Memorization Weakness

I have a terrible memory. And it isn't something new. When I was a little girl it seems like we often had to memorize poems to recite in school. I remember sitting on the bench-like radiators in our "front" room with my Mama, practicing the verses over and over. Or I'd have a memory verse to learn for Sunday school, or the piece to memorize for the Christmas pageant or the junior high play. It was a real struggle for me. And even when I learned it well and could repeat it at home, the instant I was called up to say my verse, my mind would go completely blank.

When I went to college as an adult student, I had to work so hard to remember formulas or names and dates. I tried every trick in the book to get the details into my brain. What worked best for me was to write and rewrite the information and visualize my writing when I had to take a test or give an answer. Memorization is a real struggle for me. So much so, that at some point I just gave up trying.

I often pray for God to do as He said in His new covenant with us, "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts," (Hebrews 8:10 NIV). I depend on God to bring His Word back to my mind when I need to hear those words. I am in awe of pastors and biblical scholars who can pull out a scripture and repeat it at the perfect moment in a conversation or spiritual discussion. I feel so inadequate. I want to be like the person who is stranded and survives because of the scriptures he remembers and repeats.

So I'm going to work on the memory verses our church selects each week and see if I can't build up my repertoire of scriptures. I have to admit I feel defeated before I begin, but I will pray for the Holy Spirit to give my mind focus and retentive powers to write God's Word on my heart and in my mind.

This week I will work on the following verse. Thank you, Lord, for writing these words on my heart and in my mind. Amen.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God," (1Corinthians 10:31 NIV).