Word of the Week: Memory
I forget a name almost as soon as I hear it. The only reason I can remember a phone number is because my phone does it for me. I have to stick everything in my calendar, lest I forget that I’ve made a commitment and leave someone waiting. My memory isn’t all it could be, so I have to make an effort if I want to remember things.
On Sunday we talked about the importance of God’s Word and one of the things I said in passing is that we should memorize it. If your memory is anything like mine, that’s a tall order. I’ve committed to memorizing Scripture in the past with very little success. I’ve tried reciting it. I’ve tried writing it. I’ve even tried singing it – I’ll let your imagination run with that one. Memorizing Scripture is important…but it’s hard work.
For the past few months I’ve been using an application on my phone that has been a huge help. There are many free ones out there, but I’ve been using one called Fighter Verses that you can find for about $3.00. It’s among the best three bucks I’ve ever spent!
Every week it assigns a verse for me and gives me different quizzes to work through. When I get somewhere early, I can pull it out and work on my verses a bit throughout the day. A little bit here and there adds up to a lot of time over the course of the week. Once you’ve memorized a verse, this app will schedule a review every day, then every week, then every month so that way you don’t forget about it once you’ve moved on to a new verse. This has been a huge help to me. Verses are beginning to stick; I can hear it in the words I choose in conversations and in prayer.
The point of this post isn’t to sell copies of Fighter Verses. The point is to share with you what’s been helpful to me. Memorizing Scripture is tough, but it’s worth the effort. Anything you can do to make it easier helps. An app on my smartphone is what does it for me.
How about you? What helps you memorize Scripture?
If you’ve never made an effort to memorize Scripture before, why not? What’s stopping you?