This morning was my last Entrusted class. We were challenged about the importance of Scripture memory. Challenged about the vitality of the Word of God. Challenged to have God's Word as close to us as possible. At all times. Challenged to memorize Scripture so that it is always with us.
I have never been a great "memorizer". Not my strong suit in school. Or these days either. So, when I first started this class back in the Fall, I was a little apprehensive about having to memorize a verse (sometimes 2) each week.
Thankfully, along with the Entrusted curriculum came a CD with all of the memory verses set to music. Listening to these "songs" has helped me a ton. Week after week, the verses have been "playing" in my heart, and I was able to memorize them one by one.
Today presented me with a greater challenge. The goal was to be able to recite each and every verse that we have memorized this year.....all 23 of them. Granted, I have been learning them all as the class went along, so this shouldn't have been such a daunting task. But, I was a bit nervous. But determined.
Determined not just because I was "challenged" to do it. But even more so because these verses are ones that I want to never forget. I want them to be unceasingly in my heart and on my lips.
And, I did it!
This is going to end up being a pretty long post, as I am going to write out each of these 23 verses (from memory, of course!). If you are a parent (even more specifically, a mother), I hope that as you read these verses from God's Word, you might be encouraged, enlightened, equipped. As I have been over these past months.
Okay, here goes.
Psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.
2 Timothy 3:14
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them.
Psalm 85:8
I will hear what God the Lord will say. For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones. But let them not turn back to folly.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7
These words, which I am commanding you today, they shall be on your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.
1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Hebrew 21:11
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Philippians 2:14
Do all things without grumbling of complaining.
Psalm 147:10-11
He does not delight in the strength of a horse, he does not take pleasure in the legs of a man; the Lord favors those who fear Him, those who wait for His loving kindness.
Lamentations 3:37
It is good for a man to bear his yolk in his youth.
Ephesians 6:1-4
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother...so that it may be well with you, and so that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. But bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Matthew 5:37
But let your statement be "yes, yes" or "no, no"; anything beyond these is of evil.
Proverbs 13:24
He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.
Proverbs 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.
Proverbs 26:4
Do not answer a fool, according to his folly, or you will also be like him.
1 Samuel 12:23
Moreover as for me, far be it from me, that I should sin against the Lord, by ceasing to pray for you. But I will instruct you in the good and right way.
Ephesians 4:29
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according of the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive, through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. Love does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Acts 2:39
For the promise is for you and your children, and for all those who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.
Proverbs 1:8-9
Hear, my sons, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head, and ornaments about your neck.
1 peter 3:8-9
To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly and kind hearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you were called for that very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.
Titus 2:3-5
Other women likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the Word of God will not be dishonored.
Phew!
As I continue to remember these verses (and hopefully memorize more!), I hope that I also remember how each verse can directly apply to my role as a Mother who has been entrusted with 2 precious children.
