Scripture Memorization

So, just after I resolved not to make any resolutions, I read an email from my dear friend, Lanie Beth, and now I'm resolving to memorize 24 scriptures this year.

Lanie Beth is participating in Beth Moore's Siesta Scripture Memory Team for 2010.  If you're interested in memorizing scripture, this is a great way to get started.  There are a couple of posts on the Living Proof Ministries Blog that you will want to read before you start.  Start with this one, then read this one.

As a quick recap, Beth will be posting a new SSMT post on the 1st and 15th of every month.  If you want to participate in her memory team, you simply have to leave a comment on the blog with the verse you're memorizing and a couple of other details.  Here's the kicker.  If you leave 21 out of 24 comments (meaning you don't forget to comment more than 3 times this year), you get into the SSMT celebration event in January 2012 for FREE.  All you have to bring to get in is your notebook where you wrote down the 24 verses you memorized throughout the year.  And from what I've read, the SSMT celebration event is a LOT of fun!

With all of that said, I don't think I will be able to travel to Houston for the SSMT celebration in 2012, because we're taking a big ski trip at the end of this year, and I don't think I would be financially able to handle another trip in January 2012.  BUT...I still think it would be awesome to memorize 24 verses this year.

So I'm going to try it.  And I'm going to try to post my verse on the 1st and 15th of the month here on this blog.  If you want to participate along with me, feel free to memorize the verse I post, or choose your own.  For each verse, write it down in a little notebook or on a note card, and take it with you everywhere.  Read it and reread it.  Meditate on it.  As Beth says, you will spend your days meditating on something.  Why not make it God's Word?  And if you think you could make it to Houston next January, be sure to leave a comment on the Living Proof Ministries Blog on the 1st and 15th as well.  Who would not relish a chance to meet Beth Moore?

Here's my verse for January 1st (4 days late, but who's counting?):

"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."  -Psalm 34: 17-18 (NIV)

Beth encourages the SSMT participants to choose verses that apply to their own lives.  I won't say I'm brokenhearted right now or crushed in spirit, but I did have a rough patch last week, and I know for sure that I will need a comforting verse like this at some point in the future.  And, if by some chance, I don't need it, someone else will.  I'm always searching for a good verse to bring comfort in a time of despair.

Won't you participate with me?  Even if you think you're not good at memorizing scripture, is there anything to lose by trying?  If nothing else, at least you will fill your mind with words from the Lord rather than all the other junk that is a product of our world.