I had to memorize a lot of Bible verses when I was little. It didn't matter if I liked it or not, or if I thought it was boring or difficult. I did it because I didn’t have a choice, like washing my hands before dinner and brushing my teeth before bed.

Bible memory work was part of everyday life for me; in fact, it was among the many conditions of growing up in a missionary boarding school that framed my childhood for better or worse—in this case, for the better. Yes, there were many difficult circumstances that brought a little band of missionary kids to the remote mountains of West Africa.

But, I discovered much later in life that the best, most enduring gift of those years was the planting of God’s Word deep in my young heart.

There were words of comfort, words of beauty, words of wisdom, words that made sense and words I didn’t understand. My young mind absorbed the language and stories of the Bible, and it shaped my childhood in vivid, indelible ways.

In fact, it was a Bible verse I learned as a child that sustained me years later as I coped with some difficult, painful circumstances in my adult life.

It’s as follows:“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, offer you a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)

It had been 20 years since I memorized those words, and I hadn’t thought about them for a long time. But they were there when I needed them.

Let’s give children the same legacy. Let’s plant his Word deep in the hearts of our children. Let’s water it, nurture it and celebrate it. Let’s teach the Bible diligently, with passion and purpose, training kids to apply its wisdom and truth to their everyday lives.

I can’t think of a more enduring, more important, more precious gift we can give our children than the Bible.