How to Make Bible Memory a Family Habit…Even if You’re Terrible at Memorizing

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Welcome to Little Shoots Deep Roots – where we become faith gardeners, cultivating deep faith in our families one little habit at a time.

Today we’re diving into the powerful habit of memorizing scripture together as a family. I’ll be sharing a powerful story about how God used a single verse to transform my son’s struggles with anxiety into peaceful nights of sleep. Then we’ll explore the transformative power of embedding God’s word into our hearts, creating lasting foundations for our children, as well as how to actually make time for Bible memory!

✨ In this episode:

• A powerful story of overcoming childhood anxiety with scripture
• Using the Faith Growth Cycle for a new Bible memory habit
• Five sustainable steps for making Bible memory a habit
• Creative ways to deepen and celebrate your family’s scripture journey

📚 FOLLOW-UP RESOURCES:

1. ⁠Free Memory Verse Poster
2. ⁠New Creation – Family Bible Study and Prayer Journal
3. Get the Book: ⁠Little Habits, Big Faith⁠

Subscribe on your favorite listening platform for practical tips, real parent interviews, and encouragement as we become faith gardeners together!

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to Little Shoots, Deep Roots, where we become faith gardeners, cultivating deep faith in our families one little habit at a time. I’m your fellow gardener, Christie Thomas.

Today, we’re talking about a habit that has the power to transform your family’s faith journey with pretty minimal effort, but can be tough to do well: memorizing Scripture together. But first, let me share a story of how God used a single verse to help my family.

The Time Scripture Memory Came Alive

He screamed and clutched me as if monsters were trying to drag him into the pit of hell.

Maybe that’s how he felt.

The first day of kindergarten can be rather rough on a child, but I wasn’t expecting the teachers to have to PEEL my son off me.

I walked into the parent meeting, late, brushing tears off my cheeks.

This parenting gig is hard on the soul.

I found it extra hard to help my eldest with his emotional struggles. He was a sensitive and creative fellow with an anxious streak a mile long.

I had always hoped that his separation anxiety was more of a trick to induce mommy-guilt than a real, true-blue anxiety, but it turns out I was wrong.

The anxiety was real, and it bled into his entire kindergarten year.

Dropping him off at school was a nightmare, and he cried every.single.morning. His teacher reported that he refused to participate in gym class and he didn’t seem to be making many friends. I also had a 3 year old and a newborn at the time, and it was hard on all of us.

In my work as a Children’s Ministry Director, I had taught a class on speaking blessings over children for the past several years, and in April, the class rolled around again. This year, when I printed off the blessing posters,I brought some home with me and let him choose one that spoke to him the most.

Here’s the prayer he picked:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7  (NLT)

Oh, my heart. So I started praying this verse over him nightly, rather than the basic prayer of blessing I’d been using since birth.

One night, as the anxiety crept in again, I lifted him onto my lap (not an easy feat with a lanky elementary kid) and reminded him of the verse. Then we did what the verse told us to do.

First, we prayed. I prayed for him, then he prayed.
Second, we told God what he needed. He needed peace.
Third, we thanked God for all he had done. 

We thanked God for the family. We named all his friends. We remembered the special toys, puzzles, and games in his life. We were thankful for his teacher, his brothers, and the food he ate.

He was still upset, so we did it all again.

First, we prayed. 
Second, we told God what was needed. 
Third, we thanked God for all he had done. 

By this point, my son had calmed down and realized how exhausted he was. I tucked him into bed and commissioned him to keep thinking of all the things God had done for him until he fell asleep.

He said, “but there’s so many!”

Yes, my child, God has done great things for you. There are so many.

As he burrowed himself into his blanket, I prayed God’s peace for him.

I watched his face as he exchanged his worries for wisdom, his panic for peace, and his exhaustion for sleep.

I prayed this verse over him for years, and so, he obviously memorized it. Some nights we talked about it and prayed together. Nearly a decade later, I can see how God has worked and continues to work in his life, through the incredible promise and command given in this Bible passage. 

So, why Memorize Scripture?

Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Memorizing Scripture anchors us in truth and equips us to follow God in every season of life.

For kids, it’s a foundation that will stay with them as they grow. I memorized Psalm 23 when I was 4, and when I was 35, I muttered it over and over to myself while laying in the operating room, blind without my glasses, exposed, and just about to be forcibly put to sleep. In that moment, Psalm 23 was my lifeline. I could tell you story after story of moments when previously memorized Scripture came to mind when I was frustrated, angry, or when I needed it in a parenting moment. And…I have to tell you, I’m not even especially good at memorizing Scripture. A lot of what I know was either memorized when I was 4 or when I started being more intentional about it with my kids, or just from hearing it over and over through the years at church and in devotionals. There’s so much more I want to memorize! So what we’re going to talk about today is helping me as much as I hope it’s helping you. 

The Faith Growth Cycle: Scripture Memory Edition

In my book, Little Habits, Big Faith: How Simple Practices Help Your Family Grow in Jesus, I teach the Faith Growth Cycle. Today, we’ll use this cycle to walk through the process of starting Scripture memory as a family.

1. The Seed Stage

The Seed stage begins with prayer and intention. Memorizing Scripture as a family requires both a desire to grow in God’s Word and a plan to make it happen. Let’s start with prayer:

God, thank you for the gift of Scripture. I want it to be a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. Please give us the desire to memorize Scripture together as a family. Help us overcome distractions and excuses, and show us simple ways to start hiding your Word in our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen.

2. The Sprout Stage

The Sprout stage is where we take small, manageable steps to make Scripture memory a habit. Here’s how to keep it sustainable for your family.

Here’s the 5-step process:

1. Pick a habit: Bible memory
2. Make it smaller: Choose a short, meaningful verse that relates to your family’s current season or challenges. For example, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you” (Psalm 56:3) for a child struggling with fear. Or “Be kind and compassionate to one another” (Ephesians 4:32) for sibling relationships.
3. Attach it to something you already do: Along with making it smaller, we need to attach our new habit to something we’re already doing. What moment in your day does God want to redeem? Your new habit is going to attach like velcro to the current habit. When you attach your desired habit to something you’re already doing, you’ll have an automatic cue to remind you to do it.
   • Say the verse together after meals or in the car.
   • Practice it during car rides or while brushing teeth.
   • Or try helping your kids accidentally memorize the verse, by using it as a bedtime blessing
   • Find a song for that verse and turn it on while cooking 
4. Celebrate: pick a way to celebrate each and every time you read scripture. Will you give your kids a high five or a hug? Will you pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for remembering? This is not a long-term reward, like going out for ice cream once you’ve done it 30 times. It’s something you do every time that will solidify the habit in your brain. For example, I once chatted with a mom who wanted to start memorizing Scripture while waiting for the bus, but she needed something at the end to really motivate her boys to do this. So I suggested that after her boys said the verse, they could give her the hardest high five they possibly could. And guess what? They loved it and this little celebration motivated them to continue the habit. Instead of a high five, you could give your kid a hug after reading the verse together, or do a little silly dance anytime they even TRY to say it out loud. The key is to bring an element of celebration and joy EVERY time to do this, which is going to make it become a habit quicker and be more enjoyable along the way. 
5. Set yourself up for success: What one-time actions do you need to take before you can start this habit? For example, it’s going to be tough to memorize a Scripture verse if you don’t know it yourself, or if you have to go digging for your Bible. Write it out on a sticky note and put it on your table, or turn it into a lock screen for your phone so it shows up when you pick up your phone. Setting yourself up for success should only need to happen once, and will smooth out the process of forming your new habit. 

Whether you thought of something right now, while listening, or whether you need to let these ideas percolate a bit, I’m confident that starting something little will help you and your family memorize more Scripture.

3. The Root Stage

In the Root stage, we deepen the habit of Scripture memory and make it more meaningful over time. Here are a few ideas, but please remember these are not a checklist. You don’t need to all of them, you don’t need to do any of them. The goal is to help you think more deeply about how to make your tiny Bible memory habit deeper over time. 

• Memorize longer passages: Once your family has the habit of Bible memory with short verses, you could work on a Psalm or a section of Scripture together.
• Discuss what the verses mean: Ask your kids what they think the verse is saying and how it applies to their lives. Joshua 1:8 says “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” (NLT) Instead of jumping from memory verse to memory verse, feel free to sit on one for a long time, meditating on it, and letting it percolate down into your hearts. 
• Use creative activities:
  • Create artwork with the verse.
  • Write it in sidewalk chalk outside.
  • Act it out like a skit.
  • Turn it into a prayer that you pray at certain times. For example, I have recently turned Hebrews 4:12 into a prayer and wrote it on notecards so my kids can pray it before they start reading the Bible. It does double-duty as a prayer that invites God to work in their hearts and they’ll likely memorize it along the way. 

• Revisit old verses: Periodically review the verses you’ve memorized together to keep them fresh. Recently I took all our old Bible memory posters and posted them randomly all around our home. My kids keep finding them in cupboards, and my prayer is that as they spot them, they’ll read and remember them.

Memorizing Scripture doesn’t have to be rigid or boring. It’s a way to weave God’s Word into the fabric of your family’s life.

Practical Tools for Scripture Memory

To help you with this Scripture memory habit 2 resources I made to help you memorize and meditate on Scripture with your kids:

1. The first is one of the memory verse posters I’ve used with my family, for 2 corinthians 5:17: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation! The old has gone, the new has come.  It’s available in 4 different Bible translations and you can post it in your home for one more reminder of who you are in Christ. 
2. And speaking of your identity in Christ, if you’d like to go deeper, I have a 20-day printable journal that you can use with your kids that explores your identity in Christ. New Creation is family Bible study and prayer journal that will help you study 20 key verses that deal directly with who your identity is in Christ, as well as help you memorize one key verse about who you are in Christ.

Coming Up Next

In the next episode, I’ll chat with my lovely friend Kayla Alonso about how Bible memory looks in her home! 

Closing Blessing

Let me pray a blessing over you. If you’re able, hold out your hands to receive it:

May the word of Christ dwell in your richly as you teach and admonish your family with all wisdom, trusting that the little seeds you plant will become flourishing faith, in God’s timing and in His way. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Thanks for joining me here at Little Shoots, Deep Roots. Don’t forget to subscribe and download the resources linked in the show notes.

Growing with you,
Christie

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