I Did It--Challenge Completed Ahead of Schedule

The Five Chapters I Typed From Memory

Back in January I accepted the challenge to memorize the entire book of James (only 5 chapters) as part of the Beth Moore Bible Study. My plan was to memorize one of the chapters each month which would take to the end of May. I am happy to report that I have memorized all five chapters as of Monday of this week. This is by far the longest thing I ever memorized in my life! It was not easy, but I was determined and kept plugging along, trying to do at least one verse a day. Some took longer but some I already knew so I could sometimes lump several together.

Here is a list of the methods I used which worked for me:

First of all, I prayed asking the Lord to help me do this and believed that he would since memorizing scripture is within his will.

I wrote the verse of the day on a small paper and analyzed it, marking the prepositional phrases, noting the verbs, looking for word patterns and just anything that would help me remember the word order.

If it was a long verse, I wrote it again using just the first letter of each word and kept it at my desk where I would see it and could practice the verse using the clues.

When I thought I had it memorized, I would try typing it without looking at it and then checking it against the Bible to see if I had it right. If not, I'd practice some more and try again until I could get it perfect.

I also reviewed the verses I memorized in my head before on my way to the bus stop, on the bus, before I went to bed at night or on my breaks or lunch at work. Reviewing is very important if you want to remember it long-term.

As I finished a chapter, I tried typing the whole chapter without looking and then checked it, marking the words I missed and making the correction, then printed it out and highlighted my errors. As I would read it over from that copy, I would focus on making the correction and try it again. On my next attempt, sometimes I would miss different words or leave something out and would mark those errors with a different color as well as the errors I made on the first attempt. I did this with each chapter as I finished them and kept on trying until I got it right (I still have to try chapter 5 again). I think using this to review with was most helpful.

As I went along, I set short-term goals as well. After I got Chapter 1 done, I knew I could do it because Chapter 1 was the longest of the five and very hard!

The hardest thing I found in memorizing this book was keeping track of when the verse had "brethren" or "my brethren" tossed in. Also, I found it hard to keep track of when to use "which" and when to use "that." These were the most common errors for me. My mind did get a little boggled up though as I added more chapters which repeated some topics. I really had to focus on which verses went to which chapters.

I hope this will encourage some of you to try memorizing some scripture, perhaps not a whole book but maybe a favorite chapter at least.  Have you memorized any books of the Bible?  Do you have any other memorizing tips that work for you?  

(50 cents per legitimate comment during April goes to Paralyzed Veterans of America.)

Share this: