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## jw (Jul 24, 2010)

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## CredoFidoSpero (Jul 24, 2010)

For me, it's all about 3 x 5 cards, repetition and review. And I never stress over it. I'm working on 4 longer Bible books/passages, a few verses at a time, that I mixup with shorter passages or individual verses. If I can't get a verse right, it stays in the stack I shuffle and go through each time I learn a new verse. Then I have 2 other sets of cards that I shuffle and divide up so that I see each verse about once a week (the ones I know pretty well) or about once a month (the ones I really have down cold), and any time I mess up a verse, I just throw it back into the daily stack for a while. And I keep a list of the passages and I also say a few complete passages each time to keep the verses in context. I know, it's kind of complicated, and I have even more 'rules,' but it totally works for me. It takes about 20 minutes and I try to do it at least once a day. And I will often recite the longer passages during the day if I'm stuck in traffice, while I'm getting ready in the morning, cooking, cleaning, etc. Nothing beats having the word of God solidly in your heart.


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## Ne Oublie (Jul 24, 2010)

Josh,

Which app are you going to change to with the original WCF standards?


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## toddpedlar (Jul 24, 2010)

Thanks, Josh, for the reminder. 

I'm working first on the Shorter Catechism, because I've never memorized it - and because my oldest daughter has moved on from the Children's Catechism to the WSC. I'm also trying to work on Scripture memory - not by isolated verses, but whole chapters and books. So - that means I start small. Jude first (which I had memorized at one point but need to rework) then Obadiah, I suspect, then perhaps the epistles of John (reverse order).  Eventually I'll work up to Romans


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## Ne Oublie (Jul 24, 2010)

> It's not so much of a Westminster App, but it's iSilo, which allows me to download PDFs, etc. to the iPhone. Ergo, I just find what I need in PDF online and download it via the iSilo app.




I was going to build an app with the originals and I asked Pastor Ruddell what he thought and he told me about iSilo.
So, I thought if Pastor Ruddell is hip to it...so I bought iSilo and I realized that I am so app happy and scroll lazy,
I like to click! So, now I have iSilo and I have used it once. Ha! Being a Software Developer, a bit trained I think.

Scrolling on the go is just too dang slow, can you dig?


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## Wayne (Jul 24, 2010)

Well, one has many tools at one's disposal, and one once had Romans, chapters 1 through 5 memorized. But now one is so old that one has forgotten most of what one once had memorized, until at last some whippersnapper comes along and makes one feel guilty for having laid aside the task.

Don't you know that with age, the brain cells become inelastic and no longer work?

Better we should start a thread to ponder, "What is one to do?"


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## baron (Jul 24, 2010)

I started the book of Ephesians and have gone through the first chapter. My problem is I can not decide in what version I want to memorize it in. Our church uses ESV but I like HCSB. Or maybe I should stick to the KJV? Also as I get older with nothing to do it is getting harder for me to remember the verses.


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## CredoFidoSpero (Jul 24, 2010)

With all due respect to my elders , while the brain does lose plasticity as we age, recent studies show it retains a lot more plasticity than they used to think. Like any other physical part of our bodies, it has to be exercised. The more I memorize, the easier it gets, and I am on the far side of middle aged. It may be harder for us to train for a marathon or a 5K run as we get older, but it is very doable for most people, just takes more time and care and patience. Memory work is no different.


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## VictorBravo (Jul 24, 2010)

I'm very proud of my wife, who is of a certain age like me. She recently finished memorizing the WSC and can recite it straight through in a sitting. She now goes through it every day from memory. 

It only took her a couple of months.

Such a thing is a real blessing. It's an outline of theology that you carry with you all your life.

BTW, her only "tool" was the little paper-back version that she could carry around.


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## Wayne (Jul 24, 2010)

It was a tradition in many Scottish families, in the absence of an evening Church service, to review the entire Shorter Catechism each Lord's Day evening.


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## Gibb (Jul 24, 2010)

I am horrible at memorizing. Horrible! Furthermore, what I had memorized in my younger years was from a version I rarely use now. I want to memorize more, however!

I recently memorized the Disciples' Prayer and some other Scriptures by putting them to music. That is the only way I seem to be able to retain them. Even reading Scriptures over and over is lost on me.

The first Psalms I ever memorized was memorized for school -- public school. The 23th and the 24th, each for different assemblies. The whole class had to memorize them.

Obvioously, my Scripture memorization is hardly even elementary, but it often amazes me when Scriptures I didn't know I knew just flow out.


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## TexanRose (Jul 29, 2010)

I am working (slowly) on memorizing Romans 8. I am also learning Hebrews 2 along with my son. He and I just finished learning Psalm 8 (metrical) together. 

If I can keep up with my son, memorizing the same things he's memorizing, I feel as though I'm doing pretty well.  I ought to be learning the WSC along with him, but haven't been.

My tools: for chapters of the Bible, I print them out in a large font, one phrase or clause per line, and prop them up on a documentary-holder thingy (with magnets, to hold the pages up) in front of the kitchen sink, so I can study them as I work in the kitchen. 

For the metrical psalms, I rely heavily on recordings which I've found around the internet. I prop a psalm book up on that same document-holder thingy, and sing along with the recordings as I work. If I sing attentively and thoughtfully, I find that I am soon able to memorize the psalms without ever actually sitting down to study them. 

I think having some accountability (in the form of another person) would be quite helpful. Perhaps I can recruit my sister...hmmm....


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## kceaster (Jul 30, 2010)

I do my memorization work on the road, which is not always easy because you're not supposed to read and drive at the same time. I have about a 25 minute commute to and from work. I find that if you bite off small chunks then string them together, you can memorize stuff pretty well. You also have to repeat it frequently. My goal is to memorize the WCF, then to keep it fresh, recite at least one chapter per day during the month. I am done with the first 7 chapters and have started 8. It's taken me about a year to get this far. So, I figure I can get it done in 4 years, if the Lord wills.

But I can recite the first 7.5 chapters in the time it takes me to get to work.

In Christ,

KC


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## christiana (Jul 30, 2010)

As we study 'Think Biblically' in Sunday School class we memorize a verse a week that verifies a biblical worldview. I admit to some difficulty with the memory work but it does pay great dividends!


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## CharlieJ (Jul 30, 2010)

When I was in college, I would memorize chapters or short books of the Bible. I found myself employing a rather natural method. If I were memorizing the book of Philippians, I would start by reading the entire book in the morning, then twice more that day I would read at least the chapter I was working on. Soon an outline develops in your head, and you find that you are able to remember a good number of structurally significant verses. After I was doing pretty well, I would do some detail work to polish up sticky spots.

I found this much better than trying to memorize one verse per day in a cumulative fashion. My brain memorized the passage as a unit, and even years later, I can still walk you through the flow of thought in the books I memorized. Also, I believe it helped me understand and study those books in a way that one verse a day would not have.


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## SemperEruditio (Jul 30, 2010)

Use the Leitner System for flashcards. Very similar to what I think Ashley is doing.


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