Long Term Memory - Review Plan

Now that we have Psalm 1 firmly fixed in our minds, we need a way to make sure we won't forget them! In her book "His Word in My Heart" Janet Pope has a great suggestion!

We're going to pick a certain day of the week (let's do Mondays!) and always review Psalm 1, every Monday. Remember, it will only take 40 seconds to do this! At the end of one year we will have reviewed the psalm at least 52 times which will move it from short term memory into long term memory and we will never forget it! (same reason we know "O Canada" for memory - we sung it so many times it's store in our long term memory)

Titus is the next project she suggests taking on - because it's an entire book, but at only 3 chapters (46 verses all together), it's pretty short. It's a letter rich in truth about practical living, which makes it a great one to start memorizing!

If you have time today, write out Titus 1 on your spiral (or whatever you're using). You can use a different colour ink for each chapter, just to make it easier to find, if you like.
 

His Word in My Heart - Beginning the Journey

After reading the transcripts to a few programs by Revive our Hearts with guest Janet Pope, I have become inspired (and convicted) to begin memorizing Scripture.

It seems to be the surest way I know to get to know God better (His Word IS the revealing of everything we need to know about Him!), and as we get to know Him better to love Him more which will be demonstrated by our obedience to the very scripture we are hiding in our hearts.

One of the things I loved most about Janet's approach is the fact that she realizes that our days are full and often it seems like there just isn't time to squeeze one more thing onto our list of things to do - no matter how spiritually beneficial it may be. And she has the perfect solution - to redeem the time! There are countless activities we have to do every day that are mindless tasks (doing dishes, doing the laundry, waiting at dr's offices, etc) and we should recognize these as opportunities to redeem the time by memorizing scripture.

She suggests writing out the chapter you want to memorize, one verse on each page (using a 3x5 ringed booklet, or a memo pad, or print it off on a paper and put it in your purse, whatever works for you!), and to concentrate on memorizing and meditating on one verse every day.

So, this is our plan...

We will start with Psalm 1 (only 6 verses which have much to teach us about the purpose of scripture memorization) and then likely move on to Titus ("only" 3 chapters). After that, we can see what you all would like to take on next - maybe another Psalm, maybe another NT book.

We will memorize one verse every day (I will post the verse, and perhaps a few questions to help with meditating on the verse and figuring out the daily application we can glean from it), building on the verse we learned the day before (Day 2 you review verse 1 and memorize verse 2, Day 3 you review verse 1-2 and memorize verse 3, etc) until we have memorized the entire chapter. We will then spend a few days reviewing the entire chapter to make sure it's solid in our memory before moving on. From then on, we will also review Psalm 1 every Monday in order to get it into long term memory - just think of it - if you recite those 6 verses once a week for 52 weeks, you will never forget them again!

If you have joined us "late", realize that it's never too late! Just jump in where we are. Or go back to the beginning and start from there, whatever you prefer. Just join us - you won't regret it!

Here are the links to the articles I read (you can listen to them or read them, whichever you prefer)

Janet also has a book called His Word in My Heart which I ordered and really enjoyed reading.

How Busy People can Memorize Scripture
You can Memorize More than You Think
You Need Hunger

God bless you as you take this journey with us!