Love is patient…

Memorize Scripture? Oh yeah. I’m great at that. I’ve memorized tons. And forgotten just as much. You too?

Well, I recently heard a talk about memorizing Scripture and it actually really helped me. Here was the key:

“Take your life to the Scripture and the Scripture to your life.”

Let me explain.

Memorize Scripture? Oh yeah. I’m great at that. I’ve memorized tons. And forgotten just as much. You too?

Well, I recently heard a talk about memorizing Scripture and it actually really helped me. Here was the key:

“Take your life to the Scripture and the Scripture to your life.”

Let me explain.

We were admonished not to just memorize in bulk, taking in verse after verse and sticking with some big plan. Instead, we shouldn’t move past one verse until it’s really made an imprint on our lives.

A story was shared about a friend who was learning 1 Corinthians 13 and hadn’t gotten very far because she had kids. I laughed and thought I should memorize it too. I have an 8 month old that’s having sleep problems, and I started with verse 4. After a couple of weeks, I’m also not much further than I started, “Love is patient.”

Well, I should say not further in memorizing. In my life though, wow!

As I continually repeat, “love is patient,” I become more patient. As I meditate on what it means to be patient, I walk into my son’s room a little more good-naturedly when he cries at 3am. As I look up other passages on patience, I realize that I didn’t know about love until I had to love this little one with all I have so selflessly.

So, am I memorizing Scripture? Yes. Am I memorizing at a crazy rate? No. Is it changing my life? Yes. And, isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?

Life change is a slow process. God is in charge, not my Scripture memorization plan (which let’s admit, I also always end up quitting on anyway). So now, I'm memorizing with life change in mind, and God's calling the shots.

Hopefully, I’ll move on soon from “love is patient,” but I figure I’ll be at “love is kind” for a bit too. Check back with me. Perhaps, I’ll have hit verse 5 in a year or so.