Research studies show that the earliest memories are retained longest in people's minds. How important it is, then, to fill children's memories with hymns, songs, prayers, Scripture verses, and creeds!
I want to emphasise this point doubly because of my own experiences with chronic illness and life-threatening crises. Last year a retinal haemorrhage in my good eye made reading barely possible only for very short periods with a double set of magnifiers. During seven months of near blindness, I thanked God constantly for my 8 years at a Lutheran elementary/junior high school, during which I memorised hundreds of hymn verses and passages of the Bible. This background enables me to participate almost fully in worship even when I cannot see the words. In times when I have been near to death, those songs and texts have flooded my brain and brought enormous comfort and strength.
In crises, old age, blindness, or other infirmities, our faith and hope continue to be nurtured by what we have stored in our memories.
Dawn, p.120.
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