Renewing my Mind

The kids and I have been doing a lot of memory work in home school this fall. So far, without even really planning this in the beginning, we have memorized six poems together as well as several memory verses.
We attended a family retreat in early September where they challenged us to memorize chapters of the Bible rather than select verses. The idea was to get the entire context of the verses rather than just pulling them out at random. We chose Philippians 4 for various reasons, and we have been working our way through the chapter ever since.
We were also encouraged to put the verses to rhythm or song, and, after some deliberation and many rejected tunes, we settled on a classical piece. We sing the verses every school day, and S has come to recognize the tune. He will "dance" to it when we sing it, and he always receives it with a big smile on his face.
I have found myself singing the verses at odd times throughout the day, and I occasionally hear the kids doing so as well. I have even found myself thinking of the verses at night as I try to go to sleep. Usually, my mind races with everything that has happened that day as well as what we plan to accomplish the following day. When the verses run through my head instead, I find I have a much easier time falling asleep.
Memorizing this passage with the kids has positively influenced our lives. I look forward to completing this passage and tackling the next one. It is so much easier to meditate on His words day and night when they are such a built-in part of our daily lives.