Church Memory Club: 7 verses a week, 15 weeks.
Calculates out to 105 life-changing encounters with the living, breathing, potent Word of God.
If we live to tell the tale.
One verse a week permitted haphazard cramming--reciting 7 verses at a time obliges us to be intentional, committed, quotidian.
Week One:
Every mealtime, we pull out our sheets from the dinner-table book basket and pour over the words in between forkfuls. We recite during slurps of desert’s ice cream cones. Tattered sheets are stuffed in pockets to review in between barn feeding chores, doing up dishes, putting little ones down for nap.
We’ve become a family of mutterers, reciters, memorizers.
Is this what it is to be like Moses: Deuteronomy 31:30 "So Moses recited this entire song to the assembly of Israel..." To be a David: Psalm 119:13 "I have recited aloud all the laws you have given us."
Not as diligent as the Jewish students who faithfully memorized the entire oral Torah , we strengthen our humble efforts with the mantra: “No Child Left Behind”… or Mom and Dad. We spur each other on, reminding each other to daily recite God's Word:
“Okay, while we fold the clothes, wanna all say the verse for today?” ...“Okay, bedtime story after we recite all the verses we know so far this week.”
Even 3 year old Malakai squeals with glee: “Woverbs four nineteen, wenty, teen, one --- I say it too!” His enthusiasm is contagious, even if his annunciation is....well...indecipherable. And he is learning now the habit of wanting God's Word....
Sunday morning drive to church finds a van full of us reciting in careful unison…and then, after the service, seeking out our accountability partner for nervous, word-perfect attempts at all seven verses in one sitting. Signatures scrawled on the bottom of assignment sheets are rewarded with relieved smiles.
And a changed person….ready to begin another 7 days of verses.
A verse a day, seven days a week, to recite each of the seven in one sitting, for 4 kids and 2 adults, for 15 continuous weeks equals what?
Learning the ART of Memorizing:
Attend : Attend to the verse’s meaning. Attend to its context. Attend to its rhythm. Work those brain muscles. If you have to act it out, draw it up, write it down, or tape it on, so be it. Do whatever it takes to Attend.
(For me to attend: Make up Actions and sign-language to correspond with the verse. For some of the children: Draw the verse in pictures. Record it on tape. Write it down. For Dh: Close eyes and say the words he sees.) Do what it takes to Attend.
Review to Renew: Repeat. Recite. Recap. Reiterate. And then: Review. Repeat. Recite. Recap. Reiterate. And then…. Recite to an accountability partner weekly. (A Memory Club with another family at church encourages the efforts.) Each day, take just five minutes to review verses learned last week. Learning is important...but reviewing is paramount to retention. Repeating God's Word renews.
Tie: Tie Daily Memorizing to Daily Duties. Knot reciting to routines: when you brush teeth, comb hair, make the bed, use the time to savor His Sweet Word. Tie memorizing to meal times. Bind Scripture learning to laundry, labor and living. Tie His Word to your life. Tie.
Week one down in the ART of Memorizing. Fourteen more to go.
And our motivation to keep memorizing?
"Guard my words as your most precious possession… " Pr. 7:2 (LB)
And the math on that is beyond calculation…..
Lord, “Your promises to me are my hope. They give me strength in all my troubles; how they refresh and revive me!" (Ps. 119:49 LB) Hope…strength…refreshment…revival… and that adds up to one family reaping immeasurable benefits from the ART of Memorizing Your Word...
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Inspiration to Memorize:
A Five-Year-Old Makes God's Word his life…
Spiritual Benefits of Memorizing:
Motivated to Memorize: Fourteen Reasons from Scripture
Why, When and How of Memorizing Scripture
Intellectual Benefits of Memorizing:
In Defense of Memorization
Memorizing Makes Writers
Scripture Memory Programs:
MemLok with picture cues
Scripture Memory Fellowship (previously known as BMA)
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