Cheri Strange, Christian Speaker and Author

We have established some Strange traditions over the past few years exclusively for New Year’s Eve. Although some of the activities change, there are three constants: shrimp, pepperoni, and chocolate. Every year I splurge and buy my man a platter of boiled shrimp, his favorite. The rest of us order pizza. If it’s cold we build a fire. If it’s warm, we eat outside on the deck. Sometimes we watch a movie together or play board games. Always, under every circumstance, the night ends with a pot of chocolate fondue and a heaping platter of items to dip in it. My little girls eat fondue like they are famished football players. Not a scrap of anything is left over. It’s not glamorous and exciting, but the girls look forward to it every year, especially the fondue.

       This year I announced a new event that will take place next year on New Year’s Eve: the BVS (Bible Verse Spectacular). Next year, while we enjoy our shrimp, pizza and fondue, we will each take turns saying the Bible verses we have learned over the last 12 months.

       I know, I know…it may sound kind of corny and over the edge – but God has chosen me to raise children who love Him. In Genesis 18:19, God chose Abraham to do the same for one reason:

For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.

       I’m raising a house full of girls; and I am a girl. Girls think. They think too much sometimes. They can turn molehills into mountains during a commercial break over something that happened two weeks ago that didn’t even have anything to do with them! They worry. They fear. They doubt. They question. They convince themselves how inadequate they are compared to everyone else. And they believe these thoughts about themselves because girls play these tapes to themselves constantly! It’s destructive madness. Somehow I need to help my girls stop the madness, or at least learn to deal with it, so that they can be everything God has planned for them.

       I bought everyone a different colored tiny spiral notebook at the dollar store. The instructions were to write down every Bible verse that seems important to them or that they are asked by a teacher to memorize. Record the date, reference, and the verse – one per page. We will periodically rotate practicing and reviewing our progress while dinner is being prepared. By New Year’s Eve, 2011, everyone will be ready to tell the other family members the verses they have learned the past year (with support as needed). Even the preschooler who has not yet learned to read can participate.

       I’m not sure how this is going to turn out. We may fail terribly. I don’t know. However, I know the power of speaking the very words of God over our own lives and the lives of my children. I want these words to spill out of our mouths so that He spills out of our lives. The Bible Verse Spectacular is worth a try.