


Certainly, if the habit of memorization is established very young, a child is given a heritage that will help him considerably in future memorizing.  Many adults claim that it is difficult for them to memorize.  Whether that is true in every case is open to question.  It may be that they have never been taught to memorize – either at home or school.

Paraphrased from Teaching Bible Memory – Rod and Staff Publishers, Inc.

If Jesus had a Blog

I was listening to one of my favorite radio stations the other day and heard one of the dj's talking about a blog he started - he called it 'If Jesus Had a Blog.'

I had to check it out.

I'm a writer. While I love reading, I would rather be writing.  So, I don't read a lot of other blogs. At least not on a regular basis- just when I am looking for something specific.
This is one I will read often. My 9 yo loved it as well.

The dj, Brant Hanson, puts himself into the shoes of Jesus in the 21st century and talks about Jesus' works. Along with Brant's usual goofiness, you get a very profound, thought provoking idea of what Jesus himself would say to us today.
There are a few quotes at the bottom - also from Brant. These are his thoughts. Things that we would cluelessly post to His blog.

Read it. Whether you are a believer or not, the things you will read will make you think and rethink what you do believe.

Fridge clean up

I hate cleaning.  I want my house to be clean, but I don't want to work hard all day to keep it that way.  It's not always tidy (we DO home school after all), but I want it to be clean.  One of the hardest places to keep clean is the fridge.  I clean it out before every large shopping trip.

After cooking with egg white only, I saved the yolks in a plastic container.  Apparently the plastic container had a hole in it. 

I didn't notice the spilled egg yolk, of course, until it was dried on.  For several days.

I didn't have time to scrub.  I don't like to scrub.  I have issues with grip in my hands and with 3 kids, I don't want to take a bunch of time to clean.

Solution:  Let it soak.

Take a washrag/paper towel/sponge and get it really wet.  I covered the entire spill with the wet wash rag and walked away.

Somewhere between 30-60 minutes later - I can't keep up with how long it was - I came back and quickly wiped up the mess.  No elbow grease required.

 

I wiped down the other 2 shelves, threw out the 'science experiments,' empty condiment bottles (why are they even in there!?) and re-organized the shelves.

In order to keepthat from happening again (I usually do this, don't know why it wasn't done last time....) I line the shelves with paper towels.  That way when a spill happens I already have paper towels on hand.  I have also heard of people using press and stick.  I have also used towels.

Either way, I like lining the shelves.  There is always a mess of some sort.

Walmart Photo Gifts

Have you ever had someone you wanted to get a gift for and had NO idea what to get them?  I go through this a LOT.  Every month or two.  My mom, dad, grandma, step dad, brother, sister, in laws.  What do you get them?  Some of them have everything they want.  Some of them I don't see enough to know what they want.

Enter the photo calendar.  For Christmas this past year (2012) I made one for everyone.  Each one was customized for the specific recipient.  Since my parents are divorced I didn't figure my mom would want photos of the grandbabies with ex-grandpa, and my dad would not appreciate photos of his grandchildren with my mom's new partner.

On the large photo above the calendar is a photo that somewhat relates to that month.  Since my son's birthday is in August, all the photos were of him.  The large display photo was actually a progression of him growing up playing baseball (3 photos of him at 3 diff ages in uniform).  My older daughter is an October baby, so she got October and the baby is in November.

Throughout the 365 days there are dozens of photos.  On your birthday is a photo of you - my sister, brother, mom, grandma and late relatives all got a place of honor on their birthdays.  Same goes for hubbys family as well.  My mother-in-law appreciated a photo of her late (but favorite) Pomeranian on a few days.

 You could put a photo on all 30/31 days, but that was a little crowded, so we limited it to about every other day.

The hardest part about the entire process was making sure that Mom's calendar had no photos of Dad and then culling the ones I knew she already had.  I already had 2700 photos uploaded to the website - some she had never seen from our vacations (bad daughter!)

Overall it took us about a month to make about a dozen calendars, it was so easy that my 8 year old could help.  The time was well worth it, everyone loved the gift (only about $20 each!) and it's something that is practical as well as personalized.

I have already told many friends about this and plan to do it again and again.  I just forgot to make one for myself this year :(

Hubbys Valentine Video

I wanted to do something fun and unique for hubby for valentines day this year.   





Flowers die.  He can't eat chocolate (or much candy at all).  Cards get thrown away.  He can't wear jewelry.  What do you get a man for Valentines day?

Last summer the kids took a few classes and learned how to take photos and turn them into a video.  At the time I thought it was silly since every phone has a video camera.  Why do you need still shots to make a video?  Now I'm glad I learned! 

They learned using some program on a mac.  I have hp computers.  They work just fine for what I need.  There is a program that comes pre-installed called Windows Live Movie Maker. It works a lot like PowerPoint.

I took a bunch of sweet heart candies and spelled out I love you.  

He loved it.  

Then we ate the candy :)

This was so easy and fun to do.  The hardest part of the entire thing - finding the candy.

Get Excited About Bible Memorization

 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?  By living according to your word.   I seek you with all my heart;     do not let me stray from your commands.   I have hidden your word in my heart  that I might not sin against you.   Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees.   Psalm 119:9-12

To teach memorizing effectively, we need to realize that memorizing is hard work.  This is some of the hardest work there is.  Therefore, we need to keep in mind that students will not be overly enthusiastic at the suggestion of memorizing yet another thing.

As a teacher we must be enthusiastic and diligent about your memory work in order to inspire the children.

The most effective way to inspire enthusiasm for memory work is to see the need.  Then set a personal goal.  Obviously, an adult will see the need long before a child, and the adult will set goals in accordance to the passages they desire to memorize, their competence, and the intensity in which it will involve.

However, a child will be slower to see the need and will need an adult helper to explain the urgency and help them to not only set a goal, but also to obtain that goal.

We must emphasize to our children that when we memorize Bible verses we are not just like Satan and the Pharisees who can repeat what we read, we are learning and remembering Gods message to us in order to obey Him.  The words that they are learning are the most  important words they will ever read, hear, or learn because they are the words of God.  It is our job to explain that only the words of God can help them to live a life according to God’s way.  The words of God show us the way to heaven.  The words of God can only be found in the Bible.

No matter how excited we get, or how excited our children (finally) get, if they have no idea what they are memorizing, none of our effort will ever matter.  If you are told to memorize a random ten-digit number what are the chances of you remembering it in a week?  A year?  What if that was your home telephone number?  I remember my first phone number from when I got my own phone line at the age of 13 (I won’t tell you how many decades ago that was). 

The same goes for Bible verses.  If the words have no meaning, they will not stick.  Conversely, if the passage is meaningful to the student and if they comprehend what the passage is saying to them, they are much more likely to remember that particular verse for a lot longer time.

One of our favorite tricks for getting excited about a new verse is to sing and dance to it.  The tune is usually silly, but catchy and the ‘dance’ moves are our own made up version of sign language.  It’s fun and interactive and the kids really remember the verse.  I still sing the books of the Bible when I am looking for a book. 

portions paraphrased from Teaching Bible Memory from Rod and Staff Publications, Inc.

Valentine Creativity

I thoroughly dislike being bored - or boring.

Valentines day
                      Cards - boring
                       Candy - boring
                      Stuffed animals - take up too much room
                      Flowers - die

Solution - 24 cards!

I bought a pack of Scooby doo valentines (like the ones you would for a class) and signed each one a little differently.  For example in the to: I would put things like to my hubby, to my mechanic, to my plumber, to my bff...  In the from section, I put from: your babies mommy, your wiffle (inside joke), your cars worst enemy.....

Then I hid a few each day for a few days.  I knew how many there were and how many were left to find after valentines day.  I hid some in the truck, some in his uniform pockets, in his brief case and lunch box, in his shoes....

This was so much fun!

My daughters asked every day if he found any if so, how many.  They knew how many were hidden and kept up with where they were.

Adventures in adoption - In the Beginning....

In the Beginning....

Background info - Hubby and I met back in May of 1997. I was a senior in high school, he just got out of the Marine Corps. We dated a while and then got engaged in September of 97 (I know, that's quick).  Then we married October 25, 1997 (I'm not really patient).  I always wanted a large family.  While dating I found out Hubby couldn't have kids,  so we talked about adopting. Worked for me. I didn't care of the kids came from my belly or someone else's.  We both wanted lots of kids. For some reason the magic number was 7. We agreed that we needed 7 kids.

Then in November 1997 I got sick. The doc asked if there was any way I could be pregnant. I told him that Hubby can't have kids.  Apparently Doc had heard this story before, because he ran a pregnancy test. Surprise!   Not only do I have a uti, I also have a baby. Hmm. I suppose he can have kids. 9 months later we have a boy.

When Baby Boy was only 18 months old,  Hubby needed a surgery that would cause him to never have more babies. We were OK with that. New Doc said 'at least you have your son. '

18 months later,  Surprise!  It's a girly girl. Hmm. I guess he had another crazy doc.

Long story short (and personal info left out) 2 years later we had another girl. Surprise!  Due to moderate complications with baby 1, minor complications with baby 2, and (just less than major) complications with baby 3, my doc suggested getting my tubes tied.  I didn't pray about it (mistake 1), I didn't talk to hubby (mistake 2), I just trusted the doc and did it.

Fast forward to 2006.  We met several children who were 'in thesystem.'   I never stopped wanting more kids.  Hubby was the same way.  We love our 3, but always felt called to have a large family.

2012 - I hear God once again tell me that adopting is what we need to do.  I did some research and found a few agencies and got some information. I was confused, but thought that cps was the way for us to go. We went to orientation and filled out paperwork.   "We will call you," is what we were told.   FYI – paperwork is a simple way of say ‘hundreds of pages of personal information, family history, medical history and photos of your home – inside and out.’

Several months later, I was talking to a friend at church. She had adopted several of her children (a family group) from dePelchin.  She just loved everything about this agency and how quickly she got her kids. So, I called. We went to the orientation just 2 miles from us- and filed out the huge packet of questions they asked.

I spoke with our case worker on May 14. I chattered with her for over an hour.  She asked me a lot of questions about home schooling my bio kids,  all of our moves,  hubby's job. ....  She was not polite and was very rude about our ‘lifestyle’ choices (home school and multiple moves).

Then we proceeded to attend all of their classes.  8 classes. How to administer medication, when to change a child's ssn, incident reports, areas of human development, psychotropic meds, the 5 rights, document document document, how to lock meds, non drug intervention, cpr/first aid, connecting with pride, teamwork towards permanency, attachment, loss and grief, discipline, side and shaken baby, sexual abuse awareness and planning for change.

Some of the videos, info, and photos were quite disturbing and nearly discouraged us. We finished the classes by the end of June. We did our back ground checks and waited. And waited. And waited. In December I got a call. Because we home school, we will not be a good fit for this agency.  Hmm. I won't tell you what I thought or said. Let's move on

After more praying hubby and I decided to try one last time. Several families at Co op (obviously home schooled) had adopted or fostered with arrow.

In February 2013 I downloaded the hundred page application, filled it out and mailed it in.  I emailed a case worked and got the ball rolling quickly.  I didn’t want hubby any more discouraged.  God said ‘keep going.’   In March we started taking classes. In June we finished our classes. Hubby and I got our background check done – again ($40 each time!)  In May we got the fire inspection done.

November brought new rules. My 15 year old son needed an FBI background check. After 3 trips to the fingerprint place, that was done.

January brought the home study.

Now in February we are just waiting to be legally licensed.  Our case worker told us we would be licensed on Monday.  2 more days.  God said to do it.  He said ‘be patient’  ‘keep going’  ‘persevere.’  In 2 days we should hear something. 

I never expected this to take so long.  I hear that the hard part is just about to being.  The last 2 years has been trying, irritating, discouraging.  Not just to myself and hubby, but also to my biological children.  They are excited about having more siblings.