Bible Verses I Want to Memorize + An App to Help

To be honest, memorizing Scripture is never something I've bothered to do. I've always admired people who can drop a Bible verse for any situation at the drop of a hat, but I've realized that kind of memorization takes intention. You can't just decide you want to have verses memorized and then brush off your hands and be done with it all. It seriously takes work, y'all!

But I'm really starting to believe in the value of memorizing Bible verses and I think it's such an important thing that I've been missing out on.

I've started using an app called Scripture Typer (iPhone/Android/just the website!) that helps me memorize Bible verses in my spare time. I'm trying to make a habit of using it whenever I'm waiting in line or early to class. In the app, you can enter in a verse, pick a translation and then go through the study plan. 

You practice reading it through while typing in the first letter of every word. Then, the app will remove some of the words and you have to come up with them and then at the end, you do your best to write the whole verse. I really like it!

I've started a little collection in the app of verses that I'd like to memorize in the future. Here are some that I've been thinking about! 

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. [Matthew 6:33]

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. [Romans 12:9]

For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. [Psalm 33:4]

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. [1 Peter 1:6]

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. [Psalm 27:14]

As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart [Proverb 27:19]

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. [Psalm 23]

Psalm 139 is my long-term goal but it's long so I won't post it here!

So I'm really interested to see how this journey goes. Like I said, I've never really memorized much Scripture + part of me thinks that I'll never be able to really commit much to memory long term. But we'll see!

I'd love to hear from y'all on this one. If you memorize verses, what do you memorize and do you have any specific methods? How do you keep from forgetting them over time??

On Forgiveness When It Totally Sucks

Recently, I was trying to sell a ticket to one of my school's football games. Students get discounted ticket but I wanted to sell it for more. Tickets were going for six times as much as we paid for them, so I figured if I could get double or triple, I'd be very happy. To me, it would be an excuse for a little shopping trip or a few meals out with friends. 

However, as I was chatting with people trying to find a buyer, I met a girl who didn't like the price that I was hoping for. But she didn't just not like the price. She decided she didn't like me. And she made that very clear to me. She attacked me with her words in all the places it hurt. 

She told me I was selfish.

She told me I wasn't a real Christian. 

She told me I wasn't a kind person.

All things that I regularly worry about myself. I'm human + it's easy to feel like I'll never be good enough. It's hard to have someone confirm those inner doubts to you. 

But then I remembered:

This girl doesn't know me. And I don't know her. She doesn't know what kind of impact her words are having on my heart, but I don't know what kind of an impacted heart those words came from. I can't imagine what kind of sadness and stress someone must be living in to lash out over the price of a football ticket. 

And so I'll pray for her. I don't mean this in a proper Southern lady way where I actually mean that I'll gossip about her to my small group (although I admit, I did vent about the occurrence to some friends). I mean that I'll actually try to love her. 

I don't want to. I want to reply with all of the angry, defensive words that appeared in my brain scarily quickly, like a reflex. 

But I will try. Because if Christ died for me and my sins, the least I can do is forgive a girl who's trying to wade her way through all the hurts in the world just like I am. 

And ticket girl? In case you're reading this...let's get lunch. I'll pay. 

I Forget How Big I'm Blessed

Well, well, well! Things are looking a little different around here! I'm still working on getting everything totally together, but I'm liking the way things are turning out. I really wanted to make things feel a lot lighter and brighter to reflect the things we talk about here on the blog + I feel like the new colors are helping with that!

But on to my actual post for today, I just want to vent at you for a little. 

I've had my ups and downs in life. More so in the last few years. I know what it's like to feel so sad and so alone and so close to giving up. I know a lot of people can feel me on that one, right? But I've also been so so so blessed by God, especially in the last month. Like crazy blessed (so much so that I'm considering using #blessed. Not quite there yet though.). 

But there's something that's really been irking me lately, and that's when other people don't realize how blessed they are. Of course, I could go into all the cliches about how at least we aren't starving in Africa, but that's not what I mean. I'm talking about all the little things in life that God gives us that we just plain overlook because we're too busy looking at the things that don't matter.

A few days ago, after a really emotional day (and week and month, let's be honest), I was driving home and decided to stop and take a short jog around a pretty area of my campus. As I was finishing up my run, I realized I was near an area of campus where bats spend the day and are known to fly out all in a swarm right after sundown. 

Conveniently, it was almost sundown. I'd always heard cool things about the bats at twilight but hadn't ever seen them, so I figured I would wait and see them. I found a spot, sitting on top of a fence and I watched the sun go down. (Picture below is from my instagram.)

 

And then the bats started flying out of those two houses there. Thousands of them. Now, I know this sounds super nasty, thousands of bats flying all at one time, but it really was beautiful in the same way as a big flock of birds. 

And after such a long day, and really a long series of days that have been beating me down, there was something so therapeutic about seeing a display of something so free. I laughed. Isn't it funny how God gives you just what you need, right when you need it?

But the thing that broke my heart was all the people around me, not noticing this amazing thing going on right above them. As the bats flew all around, people were looking down at their phones, driving home, focused on other things. I just wanted to hop down from the fence, grab them by the shoulders, shake them, and say, "Don't you see what you're missing?"

I am those people most of the time. I'm usually so wrapped up in the deadlines, in the checking-off of boxes that I don't look up. I can't even imagine how many blessings I miss. 

There's a song that I hear a lot on the Christian radio at home called "This is the Stuff. To be honest, I don't even really like the song, but ever since that night with the bats I've had this one line stuck in my head:

"In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I'm blessed."

Faith App: She Reads Truth

If y'all read anything from Christian bloggers or are active on Twitter, you may have already heard of an app and a blog called She Reads Truth, or SRT. I've just begun using the app in the last few months + it's made such a difference in my life that I wanted to share it with any of you who are believers.

There are a couple parts to the app. There's simply a Bible, where you can flip through all of the books and chapters. You can also choose between translations! I know I like to read in the ESV and then flip over to the Message for a little different take on the same words. While you read, it's really easy to add a note to a passage or bookmark it for the future. Both are saved in the bookmarks section. How handy!

But my absolute favorite part of the app is the Bible reading plans. Some are free (i.e. the Bible in a Year, Hymns series, etc) and some are paid, but at a very nominal fee. From what I can tell, most paid plans are $2 and a few are more when they last longer than a month. But think about it--any devotional book would be much more than $2! I think it's well worth the investment if you find one that interests you.

But for each reading plan, you'll be assigned a passage to read daily. In addition, there's also a section for anyone in the same reading plan to leave their comments and discuss what they learned from the passage. This is especially helpful to me these days. I'm doing the Bible in a Year plan and right now I'm in Isaiah. Let me tell you...Isaiah gets a little bleak and sometimes it's easier to apply it when you see how someone else interpreted the same Scriptures.

I also especially love how you can easily check off days or go back to catch up on any days you've missed. It makes it much easier for me not to give up entirely every day I miss a day! And there's a handy indicator at the top that will let you know what percentage of the plan you've finished. It's so satisfying to see that number rise!

I really love this app because it lays out a simple and totally-doable plan for me to spend time in God's Word daily, which is great for us believers who are trying to stay focused on a lot of things in a really busy world. 

Have you tried the app? How do you spend your quiet time?

A Verse for an Inspired Fall

I've been reading a lot on the Brave Love Blog about preparing for an inspired season in our life. Really, if you look back on your life, every season is special for some reason--whether it was an especially happy season or maybe a difficult season to get through. 

Since we're about to start a new season (FALL!! Even though it doesn't technically start for a month.) I wanted to choose a Bible verse to sort of sit with me all through the season. I want to meditate on this verse and use it to guide me through the things that I do all through this season of my life.

I thought about this for a long time and meditated on a lot of different verses and a lot of different ideas and this is the verse I came up with:

"I call to you as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I." [Psalm 61:2]

I've felt lost a lot of times in the last year. I've felt unwanted. I've felt hopeless. I've felt dead inside. My heart has been faint more times than I can even count. It's not a fun place to be in. 

But even through that, as believers, we have a rock to stand on, something to hold us steady. That rock is the perfectly orchestrated plan of God for our lives. 

And in this verse, there's a surrender that I think I need to grasp in this season of life. When my heart grows faint, it's not time for me to work hard or grit my teeth and grind through it. It's time to follow God back to that place of steadiness where he's prepared to hold me together. I know I need that.

I already know that this verse will be on my mind and my heart a lot this fall + I want to live accordingly. If you have a verse that's been sticking with you lately, please share it with me in the comments! I love your comments. And if you're not a believer, that's okay, you're welcome to share any sort of guiding idea or philosophy that's guiding you right now.