Update on Memorising Proverbs

I have been attempting to memorise Proverbs since last May, and because I had heard that a goal was good, I set a goal of memorising it in a year. Well I can safely say now that even with a miracle, it’s not going to happen!

I have managed with God’s help to memorise chapters 1-9 in a way that I know them pretty well and am just reviewing them once a fortnight-ish to learn them better and to keep them in my memory.

My difficulty came with a few things:

• We moved house in July, and though the preparation wasn’t too bad, it seems to have taken ages to get into a normal routine afterwards with things sorted out properly!
• We have had a lot going on which is nice but also lessens the ‘brain-doing-nothing’ times when I tend to memorise, as I am more distracted or tired.
• In September I started homeschooling Caleb (my 6 year old) properly. Previously I was only giving him half an hour a day, whereas now it has gone to 2.5 hours a day, and another 45 minutes for my daughter. So now in those cooking and doing dishes times that I used to memorise, I am just trying to get it done as fast as I can to fit everything else in the day!
• Chapter 10 and onwards are extremely difficult to commit to memory and retain because they are mostly stand-alone proverbs and are not really connected. 

I had wondered how it would be once I got to the part where all the proverbs are one-liners, and it is very hard. It is possible to do it, as I could at one point recite each of chapters 10-14. The problem was that I wasn’t reviewing them enough so couldn’t do them together, and lost a lot of the order. Though I can remember most of the verses once I know the first two words, it is very hard to remember which one comes next!

So having realised that I am having trouble with all of those chapters, I have gone back to the ones I don’t know very well and am trying to learn them thoroughly again, but this time without making the mistake of not reviewing the others enough!

I have also come to the realisation that I would be happy just to be memorising something – how much I memorise is not so significant. So my new goal is to aim at a chapter a month. I don’t even think I will manage that, because every new chapter that is learned means more to review! But it is good to have a goal otherwise I won’t go anywhere 🙂

The main thing is that I am slowly memorising scripture. And I would encourage you to do the same if you are considering it – not to stress about it if you don’t do it as fast as you wanted to, but just to memorise slowly and steadily. It is great for the brain to be focused on the word of God, and helps with all kinds of things when you do have it committed to memory!