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A few weeks ago in my last blog post, we explored all the why's to memorizing scripture... if you haven't already, go get some inspiration to memorize scripture by reading it here!
This week as we conclude the series, we'll be exploring all the how's. Are you ready to learn more about memorizing scripture? Are you ready to learn some awesome tips and tricks about how to memorize scripture?!
Well, get ready! Some of these might seem obvious or you just know them already, and you're welcome to skip over ones if the tip makes sense to you by the title or if you already know it and don't need it explained again, but my hope is that you'll find some tips and tricks you never thought of before or that help make your memorizing skills even more fun and awesome!
So without further ado, let's go!
THE ESSENTIALS
First off, let's start with 5 of the things you need to do to memorize verses, and then we'll get on to all the fun little tips and tricks that'll help make your memorizing that much better and easier!
1 R.E.P.E.T.I.T.I.O.N.
Now, you most likely already knew you need to use repetition to memorize, but I'm going to go over this anyways to give you some tips as well as a basic outline and starting point for memorizing...
So how do we utilize repetition in our memorizing?
First off, you need to use repetition when you're first memorizing the verse or verses. So this means reading the verse over and over to yourself before trying to quote it back to yourself (you won't be able to do it perfectly the first time you quote it, so don't worry!), then going back to read it again, quoting it back to yourself, back to read it again... so on, so on until you've fully memorized the verse. When you can remember the whole verse and quote it back to yourself, that's when you have it memorized and can go on to the next verse or do something else!
BUT, this isn't the only time you use repetition. If you only worked on memorizing the verse initially, you wouldn't be able to remember it for long-term, so you have to use repetition after you memorize the verse as well! This means once you've gone on to memorize another verse or to do another activity, you have to come back to quote the verse again. And, sure! Maybe you were able to quote the verse perfectly before, but if you don't go through it again, you won't remember it. Going over the words again helps your brain remember it better because you're going over it more than one time, allowing your brain to become more familiarized with the words of the verse.
So you have to repeat repetition (haha!).
2 Don't Memorize a Bunch of Random Verses
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't memorize a bunch of random verses; you can! But hear me out...
When you memorize a bunch of different verses that aren't in the same book or chapter or just aren't close together, your brain will find this harder to remember because they're not in context with each other. When you memorize a passage of verses or a chapter, your brain will find it easier to remember because all the verses flow into each other, so the end of one verse will cue your brain to remember the beginning of the next verse.
BUT, if you do choose to memorize a bunch of random verses (so verses not in context or not close to each other), I would suggest that you quote them together. Yes, even if they aren't related at all. When you memorize a verse and go on to memorize another verse, come back to quote that first verse again, but this time with the second verse; they will act as "cues" for each other, resulting in you remembering random verses not in context with each other, yay!! (Do the same thing to memorize chapters or passages... except the verses actually flow into each other rather than just being quoted together).
3 Start out with Easier Passages
The reason you should start out with easier passages pretty much speaks for itself, it's easier... thus good if you're just beginning. But I also say this because if you start out with a hard passage, your brain will take longer to pick up on it and retain it, so you could end up being discouraged. Whereas if you start out memorizing something easier, you'll be encouraged when your brain picks up on the verses better!
Hard passages can be fun, but start out with something easier so that your brain can get good at memorizing before you decide to tackle something trickier.
4 Memorize a Version You Like & is Easy to Understand & Retain
When you're choosing which version to memorize, pick one you read or hear most often (this could be the version that you hear at church or that your Bible is in), one where you like the wording and one that is easy for you to understand, thus easier to remember.
For me, I use NIV because this is the version I'm around most and also the version we use for memorizing at Bible Quizzing. Some other good versions to memorize are NLT, ESV as well as NASB, which are all easy to understand and are just great versions! You'll probably end up memorizing in the version that your Bible is in though, which is hopefully (and most likely) a translation you like!
5 Memorize in a Place You can Focus & without Distractions
Once again, this pretty much speaks for itself. This also depends on what kind of person you are and where you can focus though; some people can focus in the craziest of places! You'll probably end up memorizing somewhere quiet and comfy, most likely your favourite nook of the house... get ready, your favourite place to memorize will soon become your newfound memorizing nook, yay!
TIPS & TRICKS
Now, let's move on to the non-essentials, the helpful tips and/or tricks which aren't necessarily needed to memorize scripture but which can make it a lot easier and fun.
You don't have to try every single one of them (you can if you like though!), but certain tips will help different people to be able to remember verses. So you can either choose the one(s) you think would work best for you, or you can go ahead and try a bunch of them to see which one(s) work best! I would encourage you to do the latter, you'd be surprised at how many different techniques actually prove to be helpful!
So I present to you 9 of my favourite helpful tips and tricks to make your memorizing even more fun and awesome! Let's go!!
1 Write Out the Verse(s)
Writing out the verses not only helps you to think over the verse more since it takes longer to write out words rather than just saying them, but using some sort of physical activity (writing in this case) helps you to remember something better!
You know how there are different types of learners? Visual, auditory and kinesthetic? No matter what type of learner you are, combining different types of learning can enable you to remember verses better as well as faster! When you write out verses, you are using kinesthetic learning to memorize the verse as well as visual learning (since you see it on the page), resulting in you memorizing the verse faster and better, yay!
Plus, writing out verses is just fun!
2 Think of the Verse in Correspondence to Something Else
When you're memorizing a verse, purposely connect that verse in your mind with something else in order for your brain to link that to your memory of the verse. And this can be any random thing- an elephant, Niagara Falls, ice cream, Legolas from Lord of the Rings or one of your friends falling off a chair in grade 3... anything!
It might sound funny, but this little trick works because of how our brains naturally function and connect information. When you make a long term memory, it doesn't just exist in a little folder in your brain all on its own, instead, it exists in a huge network of other connected memories called "schemas". Schemas help us make sense of the entire world by connecting information we already have in our brains to new information. This is why looking at, for example, an old book or object, can trigger a whole bunch of memories to come flooding in! Pretty cool, right?
And this applies to memorizing because you're putting new information into your brain, so your mind will naturally connect the words of that verse to something else! Often when I quote through a verse, I can remember the place where I memorized it, if I was doing something at the same time (or rather, trying to do something at the same time), looking at something specific, saying it in a certain way, a bunch of things! Like for example, I remember memorizing 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 10-12 right in front of the ocean at Mexico because I'd never memorized there before and it was a memorable place. My brain connected that information with the words of the verse!
This little trick of thinking of verses in correspondence to something else taps into this "feature" of our brains, purposely connecting the new information of the verse with another memory! And a lot of the next few tips and tricks we'll be going over will tap into this very same feature of your brain!...
3 Read Verse(s) Out Loud to Yourself
Almost every time I memorize verses, I read them out loud to myself, and I have a feeling that many people do the same thing...
But do you want to know why this works? Well, just like we explored why writing out verses helps us memorize because of the kinesthetic learning we apply, reading verses out loud taps into the auditory learner part of yourself, since you're hearing yourself say the words of the verse, and this will help you to memorize a little bit better! Plus, reading out loud to yourself can help you focus better (at least it does for me).
Combining different types of learning always helps you to memorize and learn new information better and faster.
4 Memorize in Different Places
Like I said above, we'll be diving into more tricks which involve tapping into our brains schemas, and this one does just that!
Remember how I said I can remember memorizing verses from 1 Peter by the ocean? Well this trick is exactly that, focusing on where you're memorizing. And I know I said before that it's fun to find a little memorizing nook, so I'm not saying that you can't have a memorizing nook, all I'm saying is that memorizing in different places can help you to remember a verse!
And sometimes this doesn't necessarily mean that you'll memorize the verse faster, but instead this means that the memory of memorizing the verse in that specific spot helps you to remember the words of that verse.
Vacations work great for this trick by the way! You can memorize on top of a mountain, with your feet in a lake, on an airplane, on a boat, in your hotel room, by the pool, pretty much anywhere that makes a great place to memorize while you're on vacation... even in a restaurant- which I've found is a hard place to focus in, but very memorable! Fun and unique places are great for this little memorizing trick!
So change up where you're memorizing every now and then! You'd be surprised by all the fun memories of places you can connect to verses.
5 Pace as You Memorize
Once again, this one taps into the different types of learning. This would be kinesthetic learning again since it involves the physical movement of walking back and forth, but not only will pacing help you to memorize faster, it will help you focus more! Especially if you read the verses out loud at the same time... this combines visual (looking down at the verses), auditory and kinesthetic learning... and once again like I said before, combining different types of learning makes for better and faster memorizing.
Now I don't pace every time I memorize, but I have to say, it does help me get into the zone, and I often find I can focus and memorize faster when I'm pacing.
6 Beginning Letters of Each Word in the Verse
I know you're probably confused by this title, and I'm not saying to just memorize the beginning letters of each word in the verse because that wouldn't be of much use, now, would it!
What I'm saying is to write out the beginning letters of each word in the verse and then from there try to remember the verse (by just looking at those letters).
For example, for John 3:16 before I memorize it, I would write down the letters F G S L T W T H G H O A O S T W B I H S N P B H E L. Then I would attempt to say the verse with just those letters as my prompt (I bet you just quoted John 3:16 as you looked over those letters, haha!). It does look kind of funny, but having the beginning letters of each word will help your brain to remember the words of the verse!
Use this trick only when you first memorize the verse though because afterwards you want to be able to quote the verse from heart without looking at anything.
7 Enunciate or Pronounce/Focus on Different Words
Ah, this trick can be tons of fun to play with! The year we memorized John for Bible Quizzing, my sister and I had a lot of fun with some of the verses by adding special sound effects, voices or songs to them. For one of these embellished verses, we used John 1 verse 46, and we would say Nathanael's line, "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" in a high pitched, squeaky voice, while Philips line, "Come and see," was said in a deep, low voice. Yep, we had lots of fun yelling out that verse plenty of times that quizzing year!
Sometimes when you memorize a verse, you just can't for the life of you remember one specific word or phrase... this has happened to me too many times than I care to count. So! Using the fun little trick of enunciating certain words more, or just saying that word or phrase over and over a million times can help you to remember it, and if you really can't remember it, then you must resort to singing or acting out the verse!
I'm just joking, but it will help you remember the verse! As well, it's plenty of fun so why not?! Plus, the verses you now have a song, funny sound effects/voices or acting accompaniment to will make a more prominent memory!
8 Memorize in Chunks
Usually when I memorize a verse, I memorize the whole thing all at once, but sometimes if the verse is very long or just harder to memorize, memorizing in chunks makes it much more easy! This is because your mind is spending and taking more time to pour over and retain the words of the verse when you memorize it in chunks rather than memorizing it all at once, so this can result in you remembering a verse better!
This is also a good place to start if you haven't memorized that much before as your brain can memorize bite-size pieces better than it can huge chunks at once. Even when you get better at memorizing, trying to memorize a gigantic verse all at once typically isn't going to be as fast as memorizing it in chunks, so this is always a good trick to implement!
9 Have Understanding of the Verse before Memorizing
This title pretty much explains itself, but I'll elaborate a little more! If you don't understand the verse before you memorize, then your brain won't be able to pick it up as fast. This is for obvious reasons but also because when you take the time to understand the verse, your brain becomes familiar with the words, thus making it easier to memorize the verse from there. As well, having a grasp of the meaning and just of the verse is a good springboard and starting point for your brain to start retaining the exact wording.
Well, did you learn some new things? Did you pick up some handy-dandy tips and tricks that you just can't wait to implement into your memorizing?!
I can't tell you enough how much memorizing scripture will impact your life, no matter how much or how little you memorize (you don't have to memorize entire books for that memorized scripture to have a big impact!) My hope and prayer is that as you try out these memorizing tips and tricks, God would work in your life through those verses... and I hope that not only will you have fun as you do so, but that you will get excited about memorizing His Word!
So let's memorize!
For fun, comment below what verses you've been memorizing (AND any tips from this post that worked for you! Encourage some other people by what YOU'VE been doing!). OR come and share what your favourite memorizing tip is, even one that wasn't mentioned in this post! Let's chat about memorizing♡
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