Writing the Word on Little Hearts

This past Sunday I filled in as teacher in the Kindergarten class at church. One of the young men in that class is homeschooled--he and his brother attend a classical Christian academy where they study two days a week, and are at home the other three working with the curriculum that the school provides. Anyhow, the class has been studying David and Jonathan and I was reviewing the story with one of the children's Bibles kept in the class. Of course, these Bibles tend to be more story-oriented with a note of which scriptures to refer to for the "whole" story (1 Samuel 20). I was astounded when this young man piped-up explaining to me how Jonathan told David to go and hide and about the arrows that he would shoot and tell a boy to retrieve, letting David know whether he should run away or stay. The other children sat fairly still with blank faces while he explained all of this. I happened to sit in front of him and his dad during worship later that morning, and asked his dad about how he studied with his boys.

It really makes a difference in our children to take the time and focus on the Lord. On Monday, I sought out a book that I bought months ago when John and I first decided to homeschool. The title is Teaching Children Memory Verses, Ages 2 & 3 by Rainbow Publishers. Each lesson has an age-appropriate memory verse, Bible story, Bible truth, and step-by-step instructions for the activity. I copied the coloring sheet for the first lesson in the book (the lessons are in order based on the books of the Bible), and other than the fact that the verse is listed incorrectly for the topic covered (The verse is "God created the heavens and the earth" which is Genesis 1:1, but is listed in the book as Genesis 4:7. I have checked several of the other verses, which are all correct, therefore I am guessing this was an editing mistake) I was excited about helping Joshua write the Word of God on his little heart (Deut. 11:18-21).

We gathered around the pillows in our reading corner of our classroom and began by singing some of our favorite songs. Samantha was not entirely excited about having to share the pillow corner with her brother--she thinks that if she and I are there, Joshua should be doing something else somewhere else. However, after the songs, she relaxed a bit and was not thoroughly put out by her brother. We shared a prayer and then I read the story of Creation. When we were finished I recited the verse (well, partial verse as most of these are in this book) to Joshua and we practiced saying it over and over. While we colored our pictures , I quizzed him on things that God made for us. Since he has been studying Creation since birth, he has it down pretty good, but never has he known an actual scripture, just the stories that scripture tells. I followed him around all day saying "God..." and he would recite "...created the whole earth" to which I would ask "created what?" and he would reply "the heavens and the earth, Genesis one one."

By this morning, I could ask him "Joshua, what does Genesis 1:1 say?" and he would carefully respond "God created the heavens and the earth." Praise God for his Word.