It’s time for another post in this series. Here’s another thing I wrote last year around this time:
Im going to be memorizing scripture through the year along with others in my church family who are joining in the journey (Ill be posting about this sometime in the next two weeks). My 8 year old daughter is also participating and when I sent her an email (yes she has email Ive introduced her to the Google Behemoth) to tell her that Im doing it too she replied, Neat. Bring it on Dad. The gloves are down.
What happened:
I’ve been memorizing every scripture every week and have about 38-40 scriptures memorized REALLY well and probably the rest I’m still working on. I’ve used a variety of tools to help me with this through the year but have settled on this iPhone app. Unfortunately my daughter didn’t have the stamina to keep up with her Dad (of course, at 9 years old, she’s got enough stuff going on!) BUT the cool thing is she is reading her Bible every day and goes out of her way to show me the latest stuff she’s reading. I love it!
What I learned:
- You may think you can’t memorize stuff. But you can. It still amazes me when I review the verses that I can even recite them from memory.
- Having scripture memorized enhanced my prayer life. There have been so many times when I’ve been praying for something and a verse came to mind that “fit in” with what I was praying. Powerful.
- Another benefit is that I’m finding when I read the Bible, the overall themes are more apparent because of the scripture I’ve memorized. I find myself thinking, “hey, that sounds familiar to something over in_______”, where the blank is a scripture I memorized.
- Memorizing scripture has helped improve my memory overall. This was unexpected, but I am finding that I’m remembering things easier than before. Names come easier. The coding I do goes quicker because I’m not having to look up functions as much. Remembering I locked my van door is easier (those who heard me talk about that in a message I spoke last year will know what I’m talking about).
All in all this has been something that I’ve found to be a VERY beneficial discipline. Have any of you had experience with memorizing things? How has it worked for you? What benefits have you noticed?