"Someday" Is Today
My first major foray into scripture memory happened the summer I lived by myself at my parents’ ocean house. I had no internet and only one friend in the area (who is pretty cool, you should check her blog out), and I worked three 12-hour days which left me a loooooot of time to go crazy. I decided I was going to put in the work and get serious about a two things: exercise, and force-feeding myself Jesus.
[Sidenote, see a future article for why you can’t magically fix your relationship
with God by deciding to do it yourself and force-feed yourself knowledge
about God as a substitute for actually knowing God. But I digress.]
At the time, I was looking into going to Afghanistan to nanny for a missionary family for a year, so the persecuted church had front of mind awareness. I decided I needed to memorize scripture because there might come a time “someday” when I couldn’t access the Bible and would need to rely on what I could remember.
In my standard buck-the-system fashion, I bought window markers and commandeered the two giant windows by the dining room table (notecards were too ordinary for my taste, see photo above for aforementioned windows) to write out the passage I wanted to memorize. I chose Philippians 1, since Paul was writing advice to a persecuted church. It seemed like it might be what I might *someday* need. Sitting cross-legged on the dining room table (ok I’m still 5 sometimes), I scrawled the words out in yellow chalk marker while gazing at the ocean.
By the end of the summer, my mission was completed: I could recite Philippians 1 from memory. But then dad got sick, I moved home, then I got sick, and the habit died.
Fast forward to last fall, and Hunter Beless’ stories about her Grand Ann reciting Habakkuk 3:17-19 inspired me to try again, even though brain fog can make memorizing so hard. I froze when it came to picking what I should memorize, but eventually I decided if Habakkuk was good enough for Grand Ann, it was good enough for me too.
But again, one attempt in, the habit died because I didn’t know why I was doing it. It’s embarrassing to admit, but it’s only been in the last month or so of my life that it’s really sunk in that we memorize scripture for NOW, not for “someday when we might need it”. We don’t just need to memorize it just in case we don’t have access to a Bible anymore, we memorize it because we need it to get through the day.
God’s word is living and active and there is POWER in it. I often forget that the Bible isn’t just words on the page. It’s GOD’s words on a page, and they are ALIVE and they actually DO THINGS. Sometimes we don’t realize the power of the tool until we pick it up and try using it. We can use scripture to refute lies and rehearse truth, all day long, for the big and the small. Jesus demonstrates this for us when Satan tempts him after his fast. Every tempting thing Satan offered him, Jesus said no to with words of truth from scripture.
I’m certainly no memorizing expert yet, but it has been helpful for me to see other people’s systems and techniques in order to find a system that works for me. I’m sharing my system below in case you’re wanting some fresh ideas.
Memorizing Tips
Choosing a verse:
Ultimately, the perfect verse is the one you know. Don’t overthink this step. If you’re going through a specific trial or struggling with a specific issue, find a verse or short passage that speaks truth to your problems. If nothing comes to mind, ask a friend or mentor what their favorite verse or passage is and start with memorizing that.
This might be an unpopular opinion but once I’ve picked the section I want to memorize, I read it in multiple translations and pick the version that seems the easiest for me to memorize, the one that flows the best for my brain. You can argue about the different versions all day long, but at the end of the day, I would argue that remembering the verse in a random translation is better than not remembering it but knowing you had planned to know it in the “right” translation.
My process:
(*remember this is MY process, doesn’t have to be yours! It’s just to give you ideas)
I keep a box of index cards where I write out the verses I’m memorizing each time a start a new verse. On the lined side, I write the verse, the reference and the date so I can easily reference the whole verse. On the blank side, I write the first letter of each word. This first letter approach is the easiest way for me to memorize, it makes my brain work to come up with the word but gives the hint of the first letter.
I make the cards to keep a record of what I’m memorizing/have memorized, and primarily to use for review. If you know me in real life you know I’m not one to carry extra stuff around with me, so my favorite way to be consistent with memorizing is to write the first letter of each word on my arm. I always have it with me and I can review it often throughout the day.
When I can recite easily it without looking at my arm, I know I’m good and I wash it off and move on to another one.
Don’t forget review!
Use it or lose it doesn’t just apply to muscles. If I go a few days without reviewing old verses they start to get a little rusty and harder to recall. I like to pair reviewing with another activity so that I don't forget. For me this is my daily walk, but it could be laundry, dishes, anything really.
Other memorizing resources:
There are so many more than this but this is what comes to mind off the top of my head.
Read It, See It, Say It, Sing It by Hunter Beless
Dwell Differently
Bible Memory App
Temp Tattoo Marker
One last thing…
Since getting sick, memorizing has been very hard for me with brain fog and memory issues. BUT it’s worth the struggle. If it feels hard, start super tiny- one line from a Psalm is still God’s word and still useful. Memorizing whole passages is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not necessary or required. Do what you can with what you have.