Bible Memorization (Children)

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Josh
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Josh »

Allow me to have a different perspective.

Growing up, from kindergarten or first grade or so I was taught to memorise scripture, read it, and also to copy it. I did the latter about a half hour to an hour a day to practice my penmanship.

My relationship with the Bible basically became an academic one. I was, of course, not remotely regenerated as a five-year-old, and I didn't really fully understand what I was reading. I, of course, wanted to please my parents and being a Christian was what we were and why we went to church, and the Bible seemed pretty important, so of course I wanted to make a good show of reading and memorising scripture. To this day, I can still tell you that Chedorlaomer had some battle with a few other kings in some tar pits.

None of this really helped me understand Jesus, being in his kingdom, or the life he wanted for me until I was 32. And I sure didn't get there by just reading the Bible more - a book I already read many times through and had at one point memorised large parts of it. I had tried in the past to find God in reading the Bible, and never really found anything.

Christianity is about Jesus, and the way most of us get to know Jesus is through being around his people who are also trying to follow him. The New Testament tells us information about Jesus and some of his followers. But it takes a lot more than just drilling a bunch of words and books into a child's head to lead them to salvation.

I might be overreacting a bit, but if I had kids, I would not pressure them to memorise the Bible beyond whatever would be happening with all the children at church.
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KingdomBuilder
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by KingdomBuilder »

I'm pretty much on the same page, Josh
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Josh
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

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KingdomBuilder wrote:I'm pretty much on the same page, Josh
I'm honestly sorry to hear that.

With that said, I really like how I see the memorisation happen at church. Just one verse is focused on each week. It takes a while to get through a whole passage or chapter. There is a little celebration when that happens and the whole congregation takes part in reading it together. Sometimes I join in, and I really enjoyed learning to memorise Ephesians 4 which has actual, real meaning to me now.

The best thing we can do if we want kids to understand the Bible and want to read it is instill good literacy and critical thinking/reasoning in them. Then when they grow up, they'll be able to read and understand it, and will also be able to critically discern competing voices saying the Bible is not true, or it's old and irrelevant, etc.
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KingdomBuilder
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by KingdomBuilder »

Josh wrote:
KingdomBuilder wrote:I'm pretty much on the same page, Josh
I'm honestly sorry to hear that.
Don't be. One positive (if you will) is that I feel as if my Faith can really be attributed to God. A lot of people like to say that Christians are just Christians cause they were raised up that way. Whenever you feel like your childhood "Christian experiences" can't be a credited with influencing your coming to Christ, then it gives a sense of something more.


Josh wrote:The best thing we can do if we want kids to understand the Bible and want to read it is instill good literacy and critical thinking/reasoning in them. Then when they grow up, they'll be able to read and understand it, and will also be able to critically discern competing voices saying the Bible is not true, or it's old and irrelevant, etc.
I agree 100% :clap:
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Wade
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Wade »

Josh wrote:Allow me to have a different perspective.

Growing up, from kindergarten or first grade or so I was taught to memorise scripture, read it, and also to copy it. I did the latter about a half hour to an hour a day to practice my penmanship.

My relationship with the Bible basically became an academic one. I was, of course, not remotely regenerated as a five-year-old, and I didn't really fully understand what I was reading. I, of course, wanted to please my parents and being a Christian was what we were and why we went to church, and the Bible seemed pretty important, so of course I wanted to make a good show of reading and memorising scripture. To this day, I can still tell you that Chedorlaomer had some battle with a few other kings in some tar pits.

None of this really helped me understand Jesus, being in his kingdom, or the life he wanted for me until I was 32. And I sure didn't get there by just reading the Bible more - a book I already read many times through and had at one point memorised large parts of it. I had tried in the past to find God in reading the Bible, and never really found anything.

Christianity is about Jesus, and the way most of us get to know Jesus is through being around his people who are also trying to follow him. The New Testament tells us information about Jesus and some of his followers. But it takes a lot more than just drilling a bunch of words and books into a child's head to lead them to salvation.

I might be overreacting a bit, but if I had kids, I would not pressure them to memorise the Bible beyond whatever would be happening with all the children at church.
Thank you for sharing Josh, I think your perspective is important. Different angles help balance us all out.
I don't think you are overreacting and I didn't realize you were doing such large portions of memorizing scripture as a child.
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Bootstrap »

I'm hearing two themes that both make sense to me: (1) memorizing the Bible puts it in our heart where forms us and is available when we need it, (2) memorizing small chunks out of context does little to help you understand the Bible.

To me, Bible memorization is most useful if you memorize large enough chunks to include meaningful context. Memorizing the Beatitudes is useful, memorizing one verse from the Beatitudes is much less so. Memorizing an entire parable is useful, memorizing the punchline from a parable is less so. And when you memorize, you should also learn enough about the context that it isn't just a random text.
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trimthicket
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by trimthicket »

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11

Seems like a good enough reason to memorize scripture passages.
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Josh
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Josh »

trimthicket wrote:Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11

Seems like a good enough reason to memorize scripture passages.
What is your exegesis to connect "thy word have I hid in mine heart" to mean modern day memorisation specifically?
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by Bootstrap »

Josh wrote:
trimthicket wrote:Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11

Seems like a good enough reason to memorize scripture passages.
What is your exegesis to connect "thy word have I hid in mine heart" to mean modern day memorisation specifically?
To me, the biggest problem with some modern day memorization is that it memorizes little bits of text, out of context, and often as proof points to someone's teaching. To really hide God's text in your heart, it's better to memorize larger sections of text, in context, reading the surrounding text carefully to teach you what it says.

But I"m a big fan of memorization done properly.
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ken_sylvania
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Re: Bible Memorization (Children)

Post by ken_sylvania »

Josh wrote:What is your exegesis to connect "thy word have I hid in mine heart" to mean modern day memorization specifically?
What do you mean be modern day memorization? I'm honestly curious. Would you say that memorization is done differently nowadays compared with a century ago?
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