50 Day Bible Memory Challenge

As my regular readers have guessed, I have several interests. I enjoy sewing, making soap, crocheting, and a couple of other “crafty” things. I like political commentary. Also, I comment upon my own Christian beliefs.

In high school and college, the one thing I took the most pride in was my Bible memory accomplishments. I had a couple hundred Bible verses memorized, and attempted to keep them in note card boxes. I have a little problem, though. First, I made a habit of giving out my verse cards when I hoped someone would find comfort or encouragement in a specific verse. And at the time, I thought, “Why not, I have the verse memorized, so it really doesn’t matter.” This leads to my second problem: I was diagnosed with an auto-immune related disease (ITP, or chronic low platelets, for those interested) during my senior year of college, and because of the extreme amounts of prednisone that I had to take, I have some memory problems. First, I have this unaccounted for period of time during my senior year; which means I have course work on my transcript (with A’s and B’s, even) that I don’t remember taking, at all. Second, I lost a lot of memorized content, like Bible verses, people’s birthdays, and some other random trivia.

So, over the last four years, I have been “meaning” to re-learn my Bible verses. But, I never got “around to it.” And here we are.

Today is January 3, 2005. I challenge all of my readers to memorize the following scriptures by February 21, 2005.
Job 22:27
Psalm 1:6
Psalm 8:9
Psalm 29:11
Psalm 32:5
Psalm 91:10
Psalm 94:1
Psalm 104:24
Psalm 108:3-4
Psalm 119:160
Psalm 119:165
Isaiah 66:13
Zechariah 13:9
Malachi 3:6
Matthew 7:7
Luke 5:10
Luke 6:27
Luke 12:29-31
John 1:12
John 3:3
John 3:16-17
John 13:34
John 14:6
John 14:21
John 15:9-13
Acts 4:12
Romans 1:16
Romans 3:10-11
Romans 3:23
Romans 4:21
Romans 5:8-9
Romans 6:23
Romans 8:1-2
Romans 10:9-10
Romans 12:1-2
2 Corinthians 1:20
2 Corinthians 3:5
2 Corinthians 5:21
Ephesians 2:8-10
Colossians 3:17
1 Timothy 1:15
1 Timothy 6:6
Hebrews 2:18
Hebrews 11:6
1 Peter 2:2
1 Peter 3:18
1 Peter 4:10-11
I John 3:18
1 John 4:7-11
Revelation 3:20

I really have no reward for anyone who accepts this challenge. However, there are rewards to be had both mentally and spiritually.

And, in order to have accountability for meeting this challenge, I will invite a guest blogger to post when I have the verses memorized. Furthermore, I will invite the guest blogger to post throughout the year to post how well I do at reciting these same verses. I have a few guests in mind, though none are blonde, all reliable people. Perhaps I will ask Hermionygonzo from Stillman Girls or one of our cousins to comment.

And, for those who need some help, I would like to share my method of memory. Attempt to learn 7 passages a week. Take 7 minutes each day, and go through your seven verses, reciting them out loud. It helps to have the scriptures written on 3x5 note cards. After day 3, start to turn the cards over and recite without checking reference. By day 7, you should have the verses memorized. In order to maintain memory, (remember, the goal is to have 50 passages in permanent memory) it is important to run through memorized verses at least once a day. Others, namely my calculus teacher from college, found that memory came through repeatedly copying what was to be memorized, I am not much for writing because I forget commas and mix up commas and semi-colons, etc. And some people are more picky about punctuation then others.

Also, another tip to try: include passages that you either have memorized, or mostly memorized, passages that sound familiar, and passages that you do not know in each set. When I do this, I feel more encouraged because I am reminded that I do have verses memorized, and I am not a hopeless cause. This leads me to work harder on the passages that I do not have memorized, or completely memorized.

Good luck, and happy memorizing!