Monday, February 28, 2011

Memorization Challenge

how our family started memorizing~

When I was younger we would go to a hospice home and do small presentations for the people there.  One of the times Mom asked me to memorize John 3:16 so that I could recite it for them. After that performance she asked me to memorize John 3:17 also, but I said, "I don't want to, do I really have to?"  She answered, "No, I can have Grant memorize it for you." :~)   That was just too much for me! I said, "No!  He can't memorize it, that is my scripture!"  So, I decided to not only memorize John 3:17, but the whole chapter, so that Grant couldn't out-do me.  : -) 

Sometime after this Dad would read the Proverb of the day each morning at the breakfast table.  Since there are 31 Proverbs and at the most 31 days in a month, there is a Proverb for us to read each morning.  This particular day was January 9th, my birthday,  and as Dad sat down and opened his Bible he said, "Lydia, this is your Birthday Proverb!  We should all memorize our Birthday Proverbs." People started protesting, "That is too hard, I can't do that!"  Mom said, "There is no way I could memorize a whole Proverb."   But, Dad insisted that we all should at least try to memorize them.  Now Mom has not only memorized Proverbs chapter six, but several other Proverbs as well.   

That is how our family started memorizing.   We have to give God our little bit and He will use it.  You give Him your five loaves and two fish and He will multiply it!  But, we have to be ready because we don't know when God will bring those opportunities along.   If Dad wouldn't have told us to memorize our Birthday Proverbs and Mom wouldn't have given me the incentive to memorize John 3 we would never be able to share the blessings with others that we are able to today! 




the challenge:

Psalm  19 has 15 verses in it, the goal is to memorize three to four verses per week.  Now you who are out there saying, "I am glad that some people can do that, but it's just too hard for me":  How many scenes out of your favorite movie do you have memorized?  How many songs?  Come on!!  If you can memorize all those things that are temporal, you should be able to memorize at least 15 verses of God's Holy, Eternal Word!  

Maybe you are into memorization already and have quite a few chapters memorized.  Well, you can never get too much of God's word!  Also, go and vote on the poll in my sidebar so we can all see how many chapters you have memorized!

how to join:

  • Leave a comment with the link to your blog in it (I will add your link to the contest participants list)
  • (optional but, appreciated ;)  add the contest button to your blog (you can get the code from my sidebar) and post about the challenge

some helpful tips:

Click here to see a list of Bible memorization tips that we used for the National Bible Bee which we competed in last year.  Though I didn't make it to the National Bible Bee competetion I will never forget what I learned.   If you are interested in signing up for the Bible Bee in 2011 registrations start April 1st.  

You can also click here if you would like to view a few videos of my siblings reciting (the videos are more towards the bottom of the page).

5 comments:

Dakota said...

Hey Lydia,

It's so encouraging to see other young people out there who are passionate about memorizing Scripture. Psalm 19 was one of the first chapters I committed to memory, and is one of my favorites to recite. Romans 12 is also near the top of the list.

Forgive me if I've already mentioned this in a previous comment (I'm constantly referring people), but you might consider checking out memverse.com. It's a great website that made memorizing Scripture so much easier for me personally, and it's completely free. It will organize your verses, test your accuracy and ability to recall the correct reference, and bring each verse up when it is due for review. Basically, it gives you more time to memorize Scripture rather than looking for lost notecards, etc. You should definitely check it out.

Great post!

In Christ,
Dakota

By the way, if you do choose to join memverse I would love it if you could specify me (Dakota) as the person who referred you by clicking the appropriate link under the Profile tab. Just type my name into the box (don't press enter) and my profile will pop up for you to click on.

Dakota said...

Hey,

I seen your comment over on my blog, but I wanted to reply to it over here just to make sure you seen it!

Yes, memverse allows you to memorize whatever verses you choose in the translation of your choice. It only takes a few seconds to add one, and sometimes it will allow you to add an entire chapter all at once (making it very simple to add larger portions of Scripture.)

And speaking of the Bible Bee, Daniel Staddon, who won a couple years ago, is an active user on the site. Isaac Watt is also a user/administrator, and he won 1st place in the Junior division this year. It seems to be quite popular among Bible Bee contestants.

In Christ,
Dakota

Annie said...

Hello Lydia!
Thanks for letting me know about your challenge...I would love to join you; however, I am rather behind in my memorization of 1 Peter, so I better finish that before doing anything else.
I'll be cheering you on, though! Good for you!
Many blessings,
Annie

Rubies Like Ruth said...

Lydia,

It is exciting to see others desiring to memorize God's Word.

By the way, I'd love for you to come over and visit rubieslikeruth.blogspot.com. :)

Lauralea said...

I will join~ I actually had a challenge @ my blog earlier this year to memorize 1,000 verses, And that's a chapter I'm working on right now! Add me to the list!!
Laura(lea)
I will add your blog button to my blog as soon as I can...