Saturate your Home with Scripture

By Marilyn Boyer

What is saturation? If you add sugar to water bit by bit, you finally get to a saturation point when no more sugar will dissolve in the water. The water is then thoroughly sweet. So it is with Scripture. We hear the Word, hear some more, hear some more, and finally become so familiar with it that it becomes a part of us and our behavior is changed. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, saith the Lord, neither are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Our goal is to actually exchange our thoughts for God’s thoughts, and when God’s Word is alive in our everyday lives, guiding the choices we make and the thoughts we think, we become more and more like Jesus. That’s our goal for ourselves and our kids. As you spend time teaching your kids God’s Word, you, in fact , are meditating on it, and it becomes part of you; you’re not just teaching your children what they need to know to become successful adults, you’re becoming a successful adult yourself.

When Rickey, my oldest child, was born, I was all charged up to raise a super kid. I’d always wanted to be a teacher. So I was pumped to make him a super kid. We lived in a trailer at the time, as Rick was attending college, and I had the walls plastered with ABCs. Rickey had learned them by the time he was 18 months old, and he could point to the Apes and make a pretty decent attempt at saying them all.

About this time, we started attending a Sunday school class taught by a man named Larry Coy, who encouraged us to learn how to internalize God’s Word in our hearts to change our everyday lives. All during the week I would ask God to show me a way to communicate these awesome principles of life to my little Rickey. The ABCs came off the walls and the Bible verses went up, and Rick and I began committing passages of Scripture to memory. James 1 was the first chapter, and if you had walked into our humble living room, you’d have seen it, big as life, written in marker on old construction paper and taped to our paneled walls.

I began making Bible verses on 5”x7” cards for Rickey, illustrating them with stick figures, but Rickey didn’t care. As a matter of fact, he began learning massive amounts of Scripture for a 2-year-old. He loved it and we loved it. Rick and I saw huge changes in our own lives and our little boy was becoming mighty in spirit.

Our family grew. I gave myself to teaching my boys Scripture. I’d ask God for ideas and He delighted in dropping them into my head – ways to make Scripture a part of their surroundings. I made each boy a character quilt using stories about animals that demonstrated particular character qualities. I remember my little 3-year-old, Timmy, happily proclaiming, “Mommy, I was orderly just like the woodchuck!” On the front of the quilt blocks were pictures of the animal, the character quality it demonstrated, and a definition of the quality. On the backside of the quilt was a Bible verse to learn. We used these quilts every naptime to teach Scripture.

The kid’s bedroom was saturated with Scripture. Covering the windows were curtains, colored by the kids using fabric crayons, showing Bible characters and qualities they demonstrated in their lives. Adorning the walls were name plaques reminding the child of the meaning of their name. The older boys shared a room with a Noah’s ark theme. I made animals to hang on the walls, and each had a Bible name – Jeremiah the Giraffe, Enoch the Elephant. Across the top of the walls was a chart, the ABC Bible men chart (A=Abraham, FAITH, “And God counted it to him as righteousness,” Romans 4:20-22). Each letter was represented by a Bible character, had an outstanding quality for that person, and a Bible verse to learn.

Another project was the “Rickey Board.” The first one was made out of scrap plywood we found at the dump. I had Rickey lie down and traced his outline on the wood, and Rick cut it out with his jig saw. Around the edges we placed Bible verses I’d looked up that showed him how to use his head down to his feet for Jesus. It was based on Romans 12:1-2, encouraging Rickey to give his body as a living sacrifice for his Lord. In later years, we updated it and took a picture of Gracie, enlarged it to poster size, cut it out, attached it to backing, wrote verses around it, and put it in a poster frame.

My goal was to get Scripture before our eyes to make a difference in our lives. God’s Word is alive, it’s precious, and it changes lives. Make it a priority!