Memorizing Scripture as a Christmas Gift to Jesus

Have you considered memorizing scripture as a Christmas gift to Jesus?

When our children were small, we wanted to do something special as a Christmas gift to Jesus. Since we lived in Africa, I had the children choose one of their toys to give away before Christmas to bless the children around us.

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But I wanted to do more than that for celebrating Christ’s birth.

I wanted to establish a family tradition that would bless us and bless the Lord too.

Then I got the idea to memorize a passage of scripture for our gift to Jesus! It would be fun to memorize it as a family and the children were certainly capable of doing that – even at a young age.

In fact, one of my married daughters and her husband have carried on the tradition with their children and here is her daughter at age 2 reciting Psalm 23. I bet this will bring a smile.

Memorizing Scripture in Passages

I know that we often memorize scripture in single verses, but there is merit in memorizing whole passages because you get the message in context and you don’t have to remember so many references.

The first passage we memorized was the Christmas story in Luke 2: 8-14. Subsequent years included 12 verses from Psalm 139, Psalm 23, Psalm 1, I Corinthians 13, the Beatitudes, I Chronicles 16:10-25. One year, the girls and I learned Proverbs 31:10-31. In 1992, we learned a short passage, Habakkuk 3:17-19 and made a chart of the previous ten years to review all the passages up until that year. We had to quote the passage to another family member to get signed off on the chart.

We memorized Romans 12, Philippians 4:4-8, Psalm 112, Romans 8:26-39, Job 22:21-30, Deuteronomy 8: 1-11, 15-16, and more.

When each child reached being a senior in high school, he/she got to choose the passage we memorized (and the version we memorized it in.)

When we adopted Kinza and Colette and all their siblings had gone off to college, we started the whole series over again with them! (On a side note for a laugh, here is a funny Christmas morning video of them. )

 Be purposeful in putting Christ first in your holiday traditions. What better way to honor Him than to hide His Word in your heart and teach your children to do that as well.

It is never too late! You can start this tradition right now – either as a family or just as an individual who loves the Lord! 

Psalm 119:11 says “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” 

I am currently being inspired by a great kindle book on memorizing Scripture called  His Word in My Heart: Memorizing Scripture for a Closer Walk with God [affiliate link] by Janet Pope.  She encourages us to memorize entire books of the Bible. How cool is that? 

What has been your experience with memorizing Scripture?

First published: Dec 2013

Updated: Dec 2023