Have you ever started a project and then later decided to change things up because the project was becoming stagnant?
You might be asking, “Why would you want to add something new into a scripture memory routine if things seems to be going well with the normal routine? Well, I love change especially if its practical and will help me in the long run. My scripture memory journey is always changing. I may add or stop doing something that I found to be helpful for me a couple of years ago.
I am currently memorizing Romans. When I first started Chapter 1, I remembered the importance of being prepared before beginning the actual memorization process. In the past, I would start a new book thinking I was prepared, but by the time I got into chapters 4 or 5, my desire to keep going would begin to fade. I simply did not have enough fuel in the tank, and the process I had originally put in place would slowly spiral downward.
I am determined that the book of Romans will be different! I know it is a long book, and with that in mind, I took the time to make sure I was prepared by doing a little more work ahead of time. My goal is that when I reach the middle chapters, I won’t spiral again and rely solely on rote memory. I want to be able to find a chapter and verse quickly if I get lost, and while rote memory is very helpful, I knew I needed a bit more support.
So, I decided to create a mind palace for each chapter. In the past, when I worked on Ephesians, I did very well with my Chapter 1 mind palace, but after that things became a little wonky. Looking back, that was because I was rushing the process and not planning ahead. Creating a mind palace does take time, but so far I have two chapters mapped out, and those locations are becoming very helpful whenever I go back to review.
For instance, my guest bathroom represents Romans 1:18–20. I can go right to that passage because I remember the visual image associated with it. This approach definitely takes time, but that is not what I am sharing with you today.
Today, the tools I am sharing with you are the FIrst letters of Romans and also Romans in phrase format. The amount of time these tools will take depends on your computer and printing skills. I found this process surprisingly challenging because all I wanted to do was create a booklet! I researched several different methods and still couldn’t figure it out. In the end, I took the easy route and sent everything to OfficeMax for printing.
If you know how to create a booklet yourself, please leave a comment! I would love to hear what worked for you.
The first tool is the book of Romans in a phrase-style format. I used Thomas Meyer’s book, The Memorization Study Bible, to help create the phrasing. This was a little difficult because the book uses the KJV, while I am memorizing from the BSB.
I posted earlier about structuring Scripture, and while I like the idea of sentence diagramming and structure, I am definitely an “I have to do it perfectly” type of person. Unfortunately, that approach did not work well for me because:
- I’m not a grammar student.
- When I structured the text, I would constantly second-guess myself, revise it, and then revise it again. It created far more stress than I wanted in my Scripture memory journey.
The phrase format works much better for me. It helps with memorization because each line contains fewer than eight words, and many lines begin with a conjunction, making the flow of thought easier to see. I can also visually recognize repeated words, lists, and patterns within the text, which helps reinforce memory.
So, what are you memorizing? Do you do anything specific to prepare before you begin memorizing?
I hope that this post gave you some new ideas and that these tools will be helpful for you as well. If you plan to try to implement some of these new ideas, post a comment, drop a line etc. I would love to hear about it!
Here are the links. You should be able to click the link and print the resource as a PDF.
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