I am terrible at memorizing. I have tried and tried and tried, but I am hopeless. I guess I should have known this as I can’t remember any of my passwords and only know the first two lines of any song … well … except those from The Sound of Music.
I absolutely admire those who either have the ability or the dedication to memorize. Actors commit to memory entire plays and speakers entire speeches. I have one cousin who can recite long poems and another who has memorized whole books of the Bible while her husband can quote passage, chapter, and verse of what seems like every line of the Bible.
I have tried, made resolutions, started valiantly, but then stalled. I suspect, like those who say they are terrible in math or English, that while I might not have the memorizing gene, my main problem lies in my lack of perseverance.
But despite my dearth of verses committed to memory––verbatim––with book, chapter, and verse added with a final flourish, two good things have come from my initial desire to memorize, despite my stops and starts.
First, as I am doing my daily Bible reading, I am noticing more and more verses that I would like to memorize, and so each week, I write one of them down with the aim of reviewing it throughout the week. And I do. Enough so, and here is positive number two, that even though I might not remember the verse exactly, I know it is there, I can remember the context of the verse, and I know enough of the verse that I can rely on Google to help me place it in its exact spot.
God is a God of perfection, but we are not. We are a work in progress. So I won’t become despondent when I don’t get all my verses memorized, but I will keep on working at it, because as Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6: he is “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Thank you Google.)
I absolutely admire those who either have the ability or the dedication to memorize. Actors commit to memory entire plays and speakers entire speeches. I have one cousin who can recite long poems and another who has memorized whole books of the Bible while her husband can quote passage, chapter, and verse of what seems like every line of the Bible.
I have tried, made resolutions, started valiantly, but then stalled. I suspect, like those who say they are terrible in math or English, that while I might not have the memorizing gene, my main problem lies in my lack of perseverance.
But despite my dearth of verses committed to memory––verbatim––with book, chapter, and verse added with a final flourish, two good things have come from my initial desire to memorize, despite my stops and starts.
First, as I am doing my daily Bible reading, I am noticing more and more verses that I would like to memorize, and so each week, I write one of them down with the aim of reviewing it throughout the week. And I do. Enough so, and here is positive number two, that even though I might not remember the verse exactly, I know it is there, I can remember the context of the verse, and I know enough of the verse that I can rely on Google to help me place it in its exact spot.
God is a God of perfection, but we are not. We are a work in progress. So I won’t become despondent when I don’t get all my verses memorized, but I will keep on working at it, because as Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6: he is “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Thank you Google.)
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