Wrapping up summertime Bible memory: Armor Of God, Ephesians 6:10-18

If you have followed this blog for any amount of time, you know that each week for the past four years our family memorizes the "verse of the week" during mealtime.  Verses started out being Bible Study Fellowship verses and then moved to AWANA verses as the kids are now involved in Wednesday night programing.  However each summer, when regular Bible programs break, we do our own Bible memory.  The first summer, each week Summer would pick a book of the Bible and I would pick a verse from my Bible in that book.  Last summer we memorized a chunk of Scripture from 1 John about love.  This summer we chose to memorize and discuss the verses about the Armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-18.  Each week or two we would add another verse or two to our chalkboard and say it during mealtimes until we had the whole passage memorized by the end of the summer.

This is how our verse of the week chalkboard currently looks, after adding a verse or two each week or two.

I love the conversations the memorizing allows and I love how just simply repeating the verses daily makes them be memorized!  The theme verse I use for our Bible memory work is Deuteronomy 6:5-9
which says:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

It is amazing how impressionable kids' minds are and how much they pick up JUST by listening to something over and over.  I really didn't work with Larkyn much on the verse of the week, as she was 1 at the start of the summer and just turned 2 in July.  However after a few weeks she had the first verse completely memorized just by hearing her siblings recite it again and again!  Tonight as I videoed the older two saying their 11 verses, I decided to see just how much Larkyn picked up.  She completely surprised me by saying the first 3-4 verses almost completely on her own, and knowing chunks of the rest of the verses, reciting them with me all the way until the end of the 11 verses!  I guess a 2 year old can memorize pretty well when something is repeated that many times!  Wow!  It is never to early to start repeating scripture with your kiddos!  She doesn't understand the words she is saying, but it is definitely in her brain along with the ABC's and her favorite songs and books!

Here are the videos of each of the kids reciting Ephesians 6:10-18.

Summer:

Colton:

Larkyn:

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV)

The Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.