Memory Verse: February

As I mentioned last month, I am doing a series of posts with memory verses this year! Since I am reading through the Bible with my Bible study group, I am encouraging my kids to memorize Bible verses with me. I plan on presenting the verses to them creatively each month, to encourage them to memorize!

I just finished writing letters to my kids, and I mentioned Valentines Day. I said that we have a holiday here on February 14 that celebrates love. I tell them that school children often give each other small cards, and sometimes share candy with each other, and that married people sometimes give each other flowers! I also told them that my parents were married on Valentines Day!

Going on with the theme of love, I chose a verse from the Bible about love! This month's verse is Matthew 22:37.

"Jesus said, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and 

all your soul and all your mind.'" 

This month, I decided to make bookmarks for the kids! I started with plain, colored printer paper. I would have preferred to use red, but the closest I had was fluorescent pink! I opened up Microsoft Publisher and made heart shapes with the shape tool- three per page. I then put text boxes inside each heart, with the verse. I printed them out, cut out the hearts, and laminated them! If you don't have access to a laminating machine, you can use clear packing tape instead. There are also self-stick laminating pages available at office supply stores, and most stores that have a decent office supply aisle (like Target or Walmart.) The hearts were cut out again, and I punched small holes in the top of each one. I found some ribbon and looped two pieces through the top of each one. If I had wider ribbon, I would have just used one piece. I know that small pieces of ribbon are acceptable to Compassion, but I always include a note saying it can be removed if necessary. Tasya made me some bookmarks last year (that's where I got the idea!) and put a little bit of ribbon through those, so it should be ok! Just as long as you keep it short and unobtrusive, it should be fine. 

Here's the result: 

I hope everyone likes them! Even the boys.   : ) Because I am including stickers with the bookmarks, I put each one in an envelope and then wrote our names and numbers on there. I had originally planned to send the bookmarks by themselves, and if I had, I would have put that information on a blank label, to make sure they got to the kids! 

Memory Verse: January

Last year, I did a series of posts filled with letter writing topics for each month. I'm not sure I could come up with new ideas for this year (usually my letters are pretty improvised, anyway.) I thought I'd try something new this year!

My Bible study group and I are reading through the Bible chronologically. I plan on writing to my kids about this project, as I have written to them about Bible studies in the past. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could get my kids to participate in a scripture memory project, though. I'm sure some of them don't have complete access to a Bible (they may not see one every day of the week), but I can share a verse with them each month, sometimes in creative ways, and encourage them to memorize it. Scripture memorization is so important! It seems daunting at times, but it can be easy. Memorizing Bible verses is an important weapon in our arsenal against spiritual warfare. It also shows God that we think His word is important enough to commit to memory. And to some people, access to the Bible is a privilege. My mom told me once about a Christian woman in Asia who was practicing her faith illegally and in secret. She knew she would be found out soon, so she worked so very hard to commit as much scripture to memory as possible, so she could recite it to herself in prison. Prisoners of war also shared Bible verses they had memorized during the Vietnam War. If you found yourself in a similar situation, how many verses do you think you'd be able to remember? We have Bibles everywhere- you can even get them at the grocery. But what if God called you to a situation where Bibles were not available, or were even illegal? We wouldn't have the "crutch" of being able to grab a Bible and open it whenever we want to.

So here is the verse I chose for this month:

The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy all your needs.

Isaiah 58:11

This month, I'm going to send my kids a card with the verse printed on it. Since it is basically the arctic tundra where I live right now, I was inspired by the weather and printed the verse on a pretty snowy background!

I'm hoping to be a bit more creative for the verses I'll be sending throughout the year, but for a last minute decision, I think it turned out pretty well! I'm printing the verses on cardstock, about the size of an index card, so they'll hold up a little better.