Something I struggle with is Scripture Memory. I’ve never really been good about memorizing Scriptures. Sure, I have certain verses in my memory, but often times I find myself trying to remember a Scripture but then drawing a blank and not knowing where to find what I am searching for.

God has really pressed upon my heart the importance of knowing the Scriptures so that I can pull them out and use them against the enemy when he tries to attack. Scripture is SO powerful and yet I feel like I don’t use it as a weapon against the struggles I face in this life enough!

I want to change this. I want, as the Bible says in Proverbs 7:2-3, to Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

That is my desire right there – to have the Scriptures written on my heart so that when I need them I don’t have to go searching far to find them or wait until I can get to my Bible to find them.

I recently came across the Charlotte Mason way of Scripture Memory and just in the several weeks or so that I have been using this method, it has completely revolutionized my Scripture memory!

To get started all you need is:

• one library index card box

• 41 index card dividers

• index cards

Here is how you set this system up:

On the first index card divider you write DAILY.

On the next two index card dividers you write ODD and EVEN.

Then on the next seven index card dividers you write SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY and SATURDAY.

On the last 31 index card dividers you write the numbers 1 – 31.

Here is how the system works:

1. Choose a verse you want to memorize and place it behind the “DAILY” tab. Read and review that verse daily until you have memorized it.

2. When you have memorized that verse, move it to the “ODD” tab. Choose another verse to start memorizing. Once that verse is memorized the first verse you memorized moves from behind the “ODD” tab to now the “EVEN” tab. The second verse you memorized moves from behind the “DAILY” tab to now the “ODD” tab. So, as you memorize verses, move them, one-by-one to the next tab in your index box until all the “1-31” tabs are full, the “7 days of the week” tabs are full, the “odd” and “even” tabs are full and the “daily” tab is full. Once there is a verse behind every tab, you will have 41 verses memorized and can start again by adding a second verse behind each tab.

Have I lost you??? (Hang in there – at first this can seem a little confusing, but it will clear up. I promise.)

3. Think of your index card box as containing FOUR BUCKETS: a “DAILY” bucket, an “ODD and EVEN” bucket, a “Days of the Week” bucket and a “Days of the Month” bucket. Each day, you will review a verse from each of these four buckets.

4. So, on Sunday, September 8th, you would review the verse behind:

• the “DAILY” tab
• the “EVEN” tab (because the 8th is an even number)
• the “SUNDAY” tab (because today is Sunday)
• the “8” tab (because today is the 8th)

5. You go from reviewing the verses that you choose to memorize daily to every other day to weekly to monthly! Once you have a verse in every tab you are reviewing the verses you have memorized at least once every month (minus the verses that are behind the 31st tab since there are only seven 31st in the year).

6. Before you have a verse behind all 41 tabs, you may only have 1-3 verses you are reviewing every day. (For example: If you have not memorized enough verses yet to start filling the “1-31” tabs, you will just review the verses behind the “daily”, “odd or even” tab, and the “day of the week” tab.) As you keep memorizing and keep moving your verses back in your index card box, it will fill up quickly and you will have one verse behind each tab before you know it!

Is this system still clear as mud?? Go check out the You Tube video that explains this method in great detail on the Charlotte Mason web page!

My personal experience with this system:

I absolutely love it! I started by reading through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians and as I would read I would write verses on index cards that I wanted to commit to memory at some point. My plan is to continue on through the New Testament and then read through the Gospels, Psalms and Proverbs and then the Old Testament! Right now I am in 2 Timothy.

This is an excellent method to get me reading the Word of God daily and then to take the FIVE MINUTES (yes, it truly only takes 5 minutes to review your verses daily!) to read and review the Scriptures of that day.

My goals were to begin memorizing more Scripture and to overall better familiarize myself with the Bible, which is crazy to say since I’ve been reading the Bible since I could read! But, this method is truly helping me organize the Scriptures in my mind!

Beyond reading the Bible, I am writing Scriptures out daily (I usually find at least one verse I want to write on an index card each time I read and I read 1-2 chapters each night. Some nights I write down as many as 5 verses from one chapter! Like in Ephesians. I love that book!) and then I take the 5 or so minutes to review the Scriptures behind the tabs for that day.

I have desired something like this for a long time and this method is so simple yet so profound in getting the Scriptures written on the tablet of my heart.

- Elaine