Help Your Women Focus on God’s Word This Summer Skip to next element
Women's Groups

Help Your Women Focus on God’s Word This Summer

CTA - Christ to All /May. 10, 2022
Help Your Women Focus on God’s Word This Summer

By Cyndee Ownbey

Busy summer schedules can make it challenging for all of us to regularly engage with God’s Word.

Many of our women do not have time for a weekly summer Bible study. How can we encourage them to connect with God’s Word? I’ve got an idea to share with you!

Psalm 119:11 (ESV) says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Our women’s ministry team applied that verse and encouraged our women to store up God’s Word by participating in a Bible verse memory challenge.

We selected one month this spring and hosted a weekly memory verse challenge. The response from our women was great!

Our purposes were to

  • hide God's Word in our hearts;
  • reinforce Sunday's sermon (Scriptures were pulled from each week’s sermon); and
  • increase Scripture recall.

We hosted our challenge within our women’s ministry Facebook group and on an email list.

Every Monday we shared the verse for the week along with a mnemonic device. On Fridays we invited women to type out the verse (without looking!) in the comments.

Here are some memory methods you could recommend:

  1. Use first letters. Write down the first letter of each word. Practice the verse by looking at only those first letters.
  2. Listen to it. Record the verse on your phone and play it repeatedly until you can say it with the recording.
  3. Chop it! Break the verse into smaller chunks, memorizing one chunk each day.
  4. Put the verse to music. Try singing the verse to a familiar tune like “Happy Birthday.”
  5. Make up hand motions to help remember the words.
  6. Download a Bible memorization app.
  7. Delete a word. Each time you handwrite the verse, delete a word and say it aloud instead of writing it.

Our memory verse challenge provided accountability and community. On my own, I don’t know that I would have memorized four Bible verses that month. Doing it alongside other women was a lot more fun! I must admit that my competitive nature kicked in too.

Imagine the long-term impact a Bible verse memory challenge could have on your women. They might continue to memorize Scripture on their own, with friends, or with family members. Once they find a memorization method that works for them, they may decide to memorize even longer passages.

I pray we will all hide God’s Word in our hearts this summer!

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