And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory,
are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
This is the verse we've been trying to learn on the way to school for the past two weeks. It takes a mere 7 minutes to get to town but the 2.5 minutes (sometimes 2.5 seconds) in the middle of the trip is just long enough to learn about a verse every week (or so). At least Priya and I do.
Priya is very quick to learn verses. (Writing her name legibly and practicing sight words is a different story). And as I remember I could learn verses quickly when I was her age too. The key word being "when I was her age." Something happened to my learning abilities in the 26 years since then. The verses I still know today, the ones I can pop off and remember the references - all of those verses are ones I learned 25 years ago. Thus one of the reasons I thought it prudent to work on verses.
But the theory I've been contemplating is whether it is better to learn lots of verses young when the learning comes easy, even if the understanding of their meaning isn't clear OR learn a few verses and know how to interpret them. Once I heard someone sort of complain that the way AWANA learns verses, in mass quantity, misses the part of understanding what they mean. This person had decided to teach her boys a few verses and really explain their meaning.
I'm not so sure. The beautiful thing about the Bible is that is has something to say to any age. The same verse applies to a five-year-old kindergartner as well as a 60 year-old grandmother or a 25-year old doctoral student. So maybe my five year old doesn't understand all the Greek or Hebrew semantics, but she does understand that Jesus is changing her to be more like him. She does understand that He is in the process of taking off the part of her heart that is naughty and replacing it with a Jesus-like part. When she is 25 or 45, this verse will apply to her in a different way. She'll be at different place in life, probably.
So if she can learn as many verses now when her mind most retains and memorizes, how can it be anything but a good thing. We certainly aren't learning verses at a rapid rate by any means and I do think it is important that I try to explain (as inept as my explanations might be) what the big words mean.
Priya is very quick to learn verses. (Writing her name legibly and practicing sight words is a different story). And as I remember I could learn verses quickly when I was her age too. The key word being "when I was her age." Something happened to my learning abilities in the 26 years since then. The verses I still know today, the ones I can pop off and remember the references - all of those verses are ones I learned 25 years ago. Thus one of the reasons I thought it prudent to work on verses.
But the theory I've been contemplating is whether it is better to learn lots of verses young when the learning comes easy, even if the understanding of their meaning isn't clear OR learn a few verses and know how to interpret them. Once I heard someone sort of complain that the way AWANA learns verses, in mass quantity, misses the part of understanding what they mean. This person had decided to teach her boys a few verses and really explain their meaning.
I'm not so sure. The beautiful thing about the Bible is that is has something to say to any age. The same verse applies to a five-year-old kindergartner as well as a 60 year-old grandmother or a 25-year old doctoral student. So maybe my five year old doesn't understand all the Greek or Hebrew semantics, but she does understand that Jesus is changing her to be more like him. She does understand that He is in the process of taking off the part of her heart that is naughty and replacing it with a Jesus-like part. When she is 25 or 45, this verse will apply to her in a different way. She'll be at different place in life, probably.
So if she can learn as many verses now when her mind most retains and memorizes, how can it be anything but a good thing. We certainly aren't learning verses at a rapid rate by any means and I do think it is important that I try to explain (as inept as my explanations might be) what the big words mean.
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