Hiding His Word in My Heart (Part 1)

I've always lamented that I'm not great at Scripture memorization. Over the years, I've tried again and again to memorize favorite passages, but after a few days, I'd lose heart. Even the most familiar phrases were like strangers to me when I tried to recall them from memory.

Until now!

I have found two wonderful ways to hide God's word in my heart. Being an artistic, musical, and visual person, my old method of reading the words from the Bible and reciting them over and over again was not working. Now, I try to put a verse to a melody or a rhythm. For example, Colossians 3:17 can be said like this:

And what-EV-er you DO in WORD or DEED do EV-verything (pause) 

in the NAME of the LORD JE-sus, (pause)

giving THANKS to GOD the FA-ther THROUGH HIM.

I taught this verse to the children's choir and they learned it so fast! And when I took Proverbs 6:6 and made it into a little song, my five-year=old son (who is an auditory learner) loved it! He still goes around singing, "Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy bones, lazy bones!" (Homeschooling parents, singing is a tried-and-true method of learning almost anything!)

For longer passages and verses that are hard to set to rhythm or music, I combined two things that I observed my friends doing. One friend wrote out the verses using lettering techniques, and another painted, doodled, and drew directly in her journaling Bible. This by far has been the best discovery for me in years! Being a do-er, I get to "get my hands dirty" by writing, drawing, and coloring. Being a visual learner, I can more readily picture the words as I try to recall them. I started memorizing Colossians 3:12 on Monday, and already I'm moving onto the next verse with eagerness. Here is a photo of how I wrote out verses 12-13 for myself:

As you can see from the somewhat blurry photo, it's nothing fancy. My lettering was done in ball-point pen and the coloring in pencil and I taped the index cards onto my bathroom mirror so I can glance at them throughout the day and cement them in my mind. Something so simple, yet so effective!

I encourage you to also pick a favorite passage of Scripture and memorize it. Try one of these methods, or share with me your favorite way!