Take THAT, Devil.

I may have mentioned once or twice that I work at the Christian school my girls attend. One discipline that our school instills in its students is the memorization of Bible verses. I LOVE this, among other things.

At Back to School night, the junior high Bible teacher told us that she found a method to help the students not only memorize scripture, but remember it. While I believed her, it was hard to imagine 7th and 8th graders being able to recall so many words! You see, the first week they memorize a passage of scripture and say it in front of their class. The second week, they repeat the first week's verse and add a new one to it. The third week, they repeat the verse from week two plus the new one from week three, and so on, so that each week they're reciting two passages. THEN at the end of the semester, they write out ALL the scriptures they've memorized since the first week. WOW.

This week my 7th grader, Megan, was memorizing Romans 12:1-2:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As she and I were working on it the other night, she was a little frustrated because all of the 8th graders in her Bible class already knew this long passage from having memorized it the year before. Right about then her older sister, a 9th grader, walked into the room and started quoting it verbatim.

Now while this recitation from her sister only increased Meg's frustration, it absolutely thrilled ME!! To know that these verses are not just being crammed into their short term memory for a test, but actually being stored in the deep recesses of their minds, so they are able to recall them when needed? PRICELESS.

This morning Megan asked if she could practice saying her verse to me while we walked from our car to the school buildings. I agreed, of course. As she began reciting the scripture to me, I envisioned other students on the campus speaking God's Word aloud throughout the day, and I got so excited! I mean, how could scriptures, spoken out loud not have a positive effect on a school campus let alone the students who are reciting them?! 

Megan finished as we approached my office, kissed me goodbye, and as she walked away I said under my breath, "Take THAT, Devil." 

My girls, and so many other kids in our school, are hiding God's Word in their hearts, and that's something NO ONE will EVER be able to take away from them.