Do I retain the verses I memorize?

Recently, after posting my video recitation of the first chapter of Jonah, a friend responded with this question:

Do you retain the verses you learn? Can you still recite Romans?

That's a great question! And I have a lot of thoughts percolating in my mind regarding how to answer that! Here's the long version of how I would respond to her:

First off, it's always more fun for me to memorize new verses than to review previously-learned ones.  And for some people, their realistic goal is that they won't be able to keep every verse in perfect memory forever.  Andrew Davis, who has memorized over 35 books of the Bible, encourages others to "kiss the book goodbye" after reciting it every day for 100 days.  

While I may no longer be able to recite Romans perfectly, I don't want to "lose" all I've learned, either.  When I taught fourth and fifth grades at a Christian school, I told my students that I didn't want them to learn their memory verse just for the test on Friday; my hope was that they would still know these verses 30 years from now.  The way I primarily did this for them (and also for me!), is through songs.  Putting Scripture to song helps it to go to long-term memory.

Reciting a book like Romans in front of an audience is quite an undertaking, even more than just memorizing the book itself.  After taking about 10 months to learn Romans, I spent a whole month reviewing and reworking and relearning in order to have the confidence to recite it live.  Unfortunately, I don't have a great system to continue to review it to that level of mastery -- being able to recite it on demand.  I think if I were regularly reciting Romans in front of an audience, I'd have the motivation to keep it current. It's just overwhelming to try to recite it on a regular basis. I've thought about assigning days of the month to review certain chapters, but I haven't set that up yet.

With all that said, every verse that I have ever memorized is catalogued on the website BibleMemory.com, and I review every verse at a minimum of every three months.  Granted, this is often in the mode of being given every other word (see screenshot below), so that's not quite the same as reciting every word out loud. But still, it's one way that I try to keep all my verses in my long-term memory.    

 

That's the long answer. The short answer? I review regularly and have a general idea of all the verses I've memorized, but I would not be able to recite all of Romans on the spot.

54 hours outside - February 2022

Chipping away at our 1000 Hours Outside challenge!

February - 54 hours! It was another cold, snowy month. We tried to make the most of the days with nicer weather and ended up with 54 hours to make an even 100 for the year so far. We had three 0 days but a six hour day to kick off the month. It was a 60 degree day right before a cold, snowy snap, so we spent six hours on a big walk to Shillito Park (with a stop at the donut shop along the way!).  On some cold days, we set up the tent in the front yard to block the wind.  We had a three hour day at the Zoo and several other park days and normal days in our yard.

2/1 - 6! walk to Shillito, yard (60 degrees!)

2/2 - 0 (rain, cold)

2/3 - 0

2/4 - 0.5 (snow)

2/5 - 1

2/6 - 1 (girls over for Calvin's birthday)

2/7 - 2 hours front

2/8 - 3 hours back, front (and shoveling with Tim)

2/9 - 2.5 hours Waverly Park

2/10 - 4 hours forest, yard

2/11 - 3 hours HighBridge, yard

2/12 - 3 hours yard (tent)

2/13 - 1.5 hours yard

2/14 - 1 hour yard

2/15 - 3 hours Zoo

2/16 - 3 hours yard, Osbourn Park

2/17 - 0.5 yard drizzle

2/18 - 1. hours Memorial Park (cold)

2/19 - 1 hour (icy pond)

2/20 - 1 hour yard

2/21 - 2.5 hours yard (lunch and dinner)

2/22 - 0 (rain)

2/23 - 1 hour Wellington (cold)

2/24 - 1.5 hours forest (cold)

2/25 - 1.5 hours (cold)

2/26 - 4 hours Trail Mix geocaching event, Scott Co. Park

2/27 - 3 hours yard (1st snake!)

2/28 -2 hours backyard

And here’s our month summed up with 1 second every day!