We invited Ana Rute Cavaco, wife of Pastor Tiago Cavaco, mother of 4, to tell us how her whole family, in a year, memorized 52 questions with questions and answers from the Catechism of Nova Cidade.
In addition to encouraging us to dely into this great spiritual adventure, it also tells us of the future fruits of having hidden eternal principles in the hearts of every member of our family.
have fun!
It was in 2013 that we agreed to decorate the catechism of the Cavaco family home, I say that, do we agree?Because I remember fully doubting this challenge offered to us by my husband, with four children from 9 to 3 years old, the idea of memorizing 52 two questions and answers (some not short or simple) seemed to me a great challenge, but we started and it took us about a year to have both questions at the tip of the tongue.
Some argue that it doesn’t make much sense to memorize words we don’t always understand. It’s getting weird, so think out loud. However, the Bible is a book that we will never fully understand, at no age, so the scriptures are read with the eyes of faith and with the help of the Holy Ghost. Investing in memorization from an early age is a kind of investment. I was about 7 years old when I decided to decorate Psalm 23 (at that time I had in mind a huge chocolate bar, the motivations were not the most spiritual) Guess what psalm I say best today, at 40?It’s Psalm 23, of course. I say it’s an investment because the sooner we exercise that ability to gather information, the more important it becomes. No matter if we don’t fully understand it, God will try to do this work in us over time.
Four years after memorizing the 52 questions, we continue to recite them daily, in part, to not forget, we are already seeing the results of this effort, when we have to remind one of the children what this commandment means, or when a child has a specific question, we help answer, but we also find ourselves remembering: What is this question of catechism ? Said???. Decorating is storing a treasure, how many stories do we know of people who on this day are trapped by their faith and whose food from the scriptures is what they recorded in their memory?Do we want to be people who know how to respond quickly?We need to know that and where to find the information.
First of all, we had to translate it, because New City Catechism [i] is available on the Internet but only in English. Then we decided to memorize a question and an answer every week. We do home service every day of the week except Sunday. While we were all decorating together, we first memorized one sentence and only passed the next one when it was well memorized.
When we were able to have the full question and answer, we started catechism from the beginning with all the questions, to the most recent one, it takes time, but it is a good time as a family, the truth is that it was possible, and even today, it is a very useful content to remember and remember.
I think of Timothy, whose mother and grandmother taught him the scriptures from a very young age, and I try to imagine what it would be like at that time to teach the Word of God, with the resources we have today, we should not make excuses. . With the Bible open, with the freedom to live in a place where we are not in danger because we are Christians, we must use and abuse our skills and resources, always thinking about investing in the knowledge of our God, it never hurts us. and it’s a valuable investment for our children.
[i] N do E: Editora Fiel gave the first impression translated into Portuguese in October 2017, when the Cavaco family memorized catechism, there was still no Portuguese edition: Catechism Nova Cidade?The Truth of God in Our Hearts and Minds, Introduction by Timothy Keller, Colin Hansen Organization, Faithful Editor
By: Ana Rute Cavaco. © Return to the Gospel. Website: voltemosaoevangelho. com All rights are reserved. Original: Mother, do you want to teach your children to memorize the truth?