New Beginnings

It's a new year, 2010, and I'm trying a new thing, blogging. I wanted to start this blog as a way to help my friends (and me) be accountable with Bible verse memorization this year. Last year I joined a couple thousand other women online at the Living Proof Ministries blog twice a month to record a new verse we each had chosen to memorize. It was so cool to see all the verses from all over the world flooding the internet. I believe it was the first time IN MY LIFE that I fulfilled a New Year's resolution! I love having those verses in my head and in my heart.

So this year, I'm challenging anyone who wants to join me to commit God's word to memory. On the 1st and the 15th of each month, I will have a post here with my new verse. Log on and write out the verse you've chosen to memorize. You can certainly chose one I've chosen. But in your quiet time, ask God to give you a verse. Then listen. Listen in those quiet times, to your pastor's sermons, in your Bible studies for verses that really speak to you. You'll most easily memorize the verses that mean the most to you. Then write it down on an index card. (You can find a spiral set of cards at any grocery store or office supply store.) Keep those cards handy - in the car, in the kitchen, near the chair where you have your quiet time. Work on your new verse the first week. The second week refresh your memory with the old verse while also saying the new verse. That's the best way I know to keep those verses in your long term memory - repetition. Two verses a month is very doable. And think, 24 verses by the end of the year! (Well, maybe 23 since I am late getting this on the web.)

For you DOUBTERS who think they cannot memorize verses. I know it's challenging. But how many phone numbers do you have memorized? How many passwords? Birthdays? You CAN do this. Let's put the Word of God in our memory banks and write down the phone numbers and passwords. Maybe it would be easier for you to meditate on the verses. That's okay, at least then the Word of God is rolling around in our heads and not destructive thoughts, even if we don't get it word for word correct. Our brains will be bathed and our ammunition loaded for attack.

Do this only if you want to, not because you need to or "should". We only stay committed to what we want to do. I am thrilled to do this with you. Let's have fun with it!

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:14

My first verse for 2010 is Psalm 90:12 from the NIV: "Teach me to number my days aright, that I may gain a heart of wisdom." I picked this one because I need a heart of wisdom in regards to my time management. I only have a certain number of days, am I being wise how I spend them? I don't want to waste any more days.

If you want, leave a comment with your name and city, verse reference, which Bible version and write out the verse. Someone else may want to memorize it next time. I'll be back on the 15th with a new verse. Get yourself some index cards and find a verse. Anybody willing to accept the challenge?