This morning in my quiet time I camped out in Colossians 3:16:

“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

And it hit me how key music is for letting God’s Word dwell in me richly.  According to this verse it’s right up there with teaching!  Have I ever found this to be true in my own life.  Most of the scriptures I’ve memorized, especially the longer portions stick with me because they’ve been put to music.  Not always great music, mind you!  But even little ditties help things stick better in my brain.

And it’s not just my brain.

I’ll never forget when my son was three years old, I decided to walk to the gym with him in the stroller, by the time we were headed home huge storm clouds gathered, leaving the sky ominously dark.  You could hear thunder rumbling all over the place.  As I raced the mile home pushing him in the stroller, praying that the fury of the storm would hold off just a bit longer I suddenly heard him saying something over and over.  Leaning in I discovered he was quoting Psalm 56:3-4a to himself repeatedly.

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.  In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.”

He was applying scripture, using it to calm his fears!!!  At three years old!

How could this be?

We’d been listening to Steve Green’s CD Hide Them In Your Heart!  The song got in and when the truth was needed it was there.  Years later I learned how crucial this is – if a child feels like he’s all alone when he’s experiencing pain he will often feel the need to self protect and shut down his heart emotionally. Can this ever impact his life and relationships even decades later!  But if he’s aware of the Lord protecting him, he won’t feel the need to self protect.  Truly one of the most important things parents can teach their children is that God is with them and able to protect and comfort them, especially their heart when it hurts.

That’s what Doug and Debbie Kingsriter discovered when their son had to have emergency surgery but no one mentioned that when he awoke after surgery he’d be unable to communicate for awhile.  They were so concerned since they hadn’t prepared him for this.  The doctor warned them most children freaked out but when their son could finally communicate again he was totally peaceful.  The doctors were amazed!  When they asked him about it, he shared how a verse they’d been memorizing as a family came to mind and calmed his heart.  They were utterly blown away!  He was so little they had no idea it had even sunk in!  That’s when they decided to create the GT and the Halo Express CD’s where all the songs were scripture!  If you can find a copy of these they are pure gold!

I cannot recommend highly enough moms listen to songs that feature scriptures with their children.  Even with babies!

Now the thunderstorm incident happened over 20 years ago, but since then even more Scripture song resources have been created – for you as well as your children (and grandchildren!  :0)  I love to memorize using the Fighter Verse app on my phone.  There’s a ton of variety in these songs and do they ever stick!  I listen to them as I’m exercising, learning a new one each week and it’s amazing how I’ll find myself throughout the day not only humming the tune but meditating on the words!  This is so helping God’s Word to dwell in me richly!

Recently my prayer partner shared with me another wonderful resource called Sing the Bible with Slugs and Bugs by Randall Goodgame.  My friend is absolutely loving using this with her children – and she has 13 of them! But note, she’s also really enjoying the music herself too.  If you go to Amazon.com you’ll find their CD’s have received 5 star reviews!*

Here’s a link to one of my favorites from here, featuring the African Children’s Choir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp0N0HPDA3M&index=5&list=PLYIqjB_N06Gv4lOS55xmMOdBmVIJh973H

I honestly believe providing opportunities for our children to hide God’s Word in their hearts is one of the most important things we can ever do for them.  We never know when the enemy may come to attack while we’re not around and what a difference it can make to equip them with the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) so they are ready for such times!  And not just when they are little…

A few years ago when my son was in college he passed through a difficult time of disappointment and pain.  During his hardest moment you know what helped?  A verse he’d memorized through song as a child, Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you or forsake you, says the Lord.”

But here’s the crazy thing – while I bought those children’s CD’s for my son’s benefit, after listening to them over and over for years as he grew up, those verses are forever etched in my memory – and on my heart, where they continue to make a difference in my life!

So please hear me on this – Scripture songs aren’t just for children!  Especially as I’m getting older I’m finding it’s much harder now to memorize.  But when something is put to music, memorization suddenly becomes do-able!  It really is helping God’s Word dwell richly in me… and then flow out of me so i can talk about it when I sit at home and when I walk along the road, when I lie down and when I get up, impressing them on those around me.  (Deuteronomy 6:7)

So for my application from this morning’s quiet time can you guess what I did?!  :0)

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*NOTE: Slugs & Bugs is Kickstarting Sing the Bible Volume 2!  You’d better believe this is one kickstarter project I am so excited about supporting!!! http://kck.st/1H60szM    And no, I get nothing for posting this on here!  But I so love passing on treasure when I find it – and trust me this is one kickstarter you receive treasure when you support! ;0)