Scripture Memory Tools For You & Your Kids

Posted on April 29, 2011 in Articles, Blog, Congregational Resources, Listening, Recommended, Sunday School, Sunday Seminary

During a past Sunday Seminary we talked about a resource that some in our church have used to help them memorize Scripture, from one verse, to one chapter, to entire books!

It is a method that helps you memorize verbatim text by practicing recall not mere repeating.

More details on this can be found here.

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iPhone® / iPad® or Android® users may be interested in the “Fighter Verse App” which can help you memorize Scripture in your device of choice.

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Scripture put to songs are also very helpful. For one example check out this free album from Sherri Youngward:

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Lastly, here are some groups that set Scripture to music (we use Seeds Family Worship material in our kids Sunday School), which is another easy way to memorize Scripture. This post from D.A. Carson’s research manager Andy Naselli:

Jenni and I are frequently amazed at how easily our two-year-old daughter, Kara Marie, memorizes things. It’s amazing. So we’re trying to harness some of her brainpower by memorizing the Bible.

Jenni has taught Kara dozens of verses, and we’re using some additional resources to help these verses stick long-term. Texts in song are remembered long, so memorizing Scripture with music is especially helpful (though some of the songs mentioned below may be more “bumpy” than some prefer).

By the way, children are not the only ones who benefit from Scripture put to song. Dads and moms do, too! We frequently find ourselves meditating on verses like “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” or “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God.’”

1. Foundation and Fighter Verses (Children Desiring God)

  • “Foundation Verses are strategically chosen Bible verses for children preschool through age five.”
    • The verses are available on little flashcards with a picture on one side and the verse and verse reference on the other.
    • Eleven of the 68 verses are put to music, and those MP3s are available for free.

  • Fighter Verses are “designed for school-age children through adults.”
    • All the verses are available as an app for the iPhone-iPad and Android.
    • The passages are available on flashcards.
    • The verses in sets D and E (including the entire Sermon on the Mount from Matt 5–7) are put to music on two CDs (samples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Some of these songs are a bit cheesy (e.g., there’s a Frank Sinatra impersonator), but putting Scripture to music like this can be so helpful for memorizing.

2. Hide ‘Em in Your Heart (Steve Green)

The DVDs are corny (probably very stylish in the 1980s), but the songs are clear, catchy, and singable.

3. Questions with Answers and Songs for Saplings (Dana Dirksen)

A mother and her children sing Bible verses and Q&A taken from a digest of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Stephen Hildebrandt’s The Catechism for Young People). Some are more catchy than others (e.g., “How can you glorify God,” sample 3 here).

4. Seeds Family Worship

The music is louder and the words are harder to understand in these albums than those above. But some songs are memorable.

Here are some of their videos:

5. Hide the Word (Mark Altrogge, Forever Grateful Music)

Mark Altrogge, senior pastor of a Sovereign Grace Church in Pennsylvania, has set 182 Scripture passages to 9.1 hours of music. The genre is similar to Sovereign Grace Music, which has published several of Altrogge’s songs.

6. Hidden in My Heart: A Lullaby Journey through Scripture (Jay and Trina Stocker, BreakAway Music)

This CD is nice for playing when you put your child down for sleep. Mellow. (The translations vary from KJV to NLT to NKVJ to NIV.)

From the CD’s back cover:

One out of every ten Hidden In My Heart CDs is donated to Crisis Pregnancy Centers around the country. BreakAway Music strongly supports the ministry efforts of these centers.

 

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If you like songs set to Scripture you might also enjoy the Rizers (whose CD you can get for free too):

Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

- Psalm 119:11 NKJV