SCRIPTURES TO SONG

It was the year 1984 and Paul and I had three children, seven, five and a one year old. Paul was a biochemist at the Launceston General Hospital and decided to study for a Fellowship to further his career. Every evening after we put the children to bed, Paul would go off to his make-shift study in our bedroom and study for a few hours. Meanwhile, I sat in the lounge room, feeling lonely sorry for myself.

One evening I thought to myself, “Paul is studying, what can I do?” As I prayed about it a thought came to me, “Teach the children Scripture!” This thought persisted and I searched for a pack of Scripture cards from the Navigators.

As I gazed at the pack of Scripture cards I began to picture our own children having a huge repertoire of Scripture, and I asked God how I could do this. A thought came to me, “Teach the verses in song.” It was like a light bulb going on in my mind. I felt so excited I could hardly wait to begin! I decided I would begin with. It was 1 Corinthians 10.13. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it.”

The next day at breakfast I said to Paul, “The children are going to learn this verse, and they will quote it to you by the end of the week.” When I quoted the verse to Paul (there were fifty words in it!) he rolled his eyes and just said, “We’ll see.” That’s all I needed. “Yes,” I thought, "We will see!”

I began by writing out the verse on a small card and placing it above the sink in the kitchen where I could see it clearly. I asked God for a tune for this verse and thanked Him for it. As I read the verse and thought about it, a tune came to me and I ran to the piano to see if it would fit the verse. Sure enough, it did, and after playing it through a few times I felt confident to teach it. I also played the tune onto my tape recorder so I wouldn’t forget it.

As the week progressed I was totally amazed at how easily the children learnt such a difficult verse. Friday tea time arrived and I planted the children in front of Paul while I went to the piano to play.They proceeded to sing the fifty word verse to him while he sat with his mouth hanging open. I was so excited! I knew that if the children could learn a Scripture of that size so easily through music, they could learn any verse.

Soon afterwards I was invited by a friend to hear a visiting speaker who had a prophetic ministry. As he concluded his message, he asked if anyone would like prayer. When the speaker came to me he asked if I had any children.I told him I had three. He looked intently at me and said, “I have a word for you, and it’s found in Isaiah 54.13, “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children.”

My eyes immediately filled with tears, and I felt as though God had just spoken clearly to my heart.He had given me an amazing confirmation that I was stepping into the plan he had for our family.I suddenly knew that as I taught Scripture to our children it would be God who would really be teaching them and His reward would be great peace in our home as our children learned to live life God’s way.

We had begun a new adventure that was to take us through the children’s formative years and well into their teens.This adventure would revolutionise not only their lives but those of Paul and me as well. Not only would our children arise and become full of God’s Word and learn His ways, but we as parents would also arise and become full of His words and learn His ways too!

JANINE TARGETT

Riverside, Tasmania, Australia

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Ph: (03) 63 273442

Janine has produced five CHILDREN ARISE CDs of Scriptures to song for children. Contact her for purchasing.