I read a LOT. Of course in my line of work you have to, to stay informed and educated on trends, cautions, alerts and recommendations in the field of early childhood education and Christian education. Already this morning I have read 4 blogs and one snippet from a research journal. So the benefit of this is passing along new information to you.

To introduce this I wanted to add that many parents ask in the preschool and elementary years how to “write” Gods Word on their children’s hearts? After all God does give this as a command to parents in Deuteronomy 6:5-9

At our church we like to help with this task by having discipleship programs that aid in that process: Hide and Seek Clubhouse and Bible Drill to name a few. But even with these programs you need help reinforcing what they are hearing. If you don’t have a discipleship class that your child can go to what verses do you start with?

Many Bible verses are just too hard even for some adults to understand, so remember to start with verses that are concrete and easily understandable for the age of your child. Here is a great link to a publication that tells you how preschoolers learn about God . Here are a few tips: For instance John 3:16 as taken from a kid-friendly version of the Bible: John 3:16 (New International Reader’s Version) 16 “God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son. Anyone who believes in Him will not die but will have eternal life. Also below are some links to some kid friendly Bible verses as well as ideas of Bible verses to start with.

So how do you do this? Here are some ideas for those that have their children in Bible memory programs and for those that don’t have the extra time or the availability of bringing them to an additional nights program but want to start doing this.

Fresh from our Family Ministry reGroup (here at Group) with Dr. Brian Haynes, author of Shift: What it takes to finally reach families today.

Here are some ideas we brainstormed for helping parents easily write Scripture on their kids’ hearts weekly:

* Write a verse on a chalkboard weekly that sits at the breakfast table (Brian’s family does this).

* Print a verse and post it on the fridge for the week.

* Write on the bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker.

* Put it on a 3X5 card and put it on your car’s dashboard.

to read more ideas click here to take you to Group’s Children’s Ministry blog

So now that you know some of the “hows” which verses do you start with?
Suggestions:1.If your child has take home sheets from their Sunday School class or a memory verse from their book from their Bible memory program look at it to see what verse they used or are using. This is a great place to start and it will reinforce as well as help with their learning.
2.Remember to use a kid friendly version of the Bible. We use the Holman Christian Standard Verson (HCSB) and also recommend the International Childrens Bible (ICB) New Living Translation (NLT) and the God’s Word Translation.
3.Great link to some kid-friendly Bible verses. This website even has them organized by subject and has them on cute cards you can print out.
4.Another good information site that you can go to with how-to tips on memorizing as well as a link to verses that are in an easy Bible translation for your children to understand.
No matter how you do this stay with it, it will reap benefits down the road for you as well as your children.