The Sword of the Spirit

For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Two weeks ago, I decided to add family scripture memorization as part of our weekly sabbath meal. If God’s word is the sword of the spirit (the only item in the armor of God listed for offense) and I’m sending my kids out to battle every day, they need that sword to be easily accessible.

To be honest, I thought it was going to go over like a lead balloon with both of my children, and I was already anticipating the pushback of bringing something “academic” to our day of rest, especially since both kids memorize scripture as a part of their private school education.

I kept playing out their possible responses in my head:

“Why are we doing this?”

“We already have to memorize verses for Bible class”

“Why memorize when we have a Bible at our fingertips?”

“Ugh, ugh, ugh”

But I also learned something from one of my former administrators almost fourteen years ago: people might complain at first, but if you just continue to do it, it will eventually become a part of the accepted routine.

I told myself that even if there was complaining, if I pushed through and we did it every week, it would just become our new normal.

Since we are in a season of gratitude and thanksgiving, I decided to start with I Thessalonians 5:18. I designed a verse card and printed one out for everyone in our family. At the conclusion of that first dinner, I asked someone to read the verse. We then went line by line and discussed what the words were saying. From there, I informed my family I had printed it out for them so they could keep it on their nightstand or tape it to their mirror during the week so that they could memorize it before we sat down together again next week.

To my surprise, they made it their mission to have it memorized before they even got up from the table that same night!

Two days later, God reinforced for me the power of memorizing his word. Caught up in a “Martha moment” of feeling overwhelmed by cleaning a giant mess in the kitchen, he gently corrected me when he brought to mind give thanks in ALL circumstances. I turned my perspective around and began to thank God I had dishes to clean because that meant we had food to put on our plates.

But I’m a slow learner. Twenty minutes later, I found myself sorting through negative thoughts as I folded laundry. Once again, I was reminded to give thanks in ALL circumstances. I quickly started focusing on being thankful that I had a closet and dresser full of clothes while so many others did without.

And because God is gracious, he allowed me to demonstrate the power of Scripture to my daughter who not long after was complaining about the homework she was working on. I asked her what I Thessalonians 5:18 says, and she recited it word for word. I reminded her that she can flip her perspective to be grateful that our family can afford to send her to a private school that she loves, and that God has also given her the cognitive ability to learn new things. What a blessing! But even more so, I had the opportunity to model for her God’s correction in my own life. I told her that not thirty minutes before, God gently reminded me of our verse when I, myself, found my inner monologue twisted up in a complaint session. I’m so grateful that correcting my daughter included letting her see how God corrected me. Even her own mom needs God’s word hidden!!

This past Friday night, we added Ephesians 4:32, and once again, my whole family memorized the verse once more before we got up from the table. A day doesn’t go by that we don’t quiz each other on the two verses we have already memorized, and everyone is calling them up so quickly and easily.

My goal is to be able to report back this time next year that my family has 52 verses under our belts, with recall at any time. My prayer is that our family leaves our home every day, not with the Sword of the Spirit in our backpacks and purses, but in our hearts and minds.