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Becoming a Jesus-Centered Family

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Why Neuroscience Convinced Me To Memorize Bible Verses

Why Neuroscience Convinced Me To Memorize Bible Verses

Last updated on: December 21, 2023 at 12:53 pm by Steve Kozak

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Why Neuroscience Convinced Me To Memorize Bible Verses 2023-12-21T12:53:58-06:00 Steve Kozak

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Do you memorize Bible verses and passages as a family? If not, now might be a good time to reconsider. Because there is something more than just spiritual happening when we memorize Scripture—there is something neurological happening too that, surprisingly, can drive your family closer to Jesus.

And that’s always our goal—Jesus-centered families.

Should Your Family Memorize Bible Verses?

I have long lived on both sides of this equation.

As a kid, I learned two key things in Sunday School. The first was John 3:16. The second? Don’t hit other kids with your Bible. I know they taught me more, but that’s the gist of what I got. I remember being told to memorize verses. To hide them in my heart for when I need them. I never really understood what that meant. Besides, I wasn’t very good at memorizing. Over time, I began to despise the practice.

The disdain only grew from there.

I was a Christian educator for more than a decade. As a Theology teacher, I inherited verse memorization as part of the school’s curriculum. The intention was to bury truth deep into their subconscious to be recalled when they found themselves tempted by sin.

It was a fair point. One that I agreed with in principle. But while I hope the practice served them well, that wasn’t what I observed.

Some kids were just good at memorizing and did well. Those who struggled gave up.
Some kids memorized for the moment and then quickly forgot.
For others, the words were memorized, but the meaning was often lost.
Even some of my best students at memorizing failed to live out its truth.

Selling My Soul To Verse Memorization

Year after year, this pattern drove me to challenge the status quo of verse memorization. That was until I went to work at the verse memorization capital of the world: Awana Clubs International. Talk about your all-time paradigm shift. This quick change in career focus was more than just an exit from the classroom; it required me to, quite suddenly, get on board with memory verses.

In those days, the Awana program—if you completed Cubbies through Journey (the high school program)—you likely memorized over 1000 verses! Yes, you read that right. I saw firsthand how hard these students worked to accomplish such a thing. And so refreshing to see passionate kids tirelessly working to know their Savior more.

I decided to sell out to the idea of verse memorization and that my experience as a teacher was only an anomaly. I even decided to remedy some of the issues I saw in the classroom by giving students more context to verses, memorizing larger passages, and employing the idea of repetition to help those who struggled.

But that’s not what convinced me.

But It Was Neuroscience That Convinced Me To Memorize Bible Verses

It should come as no surprise that God has done an incredible job designing your brain.

But did you know that your thoughts can change your brain? The thoughts you feed your brain—positive or negative, true or false—are stored in your nonconscious mind—where 99.9 percent of your mind activity is. It’s there that you will find the root level of all your emotions, perceptions, what comes to the surface of your concise mind, and, ultimately, what you say and do. Everything is first a thought. And whatever you think about most—that’s what grows the most.

Are you starting to see where I’m going with this?

We don’t just fight a spiritual battle with Satan by memorizing the Bible, we are actually fighting a battle of the mind. Satan will use our senses and the world around us to try and to get us to react negatively, think of ourselves in a negative light, and ultimately believe the lies he tells us.

memorize Bible verses

However, the more scripture we can supplant into our minds and memorize into our nonconscious, the greater the tools we have to choose our actions properly despite the circumstances around us.

One of those tools are the Scriptures you and your family should be memorizing.

Memorizing Bible Verses Activates the Neuroplasticity in Your Brain

Your brain has a remarkable ability to change itself. When we flood our minds with the right thoughts—the kind of thoughts that give life. You know, all that great stuff from the Bible. The more we memorize and reflect on truth, the more we can actually carve healthy neurological pathways in our brains, making it harder for us to fall victim to Satan’s lies.

It’s the science behind how we become more like Jesus.

Paul told us in Romans 12:2 to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” and in Ephesians to “take off the old self and put on the new.” What he certainly intended as a spiritual truth was also a brain truth proven by science. Through neuroplasticity, we can, in reality, renew our minds. And the way we do that is through filling ourselves with the truth of Scripture.

So, what does this mean for your family?

Memorizing the Bible Creates a Jesus-Centered Home

Crafting a home that is centered on Jesus is not about developing another program, reading another book, or small group study on parenting. Those are all good things, and you should do them. But, a Jesus-centered home is more about developing a new way of thinking. It’s about parents who believe deeply that our kids are designed and destined to do incredible things for the Kingdom of God. It’s families who actively decide to elevate their expectations of the time spent at home, who want to experiment, learn, and grow together, taking the everyday mundane parts of parenting and turning them into profound, life-changing discipleship moments.

And I am convinced that memorizing verses as a family is part of becoming a Jesus-centered home. Because taking the time required to commit Scripture to memory does a few critical things.

It sends the message to your kids just how important it is.
It fills your thoughts and conversations with what is good and pure and, therefore, transforms your mind—and literally changes the physical makeup of your brain.
It offers an opportunity for your kids to ask questions and gain greater clarity and understanding of God’s Word.

God told the nation of Israel as they prepared to enter the Promised Land and set up a life that reflected the Creator—surrounded by a world of idols—to teach the next generation diligently. To talk of Scripture when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Every part of life was to involve God smack dab in the middle.

The same holds true for us.

If you want kids who are chasing after Jesus long after they leave home, then your home needs to be radically centered on Him. And creating such an incredible environment must begin with the Bible as the foundation. So why not start with memorizing some critical truths together?

Evangelical

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