How to Memorize Scripture

There are so many wonderful resources and methods available these days for memorizing scripture that it can be overwhelming!  So, I thought I would take a few minutes today to share with you how we memorize scripture as a family here at the Good Old Days Farm.

Our system is a combination of a couple of other systems that I found online. 

I write down our memory verses on 3” x 5” index cards.  Now, a lot of people like to use business-card size cards, but I don’t.  For starters, they’re small and I can’t see the print very well.  The other reasons I like to keep my memory verses out of my pockets is that too many verse cards have gone through the washing machine that way!  So we stick to 3” x 5”’s. 

The Little Farmhands can’t read yet, but they illustrate the verse on their index card as a visual cue and we post it up on the refrigerator with a magnet:

(See the illustration for Psalms 119:11?  The brown boxes on the left are Bibles.  The purple “x” means “no sin.”  And on the right are the two Little Farmhands “not sinning”!)

I have a tin 4” x 6” index box that sits on my kitchen window sill.  I took a ribbon and sewed some lace to it and then glued that to a magnet.  (Must have a pretty magnet!)  Now I can magnet my index card to my metal box.  As I am washing dishes I can look up and easily practice my verse.

  

The key to successful scripture memory, I have discovered, is not just learning to memorize.  I can memorize a verse in a couple minutes.  The key is being able to recall the verse later.  I need to somehow get the verse to go from being written on that index card to being deeply ingrained in my mind.

FAST Missions has some free scripture memory resources including a free mini-course called the “Crash Course” that you sign up to take.  I love the review system that they teach!  If you are interested in Scripture Memory I would encourage you to take their free mini-course.  Here’s my review system in a nutshell:

-After learning a new verse, date it.  Then, we review it every single day for 60 days.
-After 60 days of daily review, we know the verse very, very well.  Then we practice it weekly for a while, then monthly.

SimplyCharlotteMason.com recommends a cardfile box system similar to ours with printable dividers.  Her review system is slightly more complicated than the one I use, but it is also very effective.  Here is a picture of my cardfile box set up that was inspired by that site:

(You can't see the weekly dividers, but they're in there behind the "Daily" divider!)

You see?  First I have a new verse ready to go at the front of the box.  Then, the verses I practice daily for 60 days go right behind that.  Next there is a set of dividers for each day of the week (You can’t see them in this picture, but they’re there!).  At the back is a set of dividers numbered 1-30 for the verses I would review monthly.  So, for example, today is Friday, April 8.  I am learning my new verse, reviewing all the daily verses, reviewing all the weekly verses for Friday and also reviewing all the monthly verses for the 8th.  I added a section to the back of my box for “Future Verses To Memorize.”  When I come across a verse I would like to memorize, I just write it down on an index card and put it back there.  Then I always have plenty of verses to memorize!

If you want pretty, printable dividers, SimplyCharlotteMason.com offers a free printable PDF file.  Just Click Here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.  (If you want your dividers to stick up over your cards you will need to add 1/4” to the bottom of the divider when you cut it out.  I forgot to do that with the Days of the Week cards and that’s why you can’t see them in the picture!)

Inspired to start memorizing scripture?  Don’t forget to sign up for our Giveaway of "The Well-Versed Family" by Caroline Boykin!  The Giveaway ends April 12, 2011 at midnight.  Later during this giveaway I will be sharing some of our family’s favorite Scripture Memory resources that you may not have heard of before, so stay tuned!