/**/ The Purposeful Wife: A Starting Place for Scripture Memory

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

A Starting Place for Scripture Memory

The spiritual disciplines are vitally important to our Christian lives. Reading and meditating on Scripture, praying, and regularly attending and participating in the worship services of a local church are essential components of a spiritually healthy believer. 

Sometimes as a mom of little people, time seems scarce and even showering is a luxury... so it's easy to let many of our spiritual disciplines fall away. 

Many years ago {ha! feels like it...} before I had children, I started a Scripture Memory program that was very effective for me. The verses I was memorizing just stuck, regular review of past memory verses was an integral part of the program, and I was able to memorize large passages of Scripture. 



There are affiliate links in this post. That means that if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a commission at no extra charge to you. You can read my full disclosure policy here. Thanks for your support of The Purposeful Wife! 

Fast forward four years- I had a two year old, a newborn, and a big fat stack of memory verses in my system. Learning new verses and reviewing the old took me anywhere from 20-30 minutes each day. Unfortunately in that season, it was no longer sustainable.

I dropped off the habit of regular scripture memory and never fully got back on board. I do help the kids to memorize Sunday School and catechism verses, and some of that sticks in my brain...but they remember it way better with a lot less effort, and I haven't been focused and committed to specifically getting texts stuck in my own head.

I need to start memorizing Scripture again, and I need it to be simple. Baby steps that I can sustain in the season of babies.

Late last year I read Kimm Crandall's Christ in the Chaos. It encourages moms to revel in their identity in Christ, not in what they are or aren't able to accomplish or be as a mom {bonus: it's only $4.99 on Amazon! The paperback is cheaper than the Kindle :)}.

At the back of the book Kimm shares a list of Scriptures that serve to remind us of Gospel truth when we are weary, discouraged, overwhelmed... or when we've simply blown it.

I really appreciated the message of the book and the precious truths revealed in the specific lists of verses.

There, a place to start! I knew what I wanted to memorize, I just had to decide how I was going to do it.


I've purchased a little spiral note card book, and am writing the verses in one at a time as I work to memorize them. I've been a little slow so far {only worked on two in the last month, and I haven't got the 2nd down yet}, but I'd love to work myself up to one verse per week.

I'm also using the free Scripture Typer app on my phone to learn and review the verses. Sometimes having a reminder go off on your phone can be an effective tool in this digital age!

If you too are looking for a simple way to start {or reboot?} Scripture memorization, here's the simple plan I'm following. I hope it helps you!

1. Decide WHAT you will memorize. You can pick a list, ask what others in your church are memorizing, pull a few key passages from the book of the Bible you are already reading or studying, or even use a concordance to find key texts on a particular sin you struggle with.

2. Write it down or enter it into an app. This is the first step in memorizing! Stick it in a place you will see it often, write it each morning on your to do list or daily planner page, keep a notebook specifically for Scripture memory- whatever gets it in front of you so you don't forget about it.


3. Spend a few minutes each day with the verse. Read it aloud, type it out, write it out, etc. Just a enough times to get it sticking.

4. Work on it every day until you've got it down. 

5. Review it periodically after you've moved on to the next verse. That's why I love keeping my verses in a flip notecard book- I can read over and say them all in one place at one time.

This is my simple plan for committing to the discipline of Scripture memory. Do you memorize Bible verses regularly? How do you fit this discipline into your daily rhythm? 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...