| “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long.” |
| —Psalm 25:4 |
Having spent fifty-plus years of my life in a school setting, I tend to think like both a teacher and a learner. My natural bent toward learning forces me to think in a sequential way about understanding, processing, and retaining knowledge. And, on top of that, my experience as a musician reinforces the notion that learning is longitudinal—that is, over a period of years.
No one has ever received the maximum benefit from learning a musical instrument if they take a lesson every six months and rarely practice. Nor, can a person enjoy success by taking lessons from one teacher for a brief time and then jumping to another teacher. The budding music student must carefully and deliberately follow a long, slow process, in order for learning to properly progress from foundational, to detailed, and onward to become specifically more complicated, as time goes by.
How should we study the Scriptures? In the same very careful and deliberate way: in a long, slow, sequential manner over many years. In Psalm 1:2, the Psalmist says that the blessed man …
… delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Creative teaching, with a carefully crafted and enjoyable methodology, will tend to produce eager learners, who don’t mind the perseverance they need to complete the process. And, the deliberate process will increase the effectiveness of the learning.
I note that during Colonial times in America, out of necessity, women taught their daughters to sew. The women would have their daughters practice by doing counted cross-stitch patterns with thread and cloth. These patterns taught not only useful stitching, but also taught letters, numbers, and Scripture verses. Each such lengthy project would allow these young girls to concentrate on God’s written Word, while they slowly improved their sewing skills.
I’m not proposing that we all learn to cross-stitch in order to learn God’s written Word. But, I am suggesting that each of us should make an effort to discover a pleasant way that will help us learn more effectively. Then, we should use that method to “meditate day and night” on God’s written Word.
Most people learn best using one of three ways: visually, aurally, or physically. Something learned in the style best suited to the individual will help him or her retain what he or she intends to learn. Some learn best by journaling, or in some other way that uses their hands to learn. Others like to listen to God’s written Word as they work or exercise. Others learn best by reading aloud, or by quoting passages of Scripture as they drive. I’ve known still others who like to paraphrase portions of the Bible to hide the written Word deep inside themselves.
The Apostle Paul, writing in Philippians 1:6 and speaking about God, tells us that:
He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God, our ever present heavenly Tutor, wants to partner with us as we learn His written Word and put it into practice. “Stitch-by-stitch,” day by day, God opens His truths to us. Just as, over time, many children enjoy the learning process, may we each make time to find the exquisite delights of learning God’s written Word all the days of our lives.
