In this series, you will meet several folks who have been faithfully memorizing Scripture this year as part of our 2021 Scripture Memory Challenge on Facebook. May you be encouraged and spurred on by their stories!
Next up is Lisa, my aunt. She came into my life when I was an adult, and I don't live nearby, but I know her to be an exemplar in the faith. I've enjoyed the few times I've spent with her in person, and my uncle Paul has high praise for her character and pleasantness, even when no one is looking (Often, the people closest to you see you at your worst, but Paul insists that she is ever-smiley as this photo suggests). She has been working her way through memorizing the book of Hebrews this year, and I've been impressed with her steadiness and persistence. Here's a bit of her story:
I live in Lisle, Illinois with my husband Paul. I have three adult children, and 6 grandchildren. I'm a Physical Therapist Assistant and I work in Early Intervention (ages 0-3) providing physical therapy services in home health. I came to faith at age 12, and since then have been memorizing scripture intermittently, often when life seemed hard and I felt I needed to renew my mind. I have to say recently with all of the political and social upheaval in our country, I needed to renew my mind. I overheard a speaker on Moody about memorization and then shortly after that, saw that you, Mary, were memorizing large portions of scripture and so I think you have been the biggest inspiration. And also my work was cut way back due to coronavirus - I used to leave early in the morning and come back late and exhausted so I didn't have as much time to invest in memorizing - but now I do! I felt the holy spirit wanted me to spend a lot of time meditating and learning about Jesus through Hebrews. So I fully intend to continue working toward reciting the whole book. After that maybe the book of John.
I'm hoping just to continue memorizing and meditating on the word indefinitely, because it draws me close to him and helps me know him. I've tried different methods but what seems to work for me is just repeating it over and over, and when I invariably get stuck with the wording, I will use the first letter of each word as a mnemonic that helps me keep those tougher phrases in my mind.
Memorizing scripture has helped me overcome my shyness about sharing my faith and helped me pray for people more and reach out more to those in need - and there are so many people in need. One of the verses I just memorized in my next chapter of Hebrews was in chapter 6 - "He will not forget your work and the love you have shown HIM by helping his people and continuing to help them." And that really spoke to my heart about helping others.
What I would say to encourage others is just keep at it, you will be blessed and will bless others by the change it will make in your heart!
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