Yes, friends... this rusty brain of mine is going to do some Bible memorization work this year. Now, I'm not sure how far I'll go or how much I'll retain or how long I'll last, but at least I'm promising to try. Yes, promising to try... to do my best!
You see, last Friday Ann Voskamp wrote this blog post... inviting her readers to memorize Romans with her this year... the first chapter, the eighth chapter and the twelfth chapter... The Romans Project!
We were in the car... the whole family, the four of us. I read portions of the blog post out loud for everyone to hear, then continued to read the bulk of it to myself. "Me? Memorize three chapters of Romans?", I heard myself thinking... "No way! That's way too crazy!"
Memorization work has always been my least favourite thing to do when I was a student. I still prefer not to memorize things to this day... I just find it very difficult!
I naturally forgot about {or chose to ignore ;-)} Ann's blog post fairly quickly... as I wasn't intending to pursue this whole "memorize-three-chapters-of-Romans-with-me-this-year-thing" at. all!
Until I heard this the following day from my girl... "Mom! Romans 8 is my most favourite chapter in all of the Bible! Will you do The Romans Project with me this year?" She read Ann's blog post, too!
Gulp! Did I really just hear that? There isn't another "mom" in this house right? Yup... she's talking to me alright! :O
Friends, remember my One Word for this year?
Yup... that's right... surrender! Surrender it is! So, long story short... I agreed to try to do this with my girl! :p
And... we suggested that we would go through The Romans Project together as a family during dinner time. The boys aren't quite on board with the memorization part yet... but at least they are content to listen in for now. :-)
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| Dinner on Day 1 with my first attempt at a booklet. |
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| Dinner on Day 2 with a much better flip-style booklet. |
Well? How am I doing so far?
I have managed to surprise myself! Although this rusty brain is indeed rusty {it honestly hurts after a few minutes of doing the memorization work}... I've managed to memorize the first four verses of chapter one! So. Awesome!
This handy online tool called Scripture Typer has been a tremendous help too! And, it's so much fun... and it's addicting! Better than a game of Sudoku! :-)
And... finally, a most beautiful story that made my day today! This morning, a friend of mine emailed to ask me for the link to the PDF file of The Romans Project... because she and her recently widowed mother-in-law are going to do The Romans Project together! It's a beautiful thing to fill the mind and heart with God's words, especially in times when life is difficult... so. beautiful!
This handy online tool called Scripture Typer has been a tremendous help too! And, it's so much fun... and it's addicting! Better than a game of Sudoku! :-)
And... finally, a most beautiful story that made my day today! This morning, a friend of mine emailed to ask me for the link to the PDF file of The Romans Project... because she and her recently widowed mother-in-law are going to do The Romans Project together! It's a beautiful thing to fill the mind and heart with God's words, especially in times when life is difficult... so. beautiful!
As I typed a reply email to my friend... I felt my eyes brim with tears. Who am I to say, "No. Bible memorization work isn't for me!"... when the Bible teaches us to keep God's word close, in our hearts... when these words are...
... perfect, reviving one's very being.So... The Romans Project, here I come! Well... at least I'm going to try. :-)
... faithful, making us wise.
... right, giving joy to the heart.
... pure, giving light to the eyes.
... correct, lasting forever.
... true, all of them are righteous.
... more precious than gold, sweeter than honey.
... enlightening; and, in keeping them there is great reward!
Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.
Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am excited that you are CHOOSING TO TRY.
Last year I started memorising James. I gave up part way through the first chapter. This year I decided to TRY AGAIN...and I'm using an old language acquisition technique that served me well when we lived in communist Europe over two decades ago. We would learn a little speech before going out to practise it on everyone we met...the key was to learn the last sentence of the passage first. Then the penultimate sentence AND say the last one as well. Then the third to last, all the while adding in the last two....the idea was that you would know the last bit so well it would just fly off your tongue without having that block of "what comes next?" It worked then.....and I am happy to say it is working well now in the last few verses of James 5 too. This might be useful for you to try (or it might not), but I do want to encourage you to try whatever it takes, as I do the same!
Thank you for your note, Rachael! This is such a great help... I will try it out for sure! So thankful for your encouragement. :-)
Deletememorizing with you. We did the Sermon on the Mt with her last year. We got behind in Dec so finishing that up but also started our Romans Project.
ReplyDeleteLove this blog post.
Hugs
Yay, Teena! Way to go!!! I didn't do the Sermon of the Mount verses last year... but have read them over and over again throughout the year. Our church did quite a few teaching series on Matthew 5, 6 & 7 last year... that's why! :-)
DeleteYes! To memorize His Word is for all of us! So good to hear you're doing this! I hope you succeed! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete