Memorizing Bible Verses in my Family

聖經經節背誦在我家 （中文）

I was asked by a mother from my former church in Virginia (CCCVA) to share about how I implement the memorization of “Fighter Verses” at home. I want to put my sharing here so anyone who is interested could learn from each other. In fact, you may find out there is no secret and every family might have different ways to effectively implement their spiritual activities with their children at home. If my sharing could be helpful to any of you who are interested, it's all God's grace and His glory.

First, this link contains the recommendation of how to memorize Bible verses from Bethlehem Baptist Church which put the Fighter verses together in a 5-year plan,

I used their recommendation as a base and modified it over time to better fit my family.

My implementation to help my family to memorize Fighter Verses has been pretty good. Here is why I feel it’s good. My family had tried different ways and activities for our family devotion time in the evening and none of them worked out successfully and consistently. Part of the reasons is that I, as the husband and father of the family, am too busy (in my mind) at times and I tended to hurry through the devotion time so that I could proceed to do something else. I have started to lead my family to memorize the Fighter Verses during our family devotion time every evening (except Sunday because of prayer group meeting) since November and it has been more than two months since then ... just like the Energize Rabbit ... it's still going .... so I think it's pretty good.

Another "no-secret" is that the whole idea is initiated by me, and I have full support from my wife so it becomes the first thing we do after dinner. And another “selfish” reason is that it's me who was convicted by Holy Spirit and decided to memorize the verses. I always think I am too old to memorize anything so I "forced" the whole family to do the same thing with me or I don't think I am able to get through it. Since my wife fully supports my suggestion, kids have no choice but obeying their parents.

The way I do it is that, first, I print out several copies of weekly verses in English (ESV) and Chinese (CUV) and post them on the bathroom wall, dining table and the fridge so that at least I could read them in many opportunities (and in Google Notebook so I could review them in office when I feel like). We start each new set of verses on Monday and usually I ask everyone to recite old verses (both in ESV and CUV) up to one month old first (I tried two months old and decide to go for one-month for now). Then I would let everyone read the new verses 10 times in English and 10 times in Chinese and ask them to recite it (mistakes are allowed). My kids usually could get the ESV part memorized on Monday or Tuesday (they had four years of training from attending AWANA club). After they could memorize the verses, I would just ask them to read/recite them 5 times each following days. The Chinese part is slower. For the first time reading everyday, I usually ask the kids to read whatever the words they recognize to me and I would read them the words they do not recognize (so I use the chance to teach them Chinese words slowly). After the first reading, I would just let them repeat the verses in Chinese after me for the 2-10 times. They usually could get the Chinese memorization done before Wednesday.

Nothing fancy ... but I think it's important that the father is in charge and he has a heart and determination to do it with the family. It's easier for a father to lead the devotion session than a mother to do it. We always end it with prayer from everyone in the family. I plan to add worship in the beginning. We tried before, but it was hard to get my two boys to sing with us wholeheartedly (any suggestions?). I also admit that I was passively involved most of the time in the past which would result in the inefficiency of our past effort.

Final word, for those of who have younger kids, it is the best time to train your kids walking with the Lord. God's grace is irresistible.


以前我在北維州華人基督教會的一位姊妹請我分享我在家中是如何帶領全家背誦「每週戰士經節」的。我想我也把我的分享放在此處，讓有興趣的家庭可以一同討論。事實上，您或許或發現我的分享沒有什麼秘密，而且每一個不同的家庭也會有不同的方法來有效落實他們家中與孩子一起的屬靈活動。如果我的分享對任何人有一些幫助的話，這都是神的恩典與榮耀。

首先，這個連結是設計「每週戰士經節」的伯利恆浸信會對於落實背經計畫的建議，我一開始是以他們的建議為基礎，在逐漸根據我家中實行的情形加以調整。

我認為我在家中落實背誦「每週戰士經節」的結果至今都不錯。我之所以會覺得「不錯」，是因為我們在家中曾經嘗試過許多不同的活動與方法來與孩子一同再傍晚實行家庭崇拜，但是都不成功，也不能持久。其中的原因之一是我（身為家中的父親與丈夫）經常都在心志上過於忙碌，以致於我常常會盡快將這個「家庭崇拜」的事情做完，所以我可以有空去做其他的事。我是從去年十一月開始每天傍晚（除了週日例外，因為週日晚上我們有小組禱告會的活動要參加）利用家庭崇拜時間帶領全家一同背誦「每週戰士經節」，就這樣子至今實行了兩個多月，就像電池廣告中的那位兔子一樣，現在還在進行中，所以我覺得不錯。

另外一個「不是秘密」的秘訣就是這整個主意是我主動提議的，並且我也得到我妻子的全力支持，所以這是我們每天晚飯後的第一件事。還有一個「自私」的理由就是這是因為我自己受到聖靈的感動決定要好好開始背經，我一直總是覺得因為年紀的關係，背經（或背誦任何東西）是對我來說一件非常困難的事，所以我就「強迫」全家和我一同背經，要不然我大概就會半途而廢。也因為我的妻子全力支持我的建議，孩子除了順服之外，沒有別的選擇。

我家實行的方法是這樣的。首先，我先將每週中英文的經節（中文用和合本翻譯，英文用 ESV 翻譯）印出好幾份張貼在家中廁所的牆上、冰箱上、與飯桌上（還有在網上所以我也可以在上班時間複習），如此一來，至少我就可以在許多場合複習當週的經節。我們是從每週一開始一週新的經節，每天一開始我會要求每一個人背誦過去一個月內背誦的中英文經節（我試過背誦過去兩個月，現在改為一個月）。然後，我會要求每一個人閱讀新的中英文經節各十遍，再請每一個人嘗試背出來，當然頭幾天錯誤是難免的。我的兩個孩子通常都可以在週一或週二就把英文經節成功地背誦出來（他們有四年 AWANA 背經班的經驗），如果他們背誦成功，我就會在當週剩餘的天內要求他們每天背經或讀經五遍（不再十遍）。中文的經節對我的孩子來說通常是較緩慢的，我會在每天的開始先要求他們每一人照著中文將他們認識的字讀出來一遍，我會補充讀出他們不認識的字（順便教他們認中文繁體字），然後再請他們跟著我讀第2-10遍的中文經節。他們通常都可以在週三前背會中文經節。

沒有什麼神奇之處吧！我認為其中最重要的就是家中的父親要負起責任並且父親要有個心與意志力來與全家一同落實。父親在家中帶領家庭崇拜要比母親帶領來的容易。我們在家庭崇拜的最後都會請每一位家中的成員輪流禱告結束。我也計畫在一開始加入敬拜，我們以前試過與孩子一同敬拜，但是總是無法讓孩子與我們一同全心敬拜（有建議嗎？）。我也承認我過去經常都是非常的被動，這也是我們的努力沒有效果的原因。

最後，如果您的孩子還小，線再是最好訓練他們與神同行的時後。神的恩典是不可抗拒的。