Mega Memory Month January 2011
Final Celebration
It’s the last day of the month, January 31st, and Mega Memory Month comes to a close.Let’s share our projects, our progress, our successes…no matter how much or how little you were able to absorb. Seriously, every word is progress. Link up your posts via Simply Linked or create something to publish on the Facebook Event page for Mega Memory Month (write comments on the wall).Ann’s ProgressSo…this wasn’t my best Mega Memory Month, to say the least.Memorizing has rarely come easily, but this time I was extra sluggish. Also, I tried a new technique—starting at the end instead of the beginning—and I’m not 100 percent sure it was the best approach for me.My goal was to memorize John 15. I couldn’t put it all together, however, so I’m disappointed with myself.But I will begin at John 15, verse 15.And the only way I will be able to present this is to go over it beforehand and then when I am kinda-sorta ready, I’ll type it out. I will require prompting along the way, marking the spots where I needed a prompt like this {prompt} and missed material inserted in pink.
:::
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. {prompt} You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then my the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. {prompt} They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken these words to them, they would not be guilty of sin: Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.{prompt} He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their law: They hated me without reason.When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also will must testify about me for you have been with me from the beginning.
:::
I can get bits and pieces toward the beginning. Starting with 15:1:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it might be even more fruitful. {prompt} You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
[blank brain…skip to verse 5]
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
[blank brain]This section was a mess at verse 12: “My command is this: love one another each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you love one another do what I command.”It’s like puzzle pieces are floating around in my cranium, waiting to be placed correctly. I can say some of the remaining/missing phrases independently: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” And “I have told you this that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”Now I just have to stick them all together in the right order.Is it an “epic fail,” as my teen daughters would say?Yes.I did not finish well, as I set out to do on January 1.But I have my 3×5 cards and will continue. I will. Because failures, even “epic fails,” show us where we can pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and continue forward, making progress. We fall down; we get up.Also, Mega Memory Month can serve to kick-start the habit of memorization. I plan to continue on a small scale and will build in regular review, revisiting John 15 until I get it all straightened out. I hope you share that vision of continuing with less mega and more reasonable everyday effort throughout the months to come.My concluding thought for this Mega Memory Month project is this:Our brains can hold more than they think they can (but maybe not quite as much as we wish they could).
I don’t think any amount of Scripture hidden in your heart can be considered an “epic fail”, Ann–give yourself a little credit 🙂 you HAVE memorized some wonderful words of grace and truth, even if not as many as you hoped!
Yes, yes, yes…thank you for your exhortation. 🙂
I happily reviewed the cards this morning and believe it will come together before long. You’re a joy!
In pain, but I needed to let you know… any portion of those life-giving words hidden in your heart is a good – no… great! – thing.
What is more important is… are you changed by your time in the word? If your answer is yes – and I suspect it is – isn’t THAT miracle enough? You are a blessing to me.
{{HUGS}}
In pain? I need to click over and see what’s going on, Ruth! Again, thanks for the reminder of what I have intended to remind everyone else: letting the Word change me. Yes, remaining in Christ and having Him remain in me–His Words remain in me–are key. YOU are a blessing to ME, Ruth.
{{HUGS}} to you!
I’m impressed. I’ve been doing a little memorization work this month, but nothing near. I have about ten verses. It’s all good though. Went running today for the first time in weeks and reciting the verses eased the pain!
I went running for the first time in weeks on Sunday and recited my verses, as well! It kept me going the whole time, nonstop, reviewing and reciting. I didn’t get the verses down pat, but I did get all the way through the route! 🙂
Ann—thanks again for kick-starting our hearts to focus on the Life-giving Word! I’m so glad to have the community to push me along in the way I want to go.
I don’t have as much of Romans 5 as I had hoped, but I am glad to have all my materials ready so I can keep on in February.
And as the others have already commented: being in the Word is the key. I’m finding the goal is not so much my ability to conquer the Word as it is for the Word to conquer me.
Erin, that is the most quotable quote I’ve seen in a while:
“the goal is not so much my ability to conquer the Word as it is for the Word to conquer me.”
That’s fabulous. And true.
So, mine was an epic-fail, too. But I agree with the other commenters. Whatever of God’s word we can hide in our heart will not return void. So, my 10 verses count for something, I guess.
I mean to write about this, but the crazy weather interrupted my plans yesterday. However, if the weather gets bad enough, maybe I won’t have to go to work tomorrow, and then I’ll have LOADS of time to write!
Thanks for the challenge and for the honest effort to memorize!
I memorized whole chapters with my kids when we were homeschooling with the help of a CD that put scripture to music. It is much easier that way.
Also, we memorized long poems and portions of speeches that I thought we’d never get down, but we did — including Longfellow’s Paul Revere’s Ride. It rhymes and there’s a certain cadence, but still…we did it by reading it out loud two times each school day ( 10 x over 5days/week over 6 wks). That was it. It really worked. Repetition and consistency.
Thanks for your thoughts on being pigeonholed today. Your thoughtful insight into how other cultures handle this issue is insightful. I must admit, I’ve often asked the question of others myself.
Ann, I agree with the rest…it’s not a fail, it’s progress. And progress in Scripture is profitable!
The kids and I have not nailed our passage yet, but we are on our way. It’s a tough one with unfamiliar words to the kids, but we’ve had some great discussions during memory work.
Thank you, again, for spurring us on!