SOME THINGS ARE WORTH REMEMBERING

   I always find it difficult memorizing things. Names, dates, phone numbers, even when I go to the grocery store and I have more than 3 items on my list I need to write them down, sometimes bolded and circled, just so I don't forget anything. 😳   I blame it on genetics and my age, because if I didn't then I would need to blame it on pure laziness, which is not a good attribute. 

I was listening to a podcast recently of a women who has memorized the entire New Testament. Every word! What!😲  No way, I thought. How is that even possible? But, sure enough she has and is now working on the Old Testament. I can't even keep the books of the Bible in order let alone remember all of the minor prophets names. Not something I'm proud of as a committed Christian. There are some biblical truths that should just roll off of my tongue, but I do indeed have a very long forgetting curve.

“In 1885 Ebbinghaus published his groundbreaking Über das Gedächtnis (“On Memory”, later translated to English as Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology) in which he described experiments he conducted on himself to describe the processes of learning and forgetting. Ebbinghaus made several findings that are still relevant and supported to this day. First, arguably his most famous finding, the forgetting curve. The forgetting curve describes the exponential loss of information that one has learned. The sharpest decline occurs in the first twenty minutes and the decay is significant through the first hour. The curve levels off after about one day."

https://www.keytostudy.com/many-repetitions-long-term-retention/

For instance:  I can't seem to commit the order of the Ten Commandments. Ten powerful decrees that are still as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. So seriously, shouldn't I be able to remember 10 things in order that are that important. Well, apparently for my brain, I can't. So, I am on a journey to try and rally all of my grey cells together and make a concerted effort to remember biblical facts, stories, names, books etc and today I begin with the Ten Commandments.

I am a visual person, so I am going to use that positive attribute to help me "visualize" what Moses carried down from Mount Sinai to the Israelites.  Come take this memorization journey with me and let's see how far we can go! 

20 And God spoke all these words, saying:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of [a]bondage.

3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor [b]serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting[c]the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold himguiltless who takes His name in vain.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

13 “You shall not murder.

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

15 “You shall not steal.

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Here's a more succinct list below. Now, let's say them 10 times in a row and make a visual picture of what each commandment is asking to help our brains remember them...in order.

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

Well, done. 

Practice memorizing this list, if you haven't already 👍🏼, and I will continue to post other recognizable moments/verses etc from the Bible as we continue on this memorization journey.