The Stine family has embarked in a new adventure this year. We are committed to memorizing certain Bible verses each week – something we had done by ourselves before, but never together as a family.
So far, Daddy is the champ as he always manages to recite the selected verses with great flare, which has earned him the affectionate nickname of “Big Show Off”.
Oh, we Stines are so loving.
Our adventure, though new, has inspired new ideas in this blogger, who – at the tender age of 43 – feels like NOTHING sticks to her brain anymore, except for the results at her last weigh-in at the gym (such painful memories) and the occasional, sometimes rather annoying jingle from TV advertisements.
But since I know that these feelings of inadequacy, as Morris Albert’s once famous song went, “are nothing but feelings,” I’m valiantly pressing on! And I’ve come up with some pretty good methods for memorizing my verses.
I hope that these ideas will inspire your own creativity and determination to storing God’s Word in your mind and heart:
Discover your own learning style. The way I memorize things might not work for you, so you are going to have to figure out (or remember from your school days) what does. Some people remember things by writing them, others by hearing them, others by seeing them, others by saying them. The only way you’ll find out will be by giving each method an honest try.
Be creative. I’m not very good at sitting still, so I discovered that I can work on my verses while blow-drying my hair. Since repetition is key to memorization, you can record your verses and listen and repeat after them while doing chores. Or you can carry in your purse a small notebook where you can copy your verses (if that’s how you learn) or index cards with those verses written down so you can read and repeat them while waiting for an appointment.
Be Consistent. My friend Nola explained to me that when you learn something, cheer repetition creates some sort of rut in your brain that facilitate the conduction of the thought signals from point A to point B. Not a very scientific explanation (she said it better) but what I understood is that, repeat after me: “Repetition is key.” So whatever method you choose, make sure to consistently carve out time to work on your Scripture memorization.
As I said in my previous post, I guarantee that by the end of the year you’ll be glad you gave this discipline an honest try. And, who knows, maybe by then even I might have stolen the champ’s title from Big Show Off!
Ana