Memory Challenge

I have wanted to write a blog post about this topic for several months, but have struggled and prayed, not wanting to sound presumptuous or self-aggrandizing. Honestly, I'm still not sure that my motives are as pure as they should be, but this message is burning too intensely within my heart to continue to remain silent any longer.

There may well come a day, in our lifetimes, that physical Bibles are taken away. 

But we cannot be rent from the Word carried within our hearts!

I could neither read nor easily be read to after my strokes, having been struck legally blind and profoundly hearing impaired in an instant. The reality of being without access to the life-giving Word of God is exceedingly personal to me. I had no access to Scripture beyond the handful of AWANAs, Sunday School, and homeschool Bible verses I had memorized.

I am SO very thankful that he kids and I had spent the past school year memorizing James, chapter one together. Though I did not know it as well as I should have after spending an entire school year in that chapter, still it was a lifeline to me through those early years of stroke recovery!

In early December of 2020, nearly nine years after coming home from the hospital, I watched Susan Heck's YouTube video entitled A Call to Scripture Memory. While I had always wanted to memorize more of the Bible, I was sure I could not, especially now, with profound brain injury.

 

By God's grace, Susan's video so convicted me, I decided I wanted to give long-passage (whole-chapter/book) Bible memory a serious try. I sat down with my Bible looking for the shortest book I could find, and asked God if He might allow me to memorize the entire book of Jude (25 verses) within the next 13 months, by the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022.

I did not know my Bible well enough to realize that Jude wasn't even the shortest book that I could have chosen. (In case you wonder, 2 John has just 13 verses!)

I was sure I could not rise to the challenge. I didn't think I could even manage one verse per month, or one verse at all. 

To my astonishment, using the free version of the VerseLocker app (created by Scripture Memory Fellowship) on my phone, within 15 months (December 10, 2020, March 1, 2022) of daily practice and dedicated intent, I had not only memorized the one chapter book of Jude, but was well into the fifth and final chapter of 1 John as well. Only God!

My challenge to you today is to prayerfully watch Susan's video and ask God what He might desire of you? If you decide to take on this memory challenge, you do not need to jump into such long memory goals. If you want to start with one verse, that is one more verse than you have right now! (I actually find long-passage memory easier than single-verse memory, as context helps me with memory flow.)

If you think you can't do this, please remember that I have significant brain damage (six brain injuries, two of which were categorized as catastrophic, meaning either of those first two stokes two "should" have been fatal 🤕). There is not a single area of my brain not impacted by stokes, my memory especially hard-hit! I literally can say, "If I can do it, so can you!" [If you also fight chronic illness or brain injury, I've written a supplemental message just for you.] Keep reading for the number one resource I have found.

Here is my introduction video. The text I wrote there reads, 

Nine years after catastrophic strokes in 2011 (at age 39), in December, 2020, "InfertilityMom" Jennifer Saake began using long-passage Scripture memory as brain training. With six areas of brain injury, including brain stem, cerebellum, and several lobes, Jennifer seeks to improve her physical brain's capability for memory and word recall, and to submit her severely-battered reasoning and emotional processing abilities to the "renewing of her mind" via the authority of Truth.

This slow daily disciple is made challenging by an unpredictable memory that might get a passage memorized and able to be recited nearly word-perfectly 20 days in a row, then not be able to put three phrases of a verse together just an hour later. Realizing this unique limitation, Jennifer's goal is to hide God's Word in her heart so thoroughly that recall is not dependent on her own effort, but that she has done all that is within her ability to assure that the Bible is available for the Holy Spirit to bring to her mind whenever she does not have access to a Bible, like while she was initially both legally blind and profoundly hearing impaired in the initial weeks after her strokes. #StrokeOfGrace

You do not need to go it alone! I wish I had found the non-judgmental, highly encouraging and supportive Bible Memory Goal tips, website, and community sooner! When I got stuck in 1 John chapter 2 and felt like I was spinning my wheels with months of hard work and no results, it was a technique that I learned from Josh Summers on one of his YouTube videos that helped me over the hurdle, able to complete the entire next 3 1/2 chapters of the book in just a few more months.

Here is today's video:

1 John, chapter 1, memory challenge A chiropractic accident at age 39 landed InfertilityMom Jennifer Saake in the hospital for the last two months of 2011, fighting for her life against the catastrophic strokes that left her unable to see, hear, breathe, swallow, sit up, stand, or walk. Homeschooled since birth, the Saakes' long-awaited children were 5, 8, and 11 at the time. Here are a few glimpses into "StrokieGal"'s ongoing recovery journey from six brain injuries, including brain stem, cerebellum, and several lobes. Videos range from physical therapy to the brain training of Bible memory. #StrokeOfGrace

I did Jude, 1 John, and began working my way through the "I AM" statements in the book of John, all in ESV. Over a 6-week "review break" where I simply focused on nailing down rough spots in the 6 chapters of Jude and 1 John, I picked up Psalm 1 and Exodus 3:14-15 in  Legacy Standard Bible. The LSB is what I intend to use for future memory work.

My personal pace goal is 3-4 verses or sentences each week. (Some sentences stretch over multiple verses, thus I would use the verse count as my minimum goal. Some single verses are comprised of several sentences, so the sentence count is my measure in these cases.) Sometimes I surpass this goal. Sometimes I do not even manage one verse in a full week. But I just keep trying, keep reviewing, keep pressing in.

Please leave a comment here on the blog, say hi at BibleMemoryGoal, or otherwise let me know if God is convicting you to memorize His holy Word. I started 1 Peter this week (starting at the end of chapter 5, and working backwards through the book) and would love to have you join me.

Happy Easter, my friends!

Scripture on this post is quoted from the English Standard Version (ESV) as posted at Bible Gateway.

Additional Scripture is quoted from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB). 

Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com

I would love to meet you through social media:

author page - facebook.com/HarvestingHope

Specialty pages:

    infertility / loss - fb.com/HannahsHopeBook

    stroke - fb.com/StrokieGal

    current book project on church deception - fb.com/DeceptionUnmasked

Instagram @InfertilityMom

YouTube @InfertilityMom

Twitter @InfertilityMom

Pinterest @InfertilityMom

My books:

Read about my current book project about deceptions women face from within the church, at JenniferSaake.blogspot.com/2021/04/DeceptionUnmasked.html

Read more about infertility, miscarriage, adoption loss, and my first book, Hannah's Hope (written pre-stroke), at JenniferSaake.blogspot.com/2021/04/hannahs.html

 

Please enjoy a free pdf version of the introduction, my personal infertility / loss story, and the first chapter of Hannah's Hope at www.hannahshopebook.com/media/HannahHopeChapter1.pdf