” …whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 NIV
When my mind barrages me with thoughts from my past, I recite this verse. His Word is my weapon against the enemy.
With Love, Cindy
Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?
Photo by Daniel Pelaez Duque on Unsplash
realchristianwomen.blog
Did you ever stop to think about how effortlessly children can memorize? Ask any toddler the names of the Paw Patrol Dogs or the members of Peppa Pig’s family. They know it all!
Annie at Seeking Divine Perspective commented that she can have trouble remembering Scripture she memorized as an adult, but she can easily spout off the ones she learned as a child. That has been my experience as well. I memorized the 23rd Psalm as a child and I’ve never forgotten it. (That was more than 60 years ago!)
My daughter, who is now 35, can recite many Scriptures she memorized as a child. (She also knows the whole movie, The Little Mermaid! But that’s another story!)
She told me that the thing that stands out to her the most are all the Bible songs she learned and the Christian TV shows for children such as Storybook (still available on Youtube). Many of those songs are Scripture verses and/or foundational truths. For example, Jesus Loves Me, The B-I-B-L-E, and many more.
Here’s the thing: If children have the ability to memorize easily and then remember it into adulthood, why aren’t we taking advantage of it?
Some Children’s Sunday School curriculum seems more interested in entertaining children than teaching them what they need to know. Some curriculum doesn’t include Scripture memorization at all.
Memorizing Bible verses can seem old-fashioned to some, but it is more important than ever. And it can be a lot of fun when you add hand motions or sing the verse. What is “normal” in today’s world is becoming more and more contrary to Biblical teaching. Memorizing Scripture hides God’s Truth in our hearts.
God has clearly said how important it is to teach our children His Word.
“And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your foreheads as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
I have been reading through Proverbs and I thought, “I wish I would have memorized some of these Proverbs before I left home at 17 to attend college. Perhaps then, the Holy Spirit would have brought some of these verses to my mind before I made poor decisions.” Proverbs 2:12-15 stands out.
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
13 who have left the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
14 who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
15 whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.”
Memorizing Scripture enables us to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Many times, God has spoken to me by bringing a specific Scripture to my mind.
The Holy Spirit has even used a Children’s Bible Song that I learned as a child to speak to my heart. In fact, that’s how my blog all began. As I lay in bed with Mononucleosis, I couldn’t get this little song out of my head:
This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine! Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm gonna let it shine.
That’s when I thought, “I’m a closet Christian!” I realized I never shared all the things God had done for me. And the idea to write a blog was born! You can read about it here.
More Scripture on Teaching Children
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Speaking of God’s words, Deuteronomy 11:19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
Matthew 18:5-6 “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Psalm 78:2-4 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past— stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.
The world is teaching our children many harmful ideas. May the Lord help us teach our children His ways. May He help us to protect their hearts and minds.
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
All Scripture references are from the NIV unless otherwise noted.
RealChristianWomen.blog
“Teach me your way, Lord,
that I may rely on your faithfulness;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your love toward me.” Psalm 86:11-13a NIV
With Love, Cindy
Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?
Photo by NATHAN MULLET on Unsplash
realchristianwomen.blog
The sun doesn’t look that big because it’s so far away (93 million miles away!) But, did you know that the sun is huge compared to the Earth? If the sun were the size of a basketball, the Earth would be the size of a small dot 2.2 millimeters across! The photo below puts it in perspective. (The blue sphere represents the Earth. The orange ball represents the sun.)
If an airplane could survive near the 5,800 K photosphere of the sun, its trip around the sun at 600 mph would take 4,522.33 hours … or 6.25 months. Compare that to the 5 1/2 hours it takes to fly from New York to California.
When you add to that knowledge the fact that the sun is a star and many of the the stars we observe in the night sky are even larger than the sun, we can begin to appreciate the magnificence of God’s creation. The stars look like tiny points of light only because they are so far, far away. Did you know that God has named each and every star? Wow!
“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” Psalm 147:4 NIV
I usually take my dog, Henry, for a short walk before we go to bed. I love to look up at the stars and reflect on the greatness of God and His magnificent creation.
I like to think about how huge those stars are and how far away they are. Do you know what you are really looking at when you gaze at the stars?
What appears to be a tiny little star is really a huge celestial ball (some larger than the sun) 4 light years away. That means when you see that star, you are seeing what it looked like 4 years ago because that’s how long it takes the light to travel to where you are standing. That’s far away! Yet we can see it with the naked eye!
(A light-year is the distance a beam of light travels in a single Earth year, or 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).)
The more I learn about the universe, the more I stand in awe of God’s awesome power and grand design.
“When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?” Psalm 8:3-4 NIV
Related: The Amazing Night Sky
With Love, Cindy
Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?
Featured Image Photo by David Monje on Unsplash
Night sky Photo by Sleep Music on Unsplash
realchristianwomen.blog
Being popular doesn’t make something right. (I can think of a lot of popular ideas that aren’t right. Can’t you?) Yet, Women’s Bible Study groups often delve into the latest Christian Best Seller. How do we know if these books are theologically sound? C.S. Lewis wrote a profound passage about this very thing.
“This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology.“
CS Lewis (1898 – 1963)
Lewis explains why this preference for the new books is a mistake. His words are even more applicable today than when they were written.
I found this passage, when reading Pam Larson’s excellent blog, Knowing God Through His Word … Day by Day. I found it so applicable to today’s Christian woman, I was compelled to repost it. It is definitely something we should think about.
This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself.
Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light.Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.
CS Lewis
This is from CS Lewis’ Introduction to the book, Athanasius’ On the Incarnation. You can read the entire introduction here.
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,” Philippians 1:9-10 ESV
With Love, Cindy
Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?
Photo of Kentucky, USA, Joshua Michaels on Unsplash
realchristianwomen.blog
“Pray for peace in Jerusalem.
May all who love this city prosper.
7 O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls
and prosperity in your palaces.
8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say,
“May you have peace.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem.” Psalm 122:6-9 NLT
With Love, Cindy
Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?
realchristianwomen.blog
This morning, I read a beautiful piece on entering God’s rest. It presents a truth that is sound, yet not so obvious. I’m so glad I came across it. You will be, too. Read it here: God’s Sabbath
With Love, Cindy
Click this link to learn more about Jesus: Who Is Jesus?
realchristianwomen.blog
With each new experience of letting God be in control, we gain courage and reinforcement for daring to do it again and again.
Gloria Gaither, 1942- , American writer, singer, songwriter
With Love,
Cindy
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
realchristianwomen.blog
Photo by Ioan Roman on Unsplash
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
Helen Keller, 1880-1968, American Writer, Crusader for the Handicapped
With Love,
Cindy
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
realchristianwomen.blog
Photo by Holly Mandarich on Unsplash
We learn to believe by believing. We learn to love by loving. The practice of acting on a certain thing, even (or especially) when feeling is absent, embodies the entire “how” of growth.
Eugenia Price, 1916-1996, American Writer
With Love,
Cindy
This Is My Journey Unscripted.
Do you want to become a Christian? Click this link to learn more: Who Is Jesus?
realchristianwomen.blog
Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash
Real Christian Women 