F.A.M.I.L.Y.? (2/12/12 – 2/18/12)

For something a little more light hearted, I figured this week I’d highlight and show off our family’s propensity to use mnemonic devices to remember favorite bible verses and theological doctrine/dogma. Since my generation is highly suspicious of these pedagogical tools, I’ve always been slightly annoyed by their cheesiness, by their cliché-ness (and Nicky agrees with me!). However, my grandparents lived in a time where technological devices and tools such as computers were unavailable to assist in bible study. When Nicky and I went to India to teach at a seminary, we brought over two thousands books on our computer. This ability to have everything “at our fingertips” however is not always good. Knowledge quickly gets reduced to expediency, truth becomes fact, and “information overload” reduces our wonder for the world. Eugene H. Peterson once said, “The assumption that our ancestors, working without benefit of computers, have nothing to teach us – can be exposed as nonsense! Surfeited with knowledge but starved of wisdom, many of us are more than ready to sit at table with our ancestors and listen to their holy conversations on Scripture.” I guess Peterson’s quote could have been the thesis statement of this whole project.

I might feel these to be highly insignificant, but my grandparents, who were wiser and more intelligent than I believed writing these down in their Bibles were very important. After all, what you treasure there will your heart be also.

What follows are pictures of these various sayings, slogans, acronyms, and acrostics. Please respond by commenting about your reactions to these various pictures and ideas? Are these memory tools helpful or are they cheesy? Does each generation need to "update" them or make new ones? These are just some questions to prime the discussion pump. Enjoy! Remember you can click on a picture to get a bigger view of that picture.