Having trouble memorizing a verse? Let’s be honest. Memorization takes effort, and some verses are easier to learn than others. Some of the most rewarding verses can also be the most challenging to learn. When the going gets tough, it can test our resolve to learn. Here’s a solution for those hard-to-learn verses.
A best-selling author on the writing process recalls her father, also a professional writer, encouraging her brother, who was tasked with writing a school paper on birds.
The paper had been assigned months before, but there he was, the night before it was due, hunkered over the kitchen table with a pile of books on birds, on the verge of tears, completely overwhelmed.
“Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” (from “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott)
I love that story. Maybe it’s because I tend to procrastinate on starting challenging projects. Maybe it’s because I remember having to cram for a test the night before.
Or maybe it’s because I need this same reminder whenever I’m having difficulty learning a new verse.
The problem is almost always one of ambition: I want to take a short cut. Sometimes, this impulse can be the very thing preventing us from learning more challenging verses.
It doesn’t matter if you are memorizing an entire book of the Bible, a passage or a single verse. The process is the same: break the goal down into smaller, more manageable chunks.
To paraphrase the famous author’s father: “Phrase by phrase, buddy. Just take it phrase by phrase.”
I have often been overwhelmed as I try to learn a verse. I don’t mind working hard when I’m making progress, but I do not like to spin my wheels.
If I don’t seem to be making progress, if I’m making random mistakes, I can become confused and frustrated.
The answer? Slow down. Lay aside the goal of learning the entire verse for now.
Focus all your attention on learning that first phrase well. Repeat it out loud, in your mind, write it out by hand, whatever works for you.
Now do that with the next phrase, and the next one, until you have learned all the phrases in the verse.
You may have doubts about working this way. You may fear that once you disassemble the verse you will have trouble putting it back together.
You won’t.
As you learn these small phrases, your mind is already at work in the background, reassembling them.
Neuroscience refers to this process as consolidation.
Consolidation the mind’s natural way of “connect the dots,” reassembling disconnected bits of text into a verse. Your mind does this because it craves meaning and context.
Trust me, consolidation has always been happening in your mind, in the background, as you work, whether you were aware of it or not…even before you learned what consolidation is!
Once you have successfully learned all those phrases, you can begin reassembling it partially, into sentences. Learn the first sentence, then the next, and so on. Once you can recite each sentence, then you are ready to tackle memorizing the entire verse.
You will discover that learning the individual phrases first can add up to 80% to 90% of the time it takes to memorize one of your “problem verses.” Once you’ve learned all the phrases individually, you will discover how easily they fit back together.
Until next week, happy memorizing!
Michael
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
