Well, two years of the National Bible Bee have come and gone, and the third year is passing quickly. I can’t believe that we have only one month left before the local competitions, and yet that seems like a long time.
There have been a lot of changes from the first Bible Bee to this one, the first being that I am older, and can appreciate the effects of this Bible Bee in my life to the extent that I never could while competing in the first year. The second is that my ‘memory muscle’, as we call it, has become a lot stronger, and it is so much easier to memorize and perfect verses then it was before. The third is the actual changes to the Bible Bee itself! Let’s take the first year primaries, for example, along with this year’s seniors.
If you were a primary in 2009, (ages 7-10), you would have to memorize 800 verses between May 1st and September 12th, and 400 more if you made it to nationals. You would also have to study 6 books of the Bible: Genesis, 1&2 Samuel, Matthew, Acts, and Romans. This year, the seniors have to learn 800 verses in between June 1st and August 27th. If they make it to nationals, they have to learn 300 more verses in 9 more weeks. They have to study one book in depth (1 Peter) for locals, including cross-references, Greek words and meanings, etc. They have to study another book (unknown to us as of yet) in the same depth for nationals. They’re experimenting, I think, to find the very best way to host the National Bible Bee, and I am pretty sure that they’re getting close!
So, as you have probably noticed, there have been plenty of changes. They sent us a Sword Study both this year and last, and they are great! Last year’s book was Colossians. (We did not have another book to study last year for Nationals.) This year’s book is 1 Peter. The study notebook is divided into 12 weeks of study, 5 days per week. We start each day off with prayer, then writing a small section of 1 Peter in the back of our notebooks, then another prayer. The first week is the Aerial View, where we overview the whole book of 1 Peter ‘from the sky’. From Week 2 hereafter we study each individual chapter for a period of 2 weeks, going from Aerial View to Streetview to Under the Rug. We view the chapter ‘from the street’, and then we focus on the small details, including cross-references, Greek word studies, and in depth interviewing of the whole chapter we are focusing on at that time. Then on every tenth day, we do a Day 10 Diagram, which summarizes the whole chapter. At the end of every day we have an Apply! Section that helps us apply the things we have learned that day. Then we pray, using the ACTS prayer model. (A-Adoration, C-Confession, T-Thanksgiving, S-Supplication.)
The competition is at a high level, as no-one ever uses their full memory capacity, and especially youth have a wonderful ability to memorize entire sections of Scripture and other books. Many people are discouraged at the big amounts of Scripture they are required to memorize, and think that nobody with normal memory could do that much in so little time – they won’t ever win anything, so it’s not even worth a try. Let me remind all people who think that way: IT IS NOT THE MONEY THAT COUNTS – IT IS THE PRICELESS WORD OF GOD THAT YOU ARE HIDING IN YOUR HEART! You will never be able to find any more beneficial, wonderful, important, infallible, perfect, fulfilling, treasure-FULL, holy words than those that are written in this book. It is the Christian’s guidebook to godly living. It is a treasure, no matter how much you have.
It has been the opinion of many leading Christians, both in the present and in the past, that one verse of it hidden in your heart is better than gold and silver in abundance, and even if you just had a little bit of silver or gold, would you still consider it a treasure? Absolutely! So should we consider the Word of God. If we have a little bit, we should want more, because it is such a treasure. The psalmist said, ‘I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, more than in all riches.’ We should desire God’s Word more than riches!
That is why I like the Bible Bee so much. It encourages participants to do their best, and they even give us some motivation in the way of prizes, but they strongly emphasize the importance of applying it to your lives, and desiring more, rather than just doing it for the recognition, or good reputation, or money. I hope you will consider signing up next year – we need to get God’s Word in our hearts more than most of us do now. Thank you for reading this!
Courtney
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