The Beginning of a New Year . . . The Beginning of a Challenge!

Tomorrow not only launches a new year in history, it also launches the first year of our special challenge of memorizing 52 verses!! I am thrilled for you who have come alongside us in this year-long commitment, and pray that God will help us all to be faithful in memorizing His Word!!

A few extra notes in beginning this challenge:

      1) If you notice, there is a page full of those who have agreed to pursue this challenge (see Join the Challenge). Please make it a goal to check the blogs of those who have committed to posting their journey on personal blogs. It will be wonderful for us to work together and encourage one another in this journey!

     2) Check back here occasionally. Lord willing, we will post every week to keep track of the verses – and some people have decided to follow the challenge by posting comments on here every week.

     3) Be willing to expound. Instead of simply listing your verses on your blog/here, share why you chose to memorize this verse or what it means to you.

I look forward to what God has in store for each of us!!

His Word in Our Hearts

A sister-site, Meditations of His Love, is issuing another memory challenge for next year: memorizing 1 Peter (His Word in Our Hearts challenge)!! Just like the 52-verse challenge it begins on January 1, 2012. If you're trying to do the math, it takes memorizing an average of two verses each week to complete memorizing the book of 1 Peter in a year.

What's more, is that they will wrap their blog's themes around 1 Peter all next year. Their goal in doing so is to help re-establish the meaning of the verses that are being memorized.

If you need verses to memorize for 2012, why don't you join their challenge as well? If not, then definitely check their blog throughout next year to see encouraging posts on 1 Peter.

Makin' a List

The official beginning of this challenge starts soon!! I hope you are as excited about it as I am!!!

You can start working on the challenge now by making a list - a list of verses that you would like to memorize. I have found that if I don't have a list of verses to work on, I will procrastinate and end up memorizing nothing for the week.

Here are a few verses from my list:

1 Peter 1:13-15

James 3:16-17

Colossians 3:1-17

Acts 20:35

Ephesians 4:29

There are many more, but if you're like me, the list grows quicker than I can memorize!! What are some of the verses on your list?

Q&A: Verses to Memorize

JC asked:
Do you pick the verses for us to memorize or do we pick them ourselves?

 We do not pick the verses for you to memorize because we feel like God will lead different people to memorize different verses that are meaningful to them. If you are not sure what to memorize, look here for ideas. You might also glean ideas from others who are participating in this challenge.