What's the surprising benefit of scripture memory.
We're going to be talking about that today, along with my very
favorite apps and tips on how to make scripture memory fun and simple.
Let's get started.
Hey, my name is Kat Lee and you're listening to the Helen morning's podcast
where my goal is to help you begin and build a life changing morning routine.
So each episode of this show is designed to inspire you.
And one of the three key areas of a great morning routine, those are
God time, plan, time, and move time.
Now, if you're not familiar with hello mornings, I'd love to invite you to
head over to hello mornings.org, to download our three minute morning
routine and watch our mini workshop.
That explains how you can have an amazing morning routine.
In just three minutes.
Crazy, but true.
So today we're talking about scripture memory.
It's something we hear often about, but how much do we incorporate into our lives?
And I want to share with you.
And inspiring and surprising side effect of scripture memory.
So by the end of this episode, you will have a new motivation for memorizing
scripture, no matter how long it takes you to memorize a passage.
And you'll have some really practical steps to get started.
In a way that's fun for you.
You ready?
Let's go.
Now we often think of scripture memory, kind of like having a well-stocked pantry.
You want to have scripture memorized to that.
You can pull it out whenever you need it, regardless of the situation or
circumstance that you're going through.
And that's a great way to think of it.
However, that really relies on really being able to memorize lots of different
scripture for different circumstances, which is a wonderful thing to try to do.
But not all of us are great at memorizing.
Not all of us do it quickly.
So what is another reason that memorizing scripture can be helpful?
Even if we do it a little bit more slowly.
Well, if you've ever heard of the psychological idea that our thoughts.
Impact how we feel.
And then how we feel impacts what we do.
Let me give you an example.
Have you ever just been going about your day, perfectly innocent and
all of a sudden you see a donut.
And then you start thinking about the donut.
And suddenly you feel like you really want a donut.
Until you stopped by the store and you finally get the donut.
Now, maybe it's not a donut for you, but something else you might think about
until you feel an emotion about it.
Until you do something about it.
It might be an ad for a new store in your town.
It might be a new restaurant that you want to try.
We're on the converse.
It could be negative thoughts that you have, you think a negative thought and
you start to feel negatively about that topic and you start to make decisions
that are negative in regard to that topic.
Or even on a simpler level, if I spent all day, while I'm at work, thinking
about the good things about my dog.
I'm going to feel warm and fuzzy about my dog.
And when I get home, I'm going to play with him and tell
him what a good boy he is.
If I spend all day thinking about the bad things my dog does,
then I'm going to start feeling pretty negative about my dog.
And when I get home, I'm probably not going to play with him as much
and tell him what a good boy he is.
Our thoughts.
Impact how we feel about something.
And how we feel about something impacts the decisions.
That we make.
So, what does that have to do with scripture memory?
Well, the process of memorizing scripture.
Is basically just choosing our thoughts.
As we're practicing, memorizing a scripture, we're
choosing what to think about.
And what we're choosing to think about is God's word.
We're choosing to think.
Hopeful worshipful thoughts.
We're choosing to think about the good things God has done in our lives.
We're choosing to think about his love for us.
His promises to us.
And what we think about.
Impacts how we feel.
And how we feel impacts our decisions.
So you don't just have to have scripture memorized.
For it to help you in your day-to-day life.
Simply the process of trying to memorize a scripture.
Of replaying Psalm 23 in your mind, as you're trying to memorize it.
Reading it in your Bible.
Reading it off of a sticky note.
Using an app.
As we put our thoughts.
On scripture.
We're impacting the emotions we have and the decisions that we make.
Now that may sound small and maybe obvious to you.
But it is so much more life-changing than I think we give it credit for.
I'm sure.
You've probably been in a situation before.
Or you started falling into a spiral.
Of anxious, thoughts of negative thoughts of bitter thoughts?
And it impacted.
How you felt about a person or a situation?
Which then impacted the choices you made.
Regarding that person or that situation.
We can take control of that.
With God's help.
And scripture memory is a really powerful and simple way.
To do that.
I know, we often think that it's important to memorize scripture
just to have it memorized so we can refer to it and relevant situations.
But it's equally maybe if not more important to just be in the
process of memorizing scripture.
Because it redirects our thoughts to the words of God and the love of God.
And if we spend our time and our day thinking about the words and love of God.
That's going to impact our emotions and impact our actions.
So by focusing on memorizing scripture, we're not feeling left out as we're
scrolling through social media.
When we are spending time memorizing scripture, that's time.
We're not spending.
Falling into an anxious worry spiral.
The timer spending memorizing scripture is time that we're not entertaining
bitter or resentful thoughts.
Now that doesn't mean that we need to spend all day every
day, memorizing scripture.
But imagine if you did it just a little bit every day.
From month.
And then maybe a little bit more every day for the month after that.
And imagine that it started to replace some of your time on social media.
It became your go-to downtime habit.
You have a few minutes while waiting in the doctor's office.
So you open your scripture memory app.
You have a few minutes before bed.
So you start journaling your scripture memory passage.
You're driving in the car and instead of listening to a podcast,
You're listening to the word of God.
Imagine how that would.
Make you feel.
Would it help you to not feel as worried as you're waiting in the doctor's office
for the appointment or about to have.
Would it help you focus?
On positive and hopeful things instead of the negative spiral of news.
How would it impact the choices that you make based on those feelings?
Maybe we wouldn't be as discontent with our lives because we'd spend
less time on social media and more time in the word of God.
Maybe we'd even save money because we'd stop trying to fill.
Uh, perceived void.
From the things we see in social media.
And maybe we would just feel more peaceful because instead of spiraling
down into worry, our thoughts would spiral up towards the hope found in Jesus.
And then maybe we would set a new tone in our home because it would be
able to respond to our loved ones.
With calm and steadiness and love and peacefulness.
I hope you can kind of see now how powerful scripture memory
is at impacting our thoughts.
Which impact our feelings, which impact.
Our behavior.
So now that we've laid that foundation of how powerful scripture memory can be.
Let's talk about how we do it, because yes, it's a great thing to do.
And maybe at some level in different ways, we've all known that.
But.
The hard part comes when we try to actually do it because maybe it's not fun.
Maybe it's just difficult to do.
Maybe you don't thrive in memorizing scripture.
So I think the first place to start.
Isn't to pick a passage.
The first place to start is what do you like to do?
What's fun for you.
Maybe something that's fun for you is.
Doing puzzles.
Maybe you like artistic things.
Perhaps you like music.
Or maybe you like statistics.
When we can identify what's fun for us.
We can shape our scripture memory process.
Towards that thing, which makes it more fun to do.
And when something's fun to do.
We're going to do it.
All right.
We don't memorize scripture.
Cause it's hard.
It doesn't matter how much we know that it'll help us or that it's really good
when something is hard, we have waited.
So how can we make it?
Easy.
How can we make it fun?
And the way that we do that is by identifying what we like to do.
And crafting a scripture memory plan around that.
So if you like games, Well, there's a ton of great options for you
when it comes to scripture memory.
There are apps for your phone.
That can turn scripture memory into a variety of different games.
Ones where you have to fill in the blank ones, where you have to
recognize the first letter a once, where you move the words around.
So you can make scripture memory, like a fun little game
that you do in your downtime.
If you like music, there are a ton of resources out there that turns scripture.
In the song.
You can have that playing in your car.
You can have it in your headphones.
As you do chores around the house, you can learn to play the songs on your own
on what ever instrument you might play.
If you like art, you can write out scriptures with a
pretty pen and lots of colors.
You can paint it with water colors.
You could use an iPad with an apple pencil and get super creative.
There are a ton of ways to be.
Artistic with scripture memory, you can make really pretty flashcards
that you carry around with you.
Or maybe you like statistics, maybe you just like facts and figures.
Well, there's also a lot of apps out there that will track how many days in a row
you've practiced your scripture memory.
How many verses you've memorized, what the content of those verses is?
So really, no matter what you enjoy doing, there's a way to make it fun for you.
Which makes it easier to do.
Which helps us to actually do it.
So let's talk about a few of these apps.
That I can help you, obviously there's a ton of.
Paper ways to do things.
You can just write up flashcards.
You could get a journal and some colorful pens and write things out, but there's
a few apps that you might not know of that will help you memorize scripture.
The first one is an app called Bible memory.
And this one is probably the granddaddy of them all.
It has a ton of resources, a ton of different games, memorization information.
Statistics.
Uh, verse packages that you can memorize.
So it'll have just pre-created lists of scriptures.
You can memorize.
There's also a Bible in there.
I mean, everything you could possibly need in there.
It's a great one to choose from one that a lot of people start with.
There's another one called fighter versus which is also very, very in-depth.
And has pre-created scripture.
Uh, lists that you can choose from.
Then the one that I personally use, and obviously this is all personal preference.
Um, but I really like.
Simple apps.
It can overwhelm me if there's too many options.
So I like these last two apps, the best, uh, the one that I'm currently using
is one called versify V E R S I F Y.
And it's very simple.
It's very pretty.
I somehow for some reason, need to have app.
That is pretty, so it's a very simple, pretty app.
There's another one called a versus, and it is also pretty, it's also only iOS,
so it will not work on an apple device.
I believe versify might work on either an apple device or an Android.
Bible memory and fighter versus definitely work on both.
So it's really what you prefer.
Do you want lots of options?
Or do you want simplicity?
They're all great apps.
And I'm going to have the links for all of these in the show notes today.
All right.
So we've talked about some different methods of memorizing scripture
using games, using music, art.
Even statistics.
We've talked about a few different apps that you can use.
Well, what about passages?
Where should we start?
one thing that I really want to say here is that.
I don't want you to get hung up on where you started does not need to be perfect.
So.
Start somewhere.
I personally think a great place to start.
If you have not memorized it.
Is Psalm 23.
But a few other places to start, if you've already memorized,
that would be Psalm one.
First Corinthians 13 or perhaps Philippians three, seven through 11.
My encouragement to you is just to get started.
Just to pick something.
If you do use one of these apps, like I said, they often have an entire library
of options for scriptures to start with.
So just get started.
Pick one.
Work on it until you have it memorized and then move on to the next one.
Don't let choosing the passage, hang you up.
All right friends.
I hope that this has inspired you to dive into scripture memory to make it a habit.
In your life, maybe while you're sipping your coffee, maybe while you're sitting
and waiting somewhere, maybe before you go to bed or when you wake up.
Try these different methods we've shared of using an app
that has games or listening to scripture music or creating art.
Around scripture memory, or just following the statistics of the scriptures,
you're memorizing, whatever inspires you, whatever method will help you to
consistently dive in description, memory.
Do that.
Use some of the apps that we've shared, the Bible memory app fighter
versus versify versus there are so many great apps out there that will
help you in your scripture memory.
And then finally just get started.
Pick one of the verses that we've shared some one first Corinthians 13,
Philippians three, seven through 11.
There are so many others.
And a lot of these apps have some lists built in for you.
But I'm also giving you a fun freebie today.
Just go to the show notes and on our website.
There'll be a way for you to download our Psalm 23 scripture memory challenge,
kit, and it's going to help you.
I have everything you need to memorize.
Psalm 23.
All right, friends.
I hope you're going to take action on what you've learned today.
And if you don't already have a powerful morning routine, head over to Helen
mornings.org and download our three minute morning kit, it's going to give you
everything that you need to get started.
And if you're enjoying this podcast, I would love it.
If you leave a review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to the show.
Now, my name is Kat.
And I'm so grateful that you've joined me today.
I hope we've inspired your mornings so that you can be in waking up for
your life and not just to your life.
I'll see you on the next episode of the hello mornings podcast.