How low is your bar?

A few weeks ago my friend Parker posted the below video of her 2 1/2 year old son on Facebook.  I was blown away.  A 2 1/2 year old reciting the 23rd Psalm!  Really?  Take a moment to watch it.

When I first saw it, I watched it three times in a row.  At first I was just thinking, "he's so cute!"  Then I watched it again and thought, "he is so smart!"  The third time I watched it I realized why I had quickly become obsessed with this video, the bar I have for my children learning scripture is SO low!  If you are amazed by this video perhaps you can relate to that thought.  What goals do you have for your children learning the Word of God?  How low is your bar?

Do you have a goal for your children learning scripture for this month?  A goal for this year?  Any goals at all?  Most of us do not have any.

When it comes to setting the bar for our children's education, we set it high.  We want our children to succeed in school, do well, go to college ... be brilliant!

When it comes to sports, music, and other extra curricular activities, we set the bar high for our children.  We want our children to make the best regional sport teams.  We want them to progress swiftly in their music skills.  We want them to be rock stars!

Why then do we set the bar so low when in comes to learning scripture?  For most of us we don't intentionally set the bar low, we just forget to set the bar at all.

So I asked Parker how her family is learning scripture.  The above video is of baby #4.  She didn't originally set out to help him memorize the 23rd Psalm, she just read it to him every night as part of his bedtime routine - now he knows it! For herself and her two oldest daughters (10 and 8), the three of them are memorizing the book of James.  Each day they add a line. She has set the goal at memorizing the entire book!

When Parker told me about her plan for herself and her girls, I knew it was time for Pete and I to raise the bar in our house.  While we had been doing daily devotions with our girls at breakfast, I knew that we were setting the bar very low and just going through the motions. Last week we kicked off our Memorize James Project.  The girls are amazing and are much more excited to take part in our morning devotion - probably because Pete and I are terrible at memorizing anything and they are killing us!  But the point is we have set the bar, and we have set it high.  If your family's devotion time is growing bland, or is not regularly happening, I want to invite you to join Parker's family and our family in memorizing the entire book this school year.  Let me know if you accept the challenge, let's encourage one another along the way!