52 Easy Bible Verses for Kids to Memorize + the Children's Bible We've Been Loving

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that one of my mom goals this year is to be intentional about investing in my children’s spiritual development. I can’t think of a better way to do that than to introduce my children to God’s word.

I didn’t grow up in a “churched” household. We rarely went to church (the exception was Easter Sunday), and I never saw anyone reading the Bible. We had several Bibles around the house, but they were pushed to the wayside, and no one sat down with me to read them.

At a young age, I began to get curious about God, and since I didn’t have anyone to teach me, I took it upon myself to crack open one of my grandmother’s Bibles and begin studying by myself. I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time, trying my hardest to navigate this complex book. It didn’t help that my granny’s Bible was written in the very-hard-to-understand King James Version.

To spare my children the struggle I faced, I’m taking the time to intentionally introduce them to God’s word. Specifically, this year I’m teaching my five year old, how to read, memorize, and implement Bible verses into her everyday life. I started by getting her this super cute children’s Bible. It has 52 different Bible stories (enough to focus on one passage every week of the year) and does a very good job of explaining complex topics on a child’s level. We pull this out before bed and read the stories, talk about the lesson we learned, and pray over what we read. She’s been loving it and so have I!

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The second part of her “training” is memorizing short scriptures. To accomplish this, I compiled a list of 52 Bible verses that are relatively short, easy to memorize, and easy to explain to a small child. The goal is to focus on one each week so within a year she will have memorized over 50 bible verses!

Why is this important?

I didn’t start memorizing Bible verses until I was 13 years old, although I had been reading the scriptures for years at that point. I realized that it wasn’t enough to just casually gloss over God’s word, I actually had to cherish it in my heart. In Psalm 119, the psalmist states: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” When we memorize scripture, it helps guide us in the right direction.

Memorizing scripture also helps us grow in our knowledge of God and strengthens our intimacy with Him. Since Jesus Christ is the Word of God in the flesh (John 1:14), we only know Jesus as well as we know the word. The entire Bible points to Jesus Christ. The better our children know scripture, the closer they will become to knowing and reflecting their Lord and Savior.

Finally, it is important that our children memorize scripture to guard against deception. There are many wolves in sheep’s clothing that will try to manipulate and twist scripture in order to lead people astray. My job is to ensure my children know God’s word for themselves, so they won’t fall prey to this type of deception.

A Few Tips

1.) Take it slow. Do NOT try to overload your child on scriptures. Start with one per week so they can really memorize the verse AND reflect on it. When you do too many at a time, they may be able to memorize them easily, but the “reflection and action” steps may be glossed over.

2.) Choose a translation that’s easy to read. The New living Translation, the New International Version, and the Easy-to-Read Version are my favorites for teaching small children the word. The list I have compiled below incudes scriptures from each of these translations.

3.) Make the reflection and application steps just as important as the memorization. Anyone can memorize Bible verses, but it’s the people who actually do what the scriptures say that are blessed. At the end of each session, pray with your child about the verse and give them an action step to take or reflection to meditate on throughout the week.

4.) And finally, have fun with this! This shouldn’t feel like Bible boot camp. Your little one isn’t in school for their Master of Divinity. It’s OK if they struggle a bit or don’t memorize all 52 Bible verses. The ultimate goal is to teach them how to engage with scripture and for them to learn more about God in the process.

Now, without further ado here are 52 easy Bible verses for kids to memorize…