It was July 1961.  Almost exactly 58 years ago.

Legendary coach Vince Lombardi walked onto the field for day one of training camp. His Green Bay Packers team was comprised of professional athletes who almost won the NFL Championship in the previous season.

Was he armed with a new playbook? Had he prepared a new regiment of strength-training exercises? What new ideas would he share to get them over the top next time?

Coach Lombardi held up the pigskin and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

He chose to begin at the beginning – to cover the basics and take nothing for granted. These were seasoned athletes, but he chose to focus on fundamentals.

As we begin yet another new season of home education with our children, let’s take a leaf from Coach Lombardi’s playbook. Let’s get back to the basics with the Word of God.

This month’s Write the Word is titled, “ABCs of Scripture.” While these monthly themed bookmarks are typically designed for you (the mom) to read and write, this month we want to spur you on to print copies for all the children in your family. We encourage you to:

• Read it
• Write it
• Speak it
• Share it
• Think it
• Hide it
• Display it
• Live it

When the king of Israel took the throne, God had some wise counsel for the new king:

When he takes the throne of his kingdom,
 he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law,
 taken from that of the Levitical priests.
Deuteronomy 17:18

Having every available scribe at this disposal, the king could have requested a scroll be prepared for every day of the week or every room in the palace. This is a task that could have been done for him. But God, in His wisdom, knew the value to the king in writing it out for himself. When we write the Word (rather than only reading the Word), it slows us down. We savor phrases and words that might otherwise be overlooked.

You and I may not be raising up kings (or queens), but we are certainly praying fervently and preparing our children to serve the King of all kings. What better way to prepare them than by writing the Word of God?

The ABC verses chosen this month not only follow the letters of the alphabet, but they offer key truth for life and learning.

• Consider purchasing a journal for your older children and ask them to write the Word daily with you.
• Your younger children may still need penmanship instruction; we highly recommend the handwriting resources from our sponsor, A Reason For. Every week, the program introduces a new Bible verse for children to practice (and memorize) as they hone their penmanship skills.
• If you have a chalkboard or marker board, display the daily verse in your home.
• Perhaps you might spread the verses out, memorizing one per week as a family during this school year.
• Consider reading each verse aloud before breakfast, then discussing its meaning and application to life.

As you make your lesson plans, organize your school area, purchase school supplies and place one more book order, I pray you don’t overlook the most basic, foundational truth for all teaching and instruction: The Word of God.

As you hold up your Bible — whether leather-bound or not — to your children, perhaps you can borrow a phrase from Coach Lombardi:

Children, this is the Word of God.

P.S. — We would love to hear (and see) how you’re incorporating God’s Word into your family life and homeschooling. Please snap a pic and share on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #WriteTheWord. It can be a picture of the bookmark, your chalkboard, you, your journal, your family, or anything related to the verses you’re writing. Multiple submissions are encouraged. At the end of August, we’ll choose one of your photos, and the winner will receive a beautiful journal from DaySpring.

Let’s encourage one another
to keep God’s Word FOUNDATIONAL this year!

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Download your Write The Word bookmarks
& S.O.A.P. study guide pages:

Write The Word: ABCs of Scripture — Standard Bookmark

Write The Word: ABCs of Scripture — Large Print Bookmark

Write The Word: ABCs of Scripture — S.O.A.P. Study Pages

And this month, as a special feature,
we’ve created daily verse cards with each of the
31 verses from the ‘ABCs of Scripture’ bookmark:

Write The Word: ABCs of Scripture - Daily Verse Cards

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Once you have, you can simply return to this page to download the file!

 

Visit our Write The Word archives for more than 2 dozen additional topics in this series!