![]() Perhaps even you’ve committed a couple of verses to memory. ![]() So, when they are presented with new material, it may stick long enough to make it through the next test, but then, like smoke, it vanishes away.Throughout history, people have memorized large portions of Scripture. It s like your memory muscle starts to shape up! Today, many students have been allowed to go through years of schooling without much memorization. BUT if you persevere, you begin to notice that you can absorb the verses a little more quickly as time goes on. You have to cross a certain threshold of persistence, or the commitment will quickly fall by the wayside. And little-by-little, phrase-by-phrase, sentence-by-sentence, verse-by-verse you begin to absorb it. You have to memorize one little phrase at a time. You have to review, review, review, and review some more. At first, it is VERY difficult and VERY slow. If you have ever made a commitment to memorize Scripture, you can probably identity with Bill Gothard. Interestingly (and probably not surprisingly), the more he memorized, the more his grades improved. But as time went on, and Bill stuck to it, he began to find it easier to memorize. At first the process was very slow and difficult. At that point a teacher took him under his wing and encouraged him to start memorizing Scripture. When he got to high school, he remembered her groaning, Oh, no! Bill s in high school now and he is such a bad student that he will ruin our family s reputation! Sure enough, his grades were horrible. His sister was two or three years older than he was, and was an excellent student. But you probably remember his personal testimony regarding his high school grades. ![]() You may, or may not, have agreed with all his points. Perhaps you have been to a Bill Gothard Institute in Basic Life Principles (formerly the Institute for Basic Youth Conflicts ). It is an almost universal teacher complaint. Today I attended a workshop for math teachers where I heard many teachers bemoaning the fact that they have so many students who seem to retain so little math that they presumably learned in previous grades. And, sometimes when I am laying in bed at night and can’t sleep, I can meditate on God’s Word in the darkness without a Bible in hand. This recall has been a great tool in ministering to others when I either did not have a Bible handy or did not have time to search for answers. I have found these verses coming to mind when talking one-on-one with people or when teaching in the classroom setting in response to questions. At times, it has been instrumental in keeping me from sinning against an awesome and holy God (Ps. But, even through the course of every day life experiences, especially the tough ones, these verses will come to mind and bring the comfort, encouragement, or conviction I need in the moment. The True Rewards I Have Received Because of Scripture MemorizationĪs a result of having God’s Word in my heart through memorization, I have had an arsenal in times of spiritual warfare (Matt. And, of course, much repetition and review has also been necessary. ![]() I’ll give some ideas in another post for how adults can memorize Scripture.īut, let me say that what helps me the most, and what I believe we all need to do, is to understand the meaning of the passage and not merely memorize the words. Why can’t memorizing Scripture be fun? I do believe the best way to memorize Scripture is to do what fits you … your learning style, your personality, etc. I have found that variety works best for me. What a difference! The Means I Have Used to Memorize Verses I memorized for the intrinsic value of it, not for some extrinsic reward. Ten helpful principles for teachers to do that are in the Effective Scripture Memorization Worksheet.Īs I grew older physically into adulthood but also spiritually, I began to memorize verses that related to my life situations, sort of as a spiritual discipline, but more because I simply wanted to know them. Those are the verses I still remember.Ĭonsequently when I began teaching children’s classes, and writing lesson plans incorporating Scripture memorization, like Children Learn to Worship using Psalm 100, I wanted to do it in ways that built positive attitudes toward memorizing Bible verses. We did it together, in class, sometimes for prizes but often not. I also remember times when teachers were more creative in their approach and made it fun to learn the verses. And, that is as far as my memory goes on those verses. I recall many times cramming right before class so I could go in, say the verse and get the prize. ![]() I remember the Scripture memory contests in Sunday School when I was a child. The Experiences I Have Had with Memorizing Scripture ![]()
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