One of the most important parts of teaching kids the Bible is helping them memorize it. And that’s a very big value to us at Wonder Ink. If you’ve ever noticed, kids are really good at memorizing things. My kids can memorize songs and facts, and they can remember sports things, sports trivia, and Bible verses.
I want you to all think about a verse that you memorized a long time ago, maybe from childhood or maybe when you were a teenager. I know that a lot of the verses that I still know today, I memorized as a child, and it just seemed like it came easier then. I’ve tried to memorize new verses now as a grownup, and it just seems harder.
Maybe our brains are so full of all the other things that we must remember, keep track of, and organize in our head. But not only is it just easier for kids to memorize, but it’s so important for them to know God’s Word and to hide it in their heart. This is not just so that they can regurgitate it and say it, but so that it can really come into their hearts, change them, and help them when they need it.
It’s so important for [kids] to know God’s Word and to hide it in their heart.
Hiding God’s Word in Kids’ Hearts
I can think of many times when my kids have been in situations where maybe they were nervous or afraid and they’ve recalled that God is always with them, that God can give them courage, or that the Holy Spirit will give them power. Helping them memorize those verses allows them to experience, internalize, and carry God’s Word with them wherever they go.
One of the coolest things about Wonder Ink is every series comes with a memory verse, which we call the Word of Wonder. We teach it in a variety of ways. I love that because can you read it to them and have them repeat it back. Wonder Ink includes things like interactive activities and hands-on learning. Kids are always doing something, they’re putting pieces of a puzzle together, jumping while they say the verse on hopscotch, and sometimes batting balloons in the air and saying different words.
Kids are learning the verses and memorizing them through a variety of learning styles to engage all the different ways that kids learn. This helps them really internalize those verses, rather than just hear them and say them. They’re seeing it on paper and on a slide and hearing it through music. They’re seeing visuals on a video and hearing a call and response. Kids are doing motions, they’re writing it, and then you can send it home with them to practice with their parents.
Wonder Ink’s 3-year, 52-week children’s ministry curriculum offers kids space to fully find their place in God’s Big Story. Children discover they are Known by God, Loved by Jesus, and Led by the Holy Spirit.
Wonder Ink’s 3-year, 52-week children’s ministry curriculum offers kids space to fully find their place in God’s Big Story. Children discover they are Known by God, Loved by Jesus, and Led by the Holy Spirit.
Fun Ideas for Scripture Memory with Kids
One of the coolest things that I like to do is I take the social media cards that Wonder Ink provides and I take the memory verse, and I laminate it. I send it to places like Office Max and have them laminate and cut. And then you can put magnet tape on the back and make it a magnet that they can stick on their fridge or stick on their locker. Some people will put a hole punch, and you can put it on a key ring so that the kids can flip through and have all their memory verses. This is just one of the ways that you can encourage the kids to keep learning these verses and keep working on them at home and throughout their lives.
As a children’s pastor, it was always fun when I would do memory verse magnets and go visit their houses and see their fridge just full of the magnets that we made. And one kid in particular would put them on his locker at school, and so he could share them with his friends. My daughter last year started writing memory verses on papers and just handing them out to her friends at school. She’s in third grade.
Giving these kids an opportunity to hide God’s Word in their heart so that God’s Word is always with them and they can share it with others is such a great way for kids to experience the Word. Not only are we helping them memorize it, but we’re helping them understand it, experience it, and apply the verse. So, we’re teaching kids what the verse means, how it’s connected to the context of the story, and what the verse tells us about God.
Word of Wonder
Children will learn verse for the whole series. All the ages are learning the same verse, which is great because then families can work on it together and that repeat it. Repetition is a key way that kids remember things. So hearing, saying, repeating, and learning the same verse every week for an entire series is a good way for them to learn and allow it to stick with them.
They’ve got one verse per series, which equals to about 37 verses in the three years that they’re doing Wonder Ink. And we really want these verses to take root in their hearts and to grow and produce fruit in their lives. The Bible says that we can keep God’s Word in our heart and that God’s Word can change us, teach us, and help us.
I’ve seen that in my kids’ lives.
The Bible Changes Us
So, don’t skip the memory verse! A lot of times we kind of will tack that on if we have extra time. We might do that at the end of the service or to send it home. But this is one of those things that is just so important. It’s really a gift that we’re giving these kids to be able to learn, repeat, understand, and internalize these verses so that they always have God’s Word with them. We don’t always have the Bible with us, but we can always have God’s Word with us when we memorize it. So that’s the goal, for God’s word to become a part of them and to be with them wherever they go.
Use the resources provided, share with us if you have any creative ways that you have helped kids memorize scripture and encourage them to learn those verses. I know some people give points, Bible bucks, or prizes for kids who memorize verses. Incentives are great, but it’s not just for the incentive. It’s because the kids can get excited about God’s Word and can learn to love it.
Songs are a really great way as well to learn verses. I know my kids and I memorize the books of the Bible with the song and the Lord’s Prayer. There are some fun ones out there. Look at the Word of Wonder in Wonder Ink and emphasize with your team and with your kids the importance of carrying God’s Word in our heart.
