What Is In A Man's Heart Cannot Be Taken Away (from the CDG conference)

I have neglected for too long to post about the many things that I learned from the CDG conference. This is directly from my notes. I hope something from this lecture blesses you as it did me. The woman who presented this lecture had a passion and enthusiasm for teaching children that was contagious. She had lots of great ideas..... So, if you're up for reading a novel today, read on....

This lecture emphasized the importance of Scripture memorization in the home and in the church. The speaker, Kathi Westlund, first told us of her mission to teach her own children to know large segments of the Bible from memorization, "in case they found themselves to be Bibleless". She mentioned different cases where people she knew had been without a Bible, and showed how the Scriptures had comforted, encouraged, and helped them during those times. So that was her reason anyway... She quoted, "That which a man carries, he may lose. That which a man wears, may be torn from him. That which is in a man's heart cannot be taken away..."

Perhaps the most moving story that Kathi told was the story of a precious elderly woman, who was over 100 years old. This woman was blind, hard of hearing, and confined to her bed. She suffered from extreme memory loss. Kathi played a tape of an interview with this sweet Christian woman. When asked about her parents, the elderly woman didn't remember them. When asked about her husband and children, the elderly woman didn't remember them either. The woman could remember little, but one thing she could remember. Her shaky voice enthusiastically recited the words she knew so well. They were Scripture, something she'd memorized as a child,

"Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done,
On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever!"

I thought this woman's sweet prayer was especially moving. The woman knew almost nothing of her past, could recall almost nothing, but was still able to recall Scripture. Fantastic!


Kathi (the speaker) went on to talk about the importance of training our children and impressing upon them the truths of the Bible.

She quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [1] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.


She explained that the real meaning of the word "teach" them to your children, which was similar to "sharpen", as in sharpening a knife. Don't ask me the details. This is just what I wrote in my notes. :) So basically, we are to equip or "sharpen" our children, to prepare them. We need to make sure that they are not dull knives when the battle comes. Our children need more than John 3:16 and Psalm 23 to carry them through the ups and downs of life. We need to saturate them with the Scriptures, not just a few select passages.


Memorization is the way that we keep God's Word continually before us. Memorizing Scripture helps us to be in awe of God.


Proverbs 6:20-2320 My son, keep your father's commandment,and forsake not your mother's teaching.21 Bind them on your heart always;tie them around your neck.22 When you walk, they [1] will lead you;when you lie down, they will watch over you;and when you awake, they will talk with you.23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life


Why don't we memorize? It takes desire, time, and organization. Parents should be memorizing as well as children. How can we expect our children to memorize Scripture when we do not? Teachers will not be there to administer proper Scripture verses for discipline/correction in daily life. As parents, it is our duty to know them and use them in training our children.


The speaker suggested going "church wide" with Scripture memorization. I think this is an excellent idea! At this particular church, adults and children alike are memorizing the same verses! Imagine working on verses together as a family, instead of doing verse A with your oldest child, verse B with next one, and so on... The pastor of that church also makes it a point to incorporate the Fighter Verse in his lesson each week. This sounded so neat!

Three Types of Verses in the Fighter Verses:

1) This is what God did.

2) This is what God promises.

3) This is what God wants us to do.


Here are some of the positives that she gave for church wide memorization:

1) Awakens old people who have grown stagnant (They mentioned how excited several of the elderly members of their congregation had gotten about the Bible with the enactment of church wide memorization. How wonderful to have those seasoned Christians memorizing the same verses as the children in the preschool classes!)

2) Church wide memorization has a powerful effect on unifying the corporate church body. Church wide memorization also has a noticeable effect on prayer meetings. (She mentioned how many of the people found themselves praying Scripture with ease and how powerful that was on the spiritual growth of the church family.)

3) It helps believers to fight the fight of God. They are properly equipped to handle everyday trials and to defend themselves against Satan and his schemes.

4) The effect on the souls of our people, who can measure?

The Fighter Verses were designed to be memorized for retention. She explained ways to help yourself retain memory verses. Then, she suggested trying to apply these memorized verses in both your everyday life, and the daily lives of your children.

Some points about children and the memorization of Scripture:

1) Children who memorize Scripture are often wise beyond their years and able to comprehend mysteries they are faced with at an early age.

2) Children memorize effortlessly. If they are going to memorize something....why not...Scripture?

3) They have real battles, spiritual battles, anxiety and fears

4) Maybe adults will run more quickly to Jesus when they've been trained to run to him as children.

How to Teach Children Scriptures:

1) Show the child the words in their own Bible. This shows them that they are not just words, but God's Word. Dissect the words that they don't understand.

2) Have them repeat it in bite size phrases.

3) Address---verse---Address For example, have them say, "Romans 3:23---"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."---Romans 3:23: They need to know where it is found in their Bible.

4) Avoid distracting activities which trivialize Scripture.


Parents need to see discipline as a spiritual issue and react with Scripture in training them.

One of the best resources I've seen for this type of thing is Ginger Plowman's Wise Words For Moms.

Here are some examples of Biblical Application from my notes:

Parents need to be encouraged to help their children see life through the lens of the Word. While it's true that children may misunderstand some words, most verses contain a simple truth that parents can help children to see. If we strive to apply verses to daily life, we teach children the valuable lesson of where we look for guidance.

For example: a parent, noticing a child is really angry, instead of simply telling him/her not to be mad, could say, "You're really mad! Do you know any Fighter Verses that could help you know how to be mad?" Knowing that the child knows the verse "in your anger, do not sin." (Eph 4:26) "That verse is telling us that there must be a right way and a wrong way to be angry... What could that mean?"

Some examples of Biblical Application of Scripture:

Instead of "Be nice to your brother." --- "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity." (Psalm 133:1)

Instead of "Obey me!"--- "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right." (Ephesians 6:1)

Instead of "Listen!"--- "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." (James 1:19)

Instead of "Don't complain!"--- "Do everything without complaining or arguing." (Phillipians 2:14)

The list could go on and on!

In this way, children are pointed to God in the everyday experiences of life-Because that's where the Christian life is lived! Parents add God's Authority over their own, so that the children see that life is about hearing and obeying Him foremost. Parents' motivation to memorize is sharpened when they see how applicable the Bible is in the daily life and behavior of their children.

Ideas to Help Your Kids to Memorize Scripture:

Babies and Toddlers: Choose just 2 or 3 basic verses to practice for the whole year in the nursery. Rhythm and hand motions are an effective way of teaching this age group.

Elementary Aged Children:

Verse cards: Each child in your Sunday School class should have their own set of verse cards, the Foundation Verses.

Repetition: Simples repetition is the best way to lead children in memorization. After you've said it several times aloud, go through it and dissect it, maybe on a white board or overhead. Be sure to explain any unfamiliar words and make theological connections.

The Real Life Game: Describe real life situations (e.g. "You're on your way to the hospital in an ambulance..." "Your family ran out of gas in a remote area..." etc. As the children to call out verses that would be helpful in such situations. (e.g. "When I'm nervous about taking a test..." --- "Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you." -or- "When I'm tempted to gossip"--- "Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel goes down." Always try to move Bible memorization from the task to the application! As children get used to making applications, use situations that are more and more subtle. Also, play the game in the reverse; have the children call out the situations and have the adults come up with the verses.

Alternate idea: Cut out magazine pictures of people in various situations and mount them on card stock. Divide the class into groups, pass out the pictures and see what verses the children can come up with. Sometimes let them use their verse cards or their Bibles instead of relying solely on their memory. Drills like this can be done over and over, just like sword drills.

Real-life Reporting: Ask your students to report times when they are their families have recalled a certain verse in a real-life moment of need. Tell them about situations in your own life that Bible verse applied to (even if you didn't remember to apply them at the time!)

Bible Memory Jeopardy: Call out a reference and see if the children can remember the verse that goes with it. Or call out a keyword and see if children can remember the verse.

Rhythm and Hand motions:

Songs: Put the memory verse to a traditional folk tune or hymn tune. (Or if you're like the Smith family, you'll just have fun making up your own tunes!)

Whiteboard Game: Print the whole verse and reference on the board, have the children repeat it aloud several times, then start erasing one word at a time until the whole verse is erased.

Posters: Design a poster of the week's verse to help in the learning process and to use for weekly review.

Magnets: Print up simple computerized illustrations, laminate them, and adhere them to short strips of magnetic tape. Send one home with each student each week.

Illustrations: Have children illustrate their verses. These can be sent to people in nursing homes or people who are ill.

Border-sheets: Provide border-sheets for students for them to decorate and write their verses on.

Place mats: Provide blank paper place mats for students to write verses on and illustrate each week.

Notebooks: Have students put their illustrated verses into a small notebook that they can use also for learning to take sermon notes.

Mini-posters: Have the children make little posters on card stock to hang up at home.

Pencils: Have pencils imprinted with an appropriate phrase to award to children for their commitment to memorize.

Tape Recording: Make an audiotape or CD of you class saying their verse, adding a new one each week. At the end of the quarter or year, make copies to give to each child.

Puzzles: As a class or small group, make a jigsaw puzzle of a verse.

Voice mail: Designate a special church voice mail at your own home or at the church, where the children can call and record their verses. Children love to hear themselves played back over the phone.

Chalk drawings: Take the children out to the sidewalk to write out and illustrate their verse. This will bless everyone as they leave the building.

Verse tree: Spray paint a tree branch (white or gold) and prop it in a bucket (with rocks, gravel, or sand). Cut out a different seasonal shape for each verse and label them with the reference of a verse (in sufficient quantities for each child in the classroom). As children learn their verses, let them write their names on the shapes and hang them on the tree.

Verse box: Decorate a small box as a gift and, each week, give the students their verses out of it. Or- use a small treasure chest and give the children their verses as treasures (cut out in the shapes of gems or coins). Or- have them put their verse in the treasure box each week and pull out a reward.

Post-it-notes: Provide post it notes and have children write out their own reminders, which they can post at home to remind them to practice during the week.

Modeling: Choose a lengthy chapter or a whole book of the Bible that you want to memorize. Commit to your class to review it each week for them for THEIR encouragement.

Encouragement notes: Print the weekly verse on postcards and send them to your students each week to remind them to review.

Greeting cards: Have the children illustrate verse cards that can be sent to those who are ill or the shut-ins. Make the cards available to church staff and others who make hospital or home visits.

Cups: Print up verse labels to stick on to plastic disposable cups to send home with the children for review at meals or for tooth-brushing time.

T-shirts: Have children bring plain t-shirts. Each week, use fabric paint to write out the references of the verses they learned. Send the shirt home with them (on them!) at the end of the year.

REVIEW TIPS:

Memorizing Bible verses is fairly easy for most people, of all ages, but retaining them is difficult. It sends a confusing message to children when we say that Bible memory is important, but just let their verses fade away from quarter to quarter and from year to year. Sunday School teachers should provide opportunities for in-class review and should encourage parents to develop a routine of reviewing verses at home.

Systematic Daily Review: Encourage the children to review 10 verses aloud each day. As the number of their memorized verses grows, they should review more each day. It's amazing how many verses can be reviewed in 10-15 minutes or so a day!

Verse Titles: It is helpful for some children (and adults!) to title their verses with short (1-2 words) titles/keywords. This seems to help in retrieval of one's verses. (e.g. Label "Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said 'Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.' (Hebrews 13:5-6)" as "money" or "contentment"- just learn that label along with the verse.)

It is our hope that if our children should wander from the Lord, the Word they memorized in their childhoods would continue to minister to them, convicting, instructing, and wooing them back to the Lord and will be there to strengthen them and grow them in their faith.

John Newton is an example of this: "John had a keen mind and retentive memory. By six, he was reading Virgil in Latin. Later in his life, he reflected: 'My mother stored my memory, which was then very retentive, with many valuable pieces, chapters, and portions of Scripture, catechisms, hymns, and poems. When the Lord at length opened my eyes I found great benefit from the recollections of them.'

All the more reason to load our children up with the treasures of the Word for them to tap into in the future!

In closing, the speaker explained our duty to PRAY. She said that we should:
-PRAY for ourselves, for the desire to help children to memorize as a way of pointing them to God. (Daniel 12:3)

-PRAY for their parents' diligence. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

-PRAY for the children, that they will be hungry for the Word and that they would learn verses that will help them fight the fight of faith in specific situations (maybe far in the future) and that they would be gaining a habit that would feed them for life! (Jeremiah 15:16)

-PRAY for all the parents and teachers and children under your care-that they would be confident that God's Word is true and is a shield to all who take refuge in it! (Psalm 30:5)