I am officially two days behind in posting the results of my Mega Memory Month memorization attempt. I knew the end of the month was coming. I even knew that it came and went. But I completely forgot about writing a post to reveal how I did (well, technically, how “we” did, since my son, C., joined in the memorizing fun as well).

First, the official results

As I mentioned in my original post, my goal was to memorize two chapters in the Bible: Romans 12 and 1 John 1. How’d I do? Well, I did not reach my goal. In fact, I didn’t even touch 1 John. But I’m happy to say that I memorized all of Romans 12 and I think I have it down very well.

C.’s goal was to memorize as much of 1 Corinthians 13 as he could, and I have to say he really took the project on by himself. I was not very good at helping him with it and I really should have done better, but he was faithful to work on it throughout the month and I’m very proud of him for that.

In the end, C. learned “most of” the first 8 verses of 1 Corinthians 13. I say “most of,” because he needed a few little prompts when we went over it last week, but it was obvious that he had a pretty good grasp of the content. In addition, he memorized five Bible verses for school throughout the course of the month, and had them down pat.

Second, the things we found helpful

Here are some methods we used to aid our memorization:

C.
1. Listening to a recording of the verses. I (Katrina) had recorded myself reading 1 Corinthians 13 and put that file on C.’s iPod. He then regularly listened to that track and said it helped him memorize it.

2. Reading from an index card. C. had all of 1 Corinthians 13 typed out on an index card, which he read repeatedly throughout the month. He’s a good visual learner, so I think having all the verses in one place to read and review was helpful.

Katrina
1. Saying the verses aloud. I think my 2-year-old is probably tired of me telling him to “be transformed by the renewing of his mind” during lunchtime, but I found that reciting my verses aloud really helped me cement them in my mind.

2. Writing or typing the verses. I initially wrote the words to Romans 12 on some index cards in order to have a portable version of what I was working on, but I found that the actual act of writing them helped even more. Periodically, I would write or type the portion of the chapter I was currently working on in order to better memorize it.

Third, what I’ve learned

Though I only memorized one chapter, rather than my intended two, I found I have been truly encouraged through this process. I’ve been amazed at the opportunities to apply what I’ve been memorizing (”honor one another above yourselves,” “practice hospitality”). God has certainly used the words that I’ve been hiding in my heart, in order to guide me, encourage me, and correct me.

I’ve also found that memorizing a larger chunk of Scripture has a completely different feel than memorizing scattered verses. Though I usually have a pretty good idea of those verses’ contexts, having an entire chapter of Romans memorized gives me a much better feel for how the various verses and sections are tied together.

I want to thank Ann Kroeker for challenging us to take on a “mega” memorizing project during October. (I’d also like to apologize to her because I have not created any kind of month-end presentation of my memorizing. Sorry, Ann!)