We have been continuing our ‘Growing Spiritually’ teaching series on Sunday mornings (a HABITS series), with Matt O teaching the middle school students this last Sunday and Paul R teaching the high school students.  The lesson series is from the Live Curriculum, a great youth ministry resource.  Here’s the recap and some follow up ideas for families at home:

Each lesson focuses on a basic spiritual discipline/practice that can foster spiritual growth. The theme of the lesson series is HABITS, which stands for:

• Hang out with God (prayer)
• Accountable friendships
• Bible memorization and study
• Involvement within the church body
• Tithing
• Sacraments (baptism, communion)

This week’s lesson continued our HABITS series and focused on the spiritual discipline of Bible memorization and Bible study. Our teenagers looked at Joshua 1:8 as the primary text, a verse that challenges us to study and meditate on God’s Word day and night.

Memorization can seem like a complicated task, but we’re all able to remember lyrics to songs, facts for tests, and lines from our favorite movies. We challenged our young people to see the importance of having God’s Word in their hearts as a source of strength, guidance, and inspiration to make decisions that honor God.

This week, I’d encourage you to take a few minutes to discuss the importance of Bible memorization with your teenager. Here are some questions you could use to fuel the conversation:

• Part of growing in your faith is learning to make choices that honor God. But how do you know what is really honoring to God?
• Joshua was told that he would prosper and succeed if he obeyed God’s commands. Do you believe that same promise extends to you? Why or why not?
• Why might God want us to study the Bible on our own and memorize it instead of just hearing it read when we go to church?

You also might want to come up with a family plan where everyone can memorize a verse together. Maybe create a challenge to see who can memorize the verse first, and every time you see each other, you have to repeat your verse to one another. Have a blessed week!