When training, correcting, and encouraging the kids I try to use the wording of scripture as much as possible. God's word is powerful and it's His wisdom I want to impart to my babies not my own. Who has the power to speak all of creation into being? Who among us can claim that his word is living and active? What physician can send forth his word to heal? There is only One.
I try to teach a passage or verse with the kids and choose a portion to memorize. Then when a situation occurs where the scripture applies I have it ready on my tongue. Sometimes I pick something that addresses an area we are struggling with, sometimes I pick something that is from my own reading and spoke personally to me. Sometimes it might be a random choice on my part. In any case, there always seems opportinity enough to speak the scripture into our daily lives.
When applying the passsge I may not use the entire passage/verse because they too have memorized it; a portion is enough. One of our favorites is Proverbs 25:28
A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls.
We memorize the verse so they can say it on their own or so if I say the first phrase they can respond with the last. We talk about what it means for a city to be without walls, what would it be like without that protection and how it is left to be broken into. We talk about how our bodies are like cities and what life would be like without self-control and what would it mean for you if you left yourself unprotected, without that wall. There is a visual image in their mind and the verse hidden in their heart. So when C gets wiggly in church, or one of the girls insists on trying to trip her sister at the grocery i can whisper in their ear "you're like a city without walls, please sit still (or stop tripping your sister)."
I wish I could say we have a hundred such verses memorized, but the truth is we have been very slow. Proverbs are the easiest to start with but we have used longer passages from other books as well. We are currently working with Proverbs 21:23, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue Guards his soul from troubles." When I ask them "who wants trouble in their soul?" not one of them ever does. Or when things get out of hand and their words aren't kind, I can say to the group "He who guards his mouth and tongue" and they can finish the verse (either in their mind or verbally) and are reminded to be careful how to speak to each other. I can also simply say "please guard your mouth." An added benefit is I can gently correct a child in public in a way that does not embarrass because the phrase implies much more than is said, but the child and I know as we have studied it together.
I use this method not thinking that it is some sort of magic spell or in a spirit that would guilt or manipulate my kids into acting the way I want, but in faith that God will use His word to shape us and to accomplish all He desires in our family and in each members life.
"Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David. . . . For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:3, 8-11
Genesis 1
John 1
2 Timothy 3
Psalm 107:20, Luke 7:7
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