Anybody want to memorize some Scripture together this year?
I'm putting this out to any and all family members both near and far who might be interested in this as a way to connect consistently with each other this year while growing personally and spiritually in the process. I don't have everyone's email or contact information, so feel free to forward this to anyone in our family that you'd like to be included.
Let me say quickly that there’s no pressure to sign up or condemnation if you don’t. Many of you have your own accountability groups for various Spiritual disciplines and that’s fantastic. Face-to-face is best of all. Others are up to their eyebrows in commitments already. I understand that! I’m just making the offer to anybody who wants to. Don’t just do it because you need to. Do it because you want to.
This idea has come from Bible Study author, Beth Moore. Most of the comments and instructions below are from her, and I'm using them as a foundation to bring this idea to our family.
The low-down:
- Commit to memorize (or seriously meditate on) 2 Scriptures a month. That's 24 for the year.
- On the 1st and 15th of every month of 2011, you will find a post by 8:00am (EST) in the morning where I will ask for your memory verse and give you mine. This will begin New Year’s Day. You are committing to 24 Scriptures in 12 months. If you do much more, you’ll tend to fall behind and not retain. If you do much less, the impact is negligible.
- We won't all memorize the same verse, but instead you'll pick the verse that's right for you. Ask God to give you what He wants to prioritize for you this year then listen carefully through your quiet times, your Bible studies and your pastor’s sermons for verses that really resonate with you or that you know you really need.
- You are to enter the verse you’ve chosen to memorize for that two-week period within twenty-four hours of the post going up. It’s okay if you’re late supplying your verse, but try to avoid doing it often. Please know up front that one of the important parts of this process is the exercise of self-discipline. Year-long commitments like these that require punctuality and focused energy push back on that degenerating trend. All that to say, please don’t drop out if you get behind. I just want you to know that this will be much more successful if you treat it as a real, live commitment you are willing to work hard to keep.
- Always add your translation because our family will want to know where you found the wording for your entry. One of the great impacts of this process is how much we reap from each other’s selections.
- I strongly recommend that you stick with only one verse to memorize each time. (This is just a recommendation and not a rule. You’re free to do whatever works for you.) Keep it simple and meaningful. If you do too many verses or get too complicated, you will soon be overwhelmed and want to drop out. Better to do 24 simpler verses over a 12 month period of time than a chapter over the first month then quit. We want this to be a discipline we practice for the rest of our lives. Think marathon. Not sprint.
- Either shortly before or after making your entry each 1st and 15th in the blog comment, write the verse by hand in your own spiral. (Again, that’s a recommendation and not a rule. I’ve discovered that there’s something about writing it with your own hand and picturing it later in your own handwriting that helps it sink into your memory bank. I’m not entirely sure why.) Take that spiral with you everywhere you go. Read it and read it and read it and read it. Do mental gymnastics with it. Flip that baby over and over. Give the Holy Spirit a chance to do something brand new with you. Even if you don’t get your verses down word for word, you are still meditating on them as you read and reread them. You still, thereby, accomplish one of the most important goals: captivating the mind to Christ. You just can’t lose on this one. Either way, it has a powerful effect.
- As we're memorizing each of the verses, I'd love to know how you're being impacted by what you're memorizing. I'll share what I'm learning as well.
To post a comment:
- Click on the " ___ Comments" at the end of the post. A new window will appear.
- Type your comment in the white box and include your name.
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God's blessings to you in 2011.
Laura
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