What you know by heart — is what your heart really knows.

And the crazy things is, right at the first of the month: what the heart knows by heart is all that can calm a heart.

Direct a heart. Strengthen a heart.

So I’m thinking: What does a heart know by heart?  

So March blows in —  and this heart here stammers out a recitation of Romans 1:1-17 of The Romans Project:

{Consider muting Mr. Nevue’s music over there in the left sidebar, clicking on the speaker icon? and RSS readers may click here for the video}

And so each month of the Year moves FORWARD! —

just turns with just this simplicity of a trinity of these 3 habits:

1. My One Word for the year:

{With} IN – to practice awaking to His presence, to live With and IN Him.

2. Counting my One Thousand Gifts –

 Each day, this dare to joy, to count His gifts everyday to know again who I can always count on. And new month? New gifts, new thanks, new joy! Write down just 3 gifts you’re grateful for each day and, the scientific research agrees with Scripture: you increase your happiness by 25%! {Who doesn’t need that!?} So we hang it on the fridge for the whole family to take the #JOYDARE! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!

Jump in and print March’s Joy Dare right here. 

 Giving thanks in all things is God’s definite will for you IN Christ Jesus. (1 Thess. 5:18)  

This is how you make the calendar for the month: you set Christ at the center.

This is the question: Will you spend your days meditating on His Word or your worries?

This is the resolution every new month needs — a revolution: A turning every day to Christ.

This is the thing: No one sends you a memo that Today is the day you’ll need a certain verse to keep you breathing through the day.

When you memorize Scripture, it’s like carrying your own oxygen tanks.

And then there’s Jesus:  Christ’s weapon against Satan in the desert was memorized Scripture. And if you aren’t memorizing Scripture — what IS your weapon against Satan? 

And I turn at the window on the first day of the month of March, the wind blowing good things. Satan may be a prowling lion but he is on a leash —

and with a trinity of habits, hearts are on the Lamb.

Related: The 1 Habit God Really wants for You This Year
How Memorizing Romans has Made My Prayer life what I always longed for: #TheSisterPromise
And my friend, Liz Curtis Higgs, is in with us on the #RomansProject too and walks us through (the way only Liz can) the meat of what we are memorizing:
Even in mid-winter: The Hope of Spring
The Big Reveal: What Faith is, From First to Last

How to Make a Memory Commitment Booklet:

— commit His Words to heart & our hearts to Him
1. Download & Print the Romans Project Cards:
Click here to print cards: Just 2-3 Verses a Week

2. Print and either have comb bound (cards are formatted to give space for comb binding), for ease of flipping cards, propping at the sink, etc.

3. Alternatively, cut and paste into a booklet like a pocket Moleskine

4. Tick off  little square boxes for each day of memory heart commitment

5. Find a partner to recite to — have them sign each week on the allotted line
(only *two to three short * verses a week – the verses are in the NIV version & take a bit to load. Thank you for grace!)

6. Or Join our Online The Romans Project Community!

The incredibly committed Brett and McKenzie over at Scripture Typer  have partnered with us to create The Romans Project community just for us! 

A place where we

~ type out our verses in increasing levels of memorization,

~have ways to message and encourage each other,

~and have profiles to track our progress!

Warning: Memorizing over at Scripture Typer?  Is ridiculously fun and you won’t want to stop! {Kids here race each other on words per minute on each verse to see who can type theirs faster… and… um. Me too. ~grin~} Seeing how many words a minute you can type your verses out is very motivating! 

Memorizing His Word together – it is. our. very. life.!

The Romans Project Plan for this Year:

1. The First Friday of Every Month:

We’ll host a link-up here on the blog for you to link over to a video or audio on your blog of your memory work recitation … We’re leaving no one behind. Mark it on the calendar right now?  First Friday of the month, we’re sharing our Romans Project memory work! Or you can share on our Facebook page?

2. If it matters — we make time. If it doesn’t — we make excuses. Commit. And making a public commitment? Holds us to accountability — so share with your family, on Facebook, or on your blog — invite others to join you in making His Word your life.

3. And…  if we finish The Romans Project? How about T-shirts?

Why Memorize Scripture?

I beg you — watch. this.

{RSS and email readers: Click here to listen to Mr. Piper’s compelling clip}

“We want this to be a discipline we practice for the rest of our lives. Think marathon, not sprint.” writes Beth Moore. “Never — NOT ONCE — have I ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn’t make any real difference. Not a single time.”

Related Inspiration:
The Story of One Woman that will Motivate you to Memorize
Rather Memorize Colossians? Colossians in a Year: Just 2 Verses a Week

Or last year’s memory project: Sermon on the Mount: 2 Verses a week