Don’t lose what you fought to gain.
Embedding words from a page to words in a brain isn’t quick or easy. If you’ve memorized one scripture or one thousand, you understand. After putting in time, energy, and prayers, you don’t want those words to fade away.
But with a little planning, you can keep them in your heart with much less work than it took to put them there in the first place.
Here are 3 steps so you can review to remember:
1. Gather verses in one place.
You may prefer a computer program like ScriptureTyper or MemVerse or a phone app. As long as you capture all your verses in one location, that’s great.
I prefer a binder as home base for all my verses. I print out the chapter I’m learning with margins wide enough to write notes on the side or in between lines. There I jot down meanings of Greek words or alternate translations or special insights as I memorize. I also add a starting and ending date (when I remember, ironically).
Then I file all the chapters together in the binder in the books-of-the-Bible order.
For individual verses, I print out a running list on continuous pages, also in Bible order. I reprint the whole document periodically to include the newest verses I’ve learned.
Once you’ve gathered your verses all in one location, you’re ready to move on to scheduling.
2. Make a review schedule.
This step is crucial. Without a plan, you may find your verses disappearing from your brain.
There are many approaches to scheduling review, and if you use an online system, they’ll likely have a review plan for previous verses. But the simplest approach for me (and thus the one I’m most likely to use), is to work through the pages in my binder in the order I’ve filed them.
I review one chapter and one sheet of individual verses per day, four days a week (give or take), for about 5-15 minutes.
Sometimes my review is nothing more than a quick read-over. That’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing, and I’ll come back around to each page soon enough.
What works better is reviewing each verse of the chapter or page a minimum of five times. What you don’t remember the first time or two, you’ll likely remember by the fifth.
3. Use the heart.
The most important place to keep your verses active is your heart. Without sinking them deeply here, they’ll remain only words.
The heart is where Spirit-work takes place. On you. Through you. Here you realize word-for-word accuracy isn’t as important as the meaning behind those words. Here is where you let the heart of God change your heart for God.
This is the review-on-demand, as needed, anytime, anywhere. Middle of the night awakenings are a common time for me to mentally recite a chapter. Also in waiting rooms. In conversations with friends. In hard times. And in happy times. Let your heart use these words to express itself.
But remember…
Don’t be discouraged when you do forget some. Because you will. While we all desire word-for-word retention of everything we’ve learned, heart transformation is what God is after.
Consider your review time as an invitation for the Lord to change your thoughts through His thoughts. That’s the goal.
In reviewing His words, you’re valuing what He values. And with that, He is honored.
I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
Psalm 119:15-16
How do you retain verses you’ve memorized?
Please share what works (and even what doesn’t) for you.
Thank you for the tips. I’ve just recently started memorizing scripture with the Charlotte Mason file box system. http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/. This has been wonderful for me. My biggest problem has been remembering to go over my verses, ironically, but now it is on my daily to do list. :)
Thanks, Lauren, for sharing the Charlotte Mason link. I knew the method was out there but I’ve never looked at it; I’ll add it now to my list of resources. This fall will be the first year I won’t have my daughters at home to memorize with me, so I may experiment with some new approaches. :-)
I appreciate you sharing with us!
We too use the Simply Charlotte Mason file box system. It’s made it so easy to memorize and keep reviewing so we don’t forget what we already committed to memory.
I appreciate you sharing that it works for you too, Paige. It’s wonderful when we find something that keeps our memory work intact!
“Here is where you let the heart of God change your heart for God.”
A beautifully worded thought! I use the first letter method, writing out the first letter of each word in the verse for easy recall. I find it easiest to create a column on the side of the page so the first letter verses are parallel to the ones that are written out. I also have a book on my Kindle from Ray Fowler that allows me to toggle back and forth between the passage and just the first letter of each passage for the whole Bible. http://www.rayfowler.org/digital-books/the-kjv-bible-memory-version/
The whole Bible in first letters. That is pretty awesome, I must say! Thanks for adding the link, Rebecca.
I like your idea of creating a column for the first letters beside the actual text. I’m currently trying to learn some VBS songs in Spanish, and I had to print them out in two columns so I could see the English and Spanish together, so I should do the same with my memory verses when I use first letters. Great tip.
I know this is not like you suggesting when you study a chapter but….. I have a notebook. On each page I have a title of a feeling. Examples of page titles: “Anger”, “Forgiving others”, “Forgiving myself”, “Something to Think about”, etc. And while reading or doing a devotional etc. and I come across a verse(s) that fits in any of the page categories I write them down. I review them not only when I am feeling that certain feeling but also just to review and keep them in my mind and heart. And when a feeling comes up I try and repeat the verse(s) that I have written down.
A wonderful tool to add to a notebook. I like it. It would work with officially “studying” a chapter or memorizing or even just reading through the Bible. I often run across something and pause to think, “Hmmm…” but if I don’t write it down somewhere, the thought disappears.
This is a great way to organize those thoughts, and make it easy to return to them for review. Thanks, Tina.
We use a scripture box for review mostly (and I use scripture typer). Each day we work on our new verse and then review a few older ones depending on the day. I posted about it here – http://prairie-living.blogspot.ca/2012/05/capturing-scripture-in-your-heart.html –
I hope you don’t mind me sharing the link. It’s kind of lengthy to explain what we do although it’s a simple idea.
I think once summer begins and school work is over, we will move our scripture time to supper, which is sometimes the only consistent action in our days.
I’m so glad you shared the link, Penny. You have some great ideas and I’m sure others will be as interested as I am in seeing them and possibly utilizing them themselves.
While I may have occasionally memorized scriptures when I was a child, I never had a dedicated time for it, during a time of life when I could have memorized far more easily than I do now. So I praise God for moms (and dads) like you who are diligent in setting up systems for their children and for themselves.
WOW, Lisa. Thank you for sharing your wonderful tips here. I know that having verses printed out and put in places of prominence really helps me to stay focused on what I’m trying to hide in my heart. Have a few of yours here that I want to try as well.
“put in places of prominence”
That’s something I need to get better at, especially when I’m trying to learn newer verses for the first time.
Here’s a God-moment about you mentioning that: Just yesterday I was looking at my dresser mirror, rereading “In the Midst” that YOU blessed me with two years ago. Because I’ve kept it in that “place of prominence”, I’ve been able to use it over and over.
So on my to-do list for today: put a copy of Psalm 103 not only in my binder but also on my dresser. Thanks, Dianna.
I love to challenge myself with friends. Currently, i am in a small group and we send eachother a recording of ourselves reciting what we’ve memorized so far. We email them every week to eachother. It is so beautiful hear eachother’s voices and how some of us really say it with love, others sound like actors others sound like prayers. I just love it. It’s helped me out a lot to constantly hear myself too and perfect it that way. I also say it out loud in the shower and have index cards all over the outside glass door. :-) I love to look back on past memorizations.
~Blessings!
Wow–that’s a brand new idea to me, Liz. What a gracious group of friends you all are. You must feel so blessed when you open up your inbox and get to not only see something from your friends, but to hear them repeating God’s words to you, with inflections and meanings that are special to them. Not to mention how much it does for you to GIVE the verses to them in the same way.
I’m so glad you shared this. Maybe it will spur some of us to consider trying it, too…
I have a playlist on my ipod called Scripture and in that play list is a recording of each big section of scripture that I have memorized. So, sometimes I will just play that while I am washing the dishes or cleaning the house or driving. That is an easy way for me to go through all my verses, reciting along with the recording. And I can easily check myself on any mistakes.
That’s a great tip, Amy. Hearing the words can sometimes be as equally helpful as seeing them, especially when we’re in the review stage. Thanks for sharing.
ScriptureTyper has been a big help for me in reviewing. I also have my older girl test me. It’s fun having her encourage me. :)
It is nice when you have someone else who can help. I find that I *think* I know the verses fine…until I have to repeat them to another person. ha. It’s great that your daughter tests you…and she’s probably learning them herself in the process.
Thanks for these useful tips and especially the heart behind it, Lisa! I haven’t tried a program like Scripture Typer yet, but I keep reading good things about it. I definitely agree with other comments here about the benefits of someone else helping you to review – for accountability, support, and fun!
Scripture Typer is a helpful site–I don’t use it as consistently as I could, but when I do use it, it definitely helps.
Thanks for always being an encourager, Caroline. I know your time restraints are many right now with little ones, yet you still reach out to help others maintain faith. Soon those little ones will be able to add to the fun of your memorizing. :-)