Looking for a summer project???

No? Me neither. I always start the summer so optimistically, with a project list as long as my arm - "paint basement, pull out dried-up shrubs in front yard, lay flagstone path by shed, sign kids up for swimming lessons, book one more camping weekend, start jogging" (that's on my list all year long).
But then a dear friend e-mailed me today to say that God had been challenging her to keep her mind more focused on His truth. Would I be interested in memorizing some Scripture together this summer?
Would I?! You bet I would.
Here's why. Since I began seriously working at Scripture memorization about five years ago, God has honestly and truly rocked my world in ways I never could have imagined. Now don't get me wrong ... it's not like it's been back-to-back mountaintop experiences, sunshine and roses, or floating on cloud nine with not a care in the world. Nope. Life has gone on and, in some ways, it's gotten harder. We've had our same share of frustrations, disappointments, questions, losses and failures. Life continues to be tedious and mundane a lot of the time, no doubt about it. But in the midst of all that, God has CHANGED ME! And I know for a fact that a big part of that change is due to the verses and passages He's helped me to memorize. It's like He's taken those verses and made them a part of me... so much so that I find the words, HIS Word, coming to my mind or my lips right in the middle of a prayer or in the midst of a crap-ola situation that I have no idea how to handle. I can't count the times I've asked for His wisdom when I'm at a total loss for what to do ... and just as I learned from James 3:17, I've found that "the wisdom from above is first of all pure ... peaceloving ... gentle at all times and willing to yield to others." You think we can work up that kind of wisdom on our own? Not a chance, my friend, not over here in my world anyway. It's all Him, and only Him.

So if you're interested, but not sure how to start, here are a few things that helped me along the way:

1. Choose a verse or passage that MEANS something to you. It's a lot easier to work at memorizing something that God is currently using in your life or speaking to you about.


2. Give yourself some kind of timeline. (eg. "I want to memorize a verse a month for the summer - June to September.")
   
3. Find someone you can be accountable to ... someone who will ask you to recite your verse to them at the end of the month!


4. Buy yourself some index cards or, even better, a set of them already prebound in a spiral set. Set them somewhere visible. (I prop mine right up on the counter by the kitchen sink so I can practice that month's verse while I wash dishes. Needless to say, the cards are kind of ugly and wrinkled from all the dishwater I've splattered on them, but such is life.)

One more thing. Maybe you'd like to memorize a whole chapter or passage that's meant something to you along the way - like the twenty-third Psalm maybe. I'm actually memorizing Psalm 103 right now and all I'm doing is taking it two verses per month, just flipping to the next blank card in my spiral at the beginning of each month and writing out the next two verses from the chapter. It's working!

So, I hope this has inspired you to add one more teensy, tiny little thing to your summer project list. It's a teensy, tiny little thing, but the rewards are huge!