$176

When he shared his goal, I wanted to jump up and down.  My husband tried to renegotiate the deal.  Jokingly.  I started something when our grands became old enough to memorize scripture that my parents had instituted with our sons.  $1 per verse.  A child doesn't often see the value of scripture memory, but we who are older realize how important it is to hide those verses in your heart as young as possible. The effort to memorize in youth is so much easier, even if the understanding of and value placed on the scripture grows with age.

When we have our family call on Sunday afternoon, our west coast grands frequently will have a verse to share. (The grands in town often share their verses when they come for Fabulous Friday.)  I now have a spreadsheet to keep track of which grand has said which verse.  No payment for double dipping.  But it had been awhile since they had a verse for me. 

So I was a bit surprised when one grandson told me he had memorized 10 (!!!) verses to share with me, which he did perfectly.  But it was what he told us afterwards that brought true joy and the attempted renegotiation.  We were informed he planned on memorizing the entire Psalm.  He had just shared the first 10 verse of  Psalm 119.  He was planning on working on the remaining 166 verses.

$176.  That is what I will owe him if he learns the entire Psalm. His $10 will be in the mail today. If all the grands decide to memorize long passages, I may need to reconsider when I retire. Oh that they would keep me working for years.  And may the Word plant itself deep in their minds and hearts.