“We get to sing the Word,” wrote Hezekiah Acosta in one of his English assignments. “It’s really fun.”
Students at Alaska's Anchorage Junior Academy need to learn their memory verses just like every student in Christian schools. The students in third and fourth grade learned their verses to song. Their teacher, Janice Enquist, was so pleased with how quickly they memorized verses that she began teaching more and more Scripture songs to them. While walking in the gym or traveling on a field trip some would ask, “Can you teach us another Bible song?” Before long the whole class was memorizing two verses a week, then three.
To keep the momentum going, they earned a sticker for every verse they sang from memory. What did they earn with their stickers? Bibles, Bible cases, Bible marking tools, concordances and Spirit of Prophecy books.
As of mid-May, most of the students had learned 100 verses and were still learning more. Some of the longer passages they learned include the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer and I Thess. 5:16–22.
Why sing the Word? It keeps you from sin and lifts your spirit so you don’t complain, and verses stay in your memory longer. God actually commanded Moses to frame the events of Israel’s history in song, so that parents might teach their children and none would forget (see Deut. 6:7 and Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, pp. 364–5).
Hannah Jordan, a third-grader, says, "It’s easy and important. We aren’t just reading the Bible; we are hiding it in our heart.”
Anchorage Junior Academy students (from left) Brandon Bojorquez, Wilber De La Rosa, Hezekiah Acosta, Willow McAllen and Hannah Jordan have learned dozens of Bible verses through Scripture songs.
