Memorizing Scriptures

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I've long loved the idea of memorizing scriptures, I have a few I've committed to memory, but not nearly what I'd like.  When my kids were really little I made fun rebus style posters and we'd work on memorizing them together, as they got older it got harder and I forgot how much I wanted that for them. There's just something about a scripture committed to memory that's different.  It pops up just when you need it most, and often when you least expect it.

With Kiefer so close to leaving for college, quickly followed by mission I've had this more on my mind than ever.  Then came conference and Elder Hales talk "The Power of Scripture".

I felt so nudged I could not continue to only think, but knew I must act.  So my little brain began to brew a plan.  The family was not on board.  "It's too hard"   "I already have to do it for Seminary"  "Impossible!"  were the reactions I got.

So I went back to the drawing board.  And then we went to church on Sunday....and got a challenge from our Stake President to memorize D & C 121:34-46 as families!  Ha!  No way they could argue with me now, I had them right where I wanted them.  It made me smile.

So far it's slow going, we have one child who is having a real challenge memorizing, which surprised me.  I'm glad to have a realization now of how difficult memorization is for them, it will make me more patient with school work in the future (I hope).  Be we are working on it, and I've been scouring the net for ideas on memorizing scriptures in an effort to help us.

Just in case you are joining the memorization wagon here are a few of my favorite sites:

*Also-there is an app published by the Church to help youth memorize Scripture Mastery Scriptures, look for it on your smart phone/iTouch.  It's really cool!  Or go here and see all the apps the Church has created. Technology is amazing!

The Church also has created a webiste for helping kids in Seminary, it has games dedicated to helping kids with Scripture Mastery, most of the scriptures I want to work on in the future fall into this category, so it's helpful even when you aren't in Seminary.  Check it out here

The Red Headed Hostess Blog-LOVE this site! She is a full time Seminary teacher (soon to be full time mom!) and has great ideas for understanding and teaching the scriptures.  When you go to her site for the first time take a look at the right hand side of the site and you'll see different topics, check them out when you have time, but right now look at "Scripture Study" link...you'll be glad you did,  I promise!

LDS Scripture Tools is a really cool site that helps you create memorization tools for anything you want to memorize.  Loving this for our assignment from the Stake Presidency! It also has handy calculators for making scripture reading plans-like finishing the Book Of Mormon before Christmas, or over a summer.  Let it do the work for you!

If you have any tips please share!