For months we've been sitting around the farm table, three meals a day, reading and repeating. Verse by verse through the book of Philippians. The kids soak up and retain words like a sponge... And this Mama soaks up words more like a graham cracker. Eventually the cracker absorbs the liquid, eventually it changes form. But even once the Words are in my mind they often seem like a mushy mess up there, difficult to recall, and even more difficult to release off the tongue with any sort of eloquence.
The kids have memorized nearly the whole first chapter. This Mama has spent four months memorizing nine verses. And there are times when I've thought to myself as to why I am bothering to memorize at all... wondering how all of scripture is necessary for memorization.
Why? Why memorize lines that seemingly have very little to do with anything?
Because on a typical Tuesday night, alone in a farm house, He can take a broken Mama, desperate for His comfort and truth, and open up her storehouse, the one she didn't even realize she had. Bits of His Word that she's been storing for years, simply out of obedience, not really knowing why. And He can flood her thoughts with His delight in her, in who HE has made her to be. He can remind her that He is faithful to give her all that she needs for life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3) And as she struggles through decisions to be made, and confidence in those decisions to be boldly lived out in kind humility, He caresses her soul with HIS words, "fight the good fight... because there is ALWAYS hope... and that hope comes with enduring a handful of suffering, perseverance, and character.(Philippians 3:12-14, Romans 5:2-5) And He gently reminds through a constant whisper in her head that there is never any need for fear, fear of her own inevitable failures, for His perfect love promises to scatter all her fears. (1 John 4:18)
In those dark soul moments, when all seems lost, He causes the mind to recall what is true, and His thoughts, His Words, the only authentic soothing for a woman laid bare, heart wide open for Him to see every last detail.
This is why we memorize. It's the permeation of His thoughts invading our thoughts. It's the storing of truth in the deepest parts of our mind , of our soul.
We memorize for hope.
We are in constant consumption of the truth so that we might always be able to swiftly recognize what's false... If not for this moment... for the next.
