"School Days"

 

“School Days”

 

When I was in fourth grade my misbehavior in class (guess I left my halo home that day) resulted  in my teacher’s requiring me to write the week’s spelling words five times each and the multiplication tables three times. I don’t remember what my offense was but even after 70+ years I haven’t forgotten the consequences. But I learned valuable lessons: repetition by writing can be an effective way of gaining knowledge as well as correcting unacceptable conduct.

This long-ago incident came back to me recently when at Karen’s suggestion I read something in Deuteronomy 17 I’d never noticed before. (See “Perfect Faithfulness” for another example of this.) Moses prophesied that Israel would desire a king (fulfilled in 1 Samuel 8) and he set guidelines for the monarch. Included were these words from Verses 18-19 (NLT, emphasis added): “When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy these laws on a scroll for himself in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep this copy of the law with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of this law.” (The priests likely provided oversight to see that this was done accurately.) So he was to write it, keep it, read it daily and obey it. At the conclusion of his final words to the nation “…Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests….” (Deuteronomy 31:9), putting the principle into practice.

The Bible is given to us to impact our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17). To do this some of today’s discipleship programs strongly emphasize Scripture memorization and one of the best ways to accomplish this is to write the words out and refer to them daily as the kings of Israel were told to do and the psalmist carried out in his own life (“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”—Psalm 119:11). Maybe this takes you back to your school days and what you learned then has stayed with you without your realizing it as happened with me. We learn from our own past experiences as well as those of others (see Romans 15:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:11) so let’s profit from both for our lives’ enrichment.

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan (with helpful input from Karen)