Our Bibles are full of passages encouraging us to hide God’s word in our hearts. Three of my favorite verses which affirm this are Psalm 119:11, Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrews 8:10. While it is good to hide His words in our hearts and minds by memorizing scripture passages, it is not always easy to do.

In the fall of 2018 Tim Richards, lead pastor of Dungeness Community Church (DCC) in Sequim, WA, encouraged his congregation to memorize the entire chapter of Romans 12. As part of that project, he invited participants to share their personal tips for memorization.

Below is a list of 15 memorization tips members of DCC shared. Mix and match whichever ones work for you in your own memorization adventure – and have fun.

• Add emotions when saying the verses aloud
• Create your own cartoon of the passage
• Count the words, phrases and/or syllables
• Practice the passage with a friend
• Find the patterns in the passage
• Make flash cards and carry them in your purse or pocket
• Get a memorization app for your smartphone (like The Bible Memory App) which will include instructions on ways to use it
• Listen to a recording of the passage
• Use post-it notes or 3×5 cards to post it where you spend the most time
• Sing the words
• Use highlighters
• Use magnetic alphabet letters
• Use sign language or make up gestures
• Create a visual image of word association pictures for the phrases
• Write out the passage and copy it several times

The stay-in-place mandate to avoid the spread of the world-wide coronavirus has resulted in something totally unexpected – a gift of extra time. I encourage you to use part of this time to memorize special passages from your Bible, hiding His words in your heart. Also consider the fact that memorized verses are cherished verses, allowing us to better cherish the giver of those verses, our loving heavenly Father.

Contributed by Crystal Linn