I thought of the children who come through the doors of our churches. It means don’t fake love, don’t pretend, don’t act like you love, don’t just go through the motions, but really love each other. “Let love be without dissimulation.” I confess. And I was doing fine until I came to verse 9. Recently, while flying back home from Johannesburg, South Africa, I thought I would use my long flight time to memorize a few more verses in Romans 12. These archaic words, though odd to our modern ears, come back to me like childhood whispers, speaking to me from my Sunday School and Vacation Bible School days. I admit it is a curious language, but somehow I find the rhythms of these centuries old words more memorable thou and ye substituting for you, all those -eths suffixes… exhorteth, giveth, and ruleth for example, and then there are all those non-contracted negatives… And be ye not conformed to this world. I am one who memorizes from the King James. Some memorize from the King James Version and others prefer the English Standard Version, the ESV… so we recite in both versions. Plowing through with determination, leaning into each other as our minds go blank from time to time, together we recite the passages we are learning. Our ministry meetings begin with corporate recitation.
How can we encourage children and youth to memorize scripture if we don’t ourselves? And so for 68 years everyone at Awana, from the person in the CEO/President’s office to the youngest toddling Puggle out there, memorizes scripture. We feel it’s important that as we disciple others, we ourselves are practicing that discipline.
At our Awana home office we try to practice what we preach.
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