Anyone have Fifty, Nifty, United States memorized? How about the US Presidents set to the tune of “America The Beautiful”? Or did anyone Rock the Countries in high school in order to learn capital cities from Central America? Well, even if we never learned anything complicated to a tune–I bet we all have the Alphabet Song mastered.
That’s because music is a super powerful tool for memorizing. A study cited in a Frontiers in Education article determined that typical students were able to recall 20% more words when they were sung to them as opposed to just recited to them. There’s lots of brain science to explain it, but we’ve all experienced it.
It’s hard enough to keep track of our kids’ birthdays or our friends’ birthdays. Forget about passwords, account numbers and the like. But if I were to crank up up your favorite song from 15 years ago–maybe “Bye, Bye, Bye” from NSYNC or “Before He Cheats” from Carrie Underwood, or even the one hit wonder “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter — I bet you could sing every. single. word.
What does this have to do with parenting or even discipleship? Maybe nothing. Maybe you have a mind like a steel trap and mnemonic devices are just child’s play for you. But maybe, like me, you have to pull your credit card out every time you place an online order to double or triple check your CVC on the back, just to be sure.
Regardless of whether you have total recall or whether you can’t remember what you had for breakfast, each of us is encouraged in the Bible to “hide the word in our hearts” and to “meditate day and night” on the scripture. The first is a clear call to scripture memory. The second will be a lot more likely if you have some verses already stored in your brain.
At NCBC Kids we are purposefully using music to help your kids learn. Did you know that every single week in preschool through second grade kids are hearing “The Books of the Bible” song? Additionally, many of our Turn It Up worship lyrics are word for word from the pages of God’s word.
Of course many of the worship songs we sing in the Main Service at NCBC are Straight Outta Scripture too. One of my favorite ways to hide the word in my heart is to listen to a Shane and Shane Psalms album on repeat.
We are pretty spoiled right now to have instant, searchable access to the Bible anywhere and at all times. I understand the call to disciplined memorization may seem outdated. But what if, as the prophet foretold, a literal famine of hearing the words of God is really coming? What if, like currently in China, the scriptures are limited and actually being rewritten to align with political ideology? Let’s use this time of plenty to store up the words of life to sustain us when we need them most.
Here are some musical resources your family might enjoy to start this learning journey together.
Books of the Bible song
Seeds Family Worship
Shane & Shane Music
Or here’s these for those who love their screen time:
The Adventure Bible Memory App from Zonderkids
Bible Memory App
This practice isn’t to earn more favor with God, but to get to know Him better and love Him more. So I hope you will take advantage of one of these resources to lead your family closer to Christ and His words of eternal life.
And it’s okay if you can’t start right now. I mean, maybe:
You had a bad day, you’re taking one down…You sing a sad song just to turn it around…You say you don’t know, you tell me don’t lie…You work at a smile and you go for a ride….
