Don't you just love Isaiah 55:11! If you and the ones you love are walking with God, this verse is an incredible promise to encourage you each and every day. If the ones you love are not walking with God, and even if they have actually turned away from the faith they once had, this verse is an incredible promise to encourage you each and every day. God has promised His Word will - "make the things happen (He) wants to happen, and they succeed in doing what I send them to do."
There are many things we do in Children's Ministry which are effective, which bring the results we want to see happen, which we repeat for these reasons, but any and all of these things do not bring with them the promise from God which we find in Isaiah 55:11 - unless we are making God's Word the center of all we do.
This is why it is essential to choose a curriculum which engages children in actually opening God's Word, discovering for themselves what God's Word says, and focuses on helping them learn what it all means and how they are able to better know and walk with God because of what they are learning.
It is also why we want to help children learn to pray Scripture back to God - what better way is there for us to help children learn to pray!
And, it is why we involve children in Bible Memory. When a child hears, learns, and memorizes God's Word, we are setting them up to be able to experience how God's Word will "make the things happen God wants to happen" - this in and of itself is the best reason to help children memorize God's Word.
There are resources out there to help children (and adults) memorize God's Word, but I recently learned of one which I absolutely put at the top of my "best resources for memorizing" list - The Bible Memory Project. What is The Bible Memory Project, you ask? Well, they describe it as . . .
"We believe that a consistent and steady rhythm of storing up God's Word in your heart, brings conviction of sin, protection from sin, and the proclamation of the Gospel! This is why we intentionally designed the perfect tool to help you memorize and meditate on God's Word! Four wristbands are inscribed with the verse acronym (the first letter of each word from the memory verse) - one for each week! These letters will help you to complete the whole word in your mind and you’ll be remembering the whole verse in no time!"
It is a simple, and excellent idea - the first letter of each word from the verse on a wristband for children/adults to wear to help them learn their verse! And who doesn't love to wear wristbands?! Now, I would personally stretch it out so they learn one passage a month - and I do have to say, some of the packs are a passage which is divided into four verses for the month. I really like this. I think along with learning the verses in correct word order - which these wristbands will absolutely help you do, it is essential for us to help children and adults learn what the words mean and how they are able to live them in their everyday lives, every day. When they have one passage a month, the focus is on more than learning the words.
But, as Isaiah 55:11 makes clear, God's Words matter. God's Words are able to do things no other words are able to do, so I highly, and enthusiastically recommend the The Bible Memory Project for use in churches and homes. Please check them out at this link and add it to what you are doing in your Children's Ministry, because, "The same thing is true of the words I speak. They will not return to me empty. They make the things happen that I want to happen, and they succeed in doing what I send them to do." - Isaiah 55:11 (NCV)
This review is my own opinion. The Bible Memory Project sent me two sets of their verse wristbands for me to review - I was not paid for this review.
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