Archive: Train your Brain

by Shirley Pope Waite

I’m too old to memorize!” the middle-aged woman declared. She was attending a retreat where Florence Turnidge talked about the importance of storing God’s Word in the mind.

“Oh, no. you’re not!” Florence replied, proceeding to tell the woman how Addie Smith McDonald, Florence’s mother, started memorizing a Scripture a day at age 40—and became the founder of Bible-memory groups in Canada.

That was just the start of Florence’s list. “A 90-year-old student who became blind after joining one of Mother’s classes continued to memorize using a Braille Bible,” she said. “Furthermore, a 40-year-old woman started memorizing 300 verses a year-for 9 years! In fact, she committed to memory the books of Romans, Hebrews, Colossians, 1 John, 1 and 2 Peter. Now, at 80, Lena just finished reviewing James!”

Florence Turnidge of Seattle feels she inherited her late mother’s mantle. Under the auspices of “Living Word,” her ministry, she speaks at churches, retreats and on radio about her favorite subject—memorizing Scripture.

“I don’t like it announced that I’ll be talking about memory work,” she says. “It frightens people and they fall into the mindset of that woman at the retreat. Yet we memorize through our school years; we remember friends’ phone numbers, birthdays and what to buy at the store. I’ve heard the human brain has a capacity for storing millions of facts in a lifetime.

“Yet when we say ‘I can’t,’ it triggers a self-belittling prophecy which plays right into the enemy’s hands,” Florence continues. “He knows that what our minds feed on is the most influential force in our lives, and that the release of God’s Word in us forces him to retreat. Then his power is broken.”

Florence’s new retreat theme, “The Living Word Within Us,” encourages listeners to review Bible memory verses on their daily walks. She calls this “Walking With The Word.”

Here are some of the other suggestions Florence offers her audiences:

1. Use 3 x 5 cards.

Write out the Scripture passages, including the “address” (chapter and verse). Put these cards in the bathroom, kitchen, car, pocket or purse. Say the verses while shaving or while styling your hair. Repeat them while waiting at a stoplight or in the dentist’s office.

Florence’s husband, Paul, made her a small wooden stand to hold memory cards which she keeps in the bathroom.

“Sometimes a visitor emerges from my bathroom and says, ‘I just saw your Scripture verses.’ I jokingly tell them, ‘You’re not supposed to come out until you memorize two of them.’ ”

Florence also uses laminated cards so she can carry them during walks in wet Seattle weather.

2. Associate.

There are many ways to employ this memory tool. To learn Isaiah 26:3-4, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee  …”[1], for example, just remember that any 26-year-old woman with children ages 3 and 4 should heed this verse’s advice.

Or when trouble comes, just tell yourself, “When in a fix, Philippians 4:6!”

In learning Joshua 1:9, Florence tended to reverse two words. “Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.” The confusion ended when she kept in mind that “a” comes before “d” in the alphabet.

In memorizing Isaish 55, Florence stumbled on verse 12. Was it “Ye shall go out with joy and be led forth in peace,” or vice versa? “Then I thought of how much I enjoy going out with my friend Joy,” Florence recalls. “That solved the problem.” The alphabet comes to the rescue in this verse too: “j” comes before “p”; hence, “joy” before “peace.”

3. Abbreviate.

Florence taught at a Christian high school in Seattle for several years. To this day, when she sees former students they are apt to say, “Mrs. Turnidge, I still remember the Japanese logger.” They refer to the abbreviations she used in teaching them Philippians 4:8.

“THe JaPanese LOGgeR is a Very important Person.”

The emphasized letters stand for key words in the verse: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are True, whatsoever things are Honest, whatsoever things are Just, whatsoever things are Pure, whatsoever things are Lovely, whatsoever things are Of Good Report, if there be any Virtue, and if there be any Praise, think on these things.” She also points out that this eighth verse includes eight things to “think on.”

Florence’s most recent memory abbreviation comes from Romans 4:20-21, where she found two trios of words that start with “g” and “p,” plus two important “s’s.”

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”

4. Use word pictures.

When learning Psalm 100, Florence always stopped on verse 4.

Was it “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise” or the other way around? In her memory notebook, she drew a tiny turkey on top of a gate. Now whenever he says that Psalm, she visualizes a Thanksgiving turkey perched up on a gate-linking “gates” with “thanksgiving.”

“I call these word pictures my ‘higher-glyphics’ and have several notebooks filled with them,” she says. “The visual is a powerful sense, and we often see pictures as we speak.”

Here are Florence’s “higher-glyphics” for Proverbs 4:18:

“But the path of the just is

 

as the shining light that

 

shineth more and more unto

 

the perfect day.”

 

Under terms such as “wicked” and “evil” Florence draws two little horns. If a verse includes words as “fear,” “dismayed” or “trouble,” she capitalizes in this fashion:

F D T

5. Find a memory partner.

Call this friend weekly and recite selections to each other. If you choose the same verse and discuss it, it may gain richer meaning to you both.

6. Memorize as a group.

Use your weekly verse during family devotions. You might be surprised how rapidly children learn; they may even surpass you. Don’t “beg off’ when you have company. They may appreciate the verse too. If you can, try starting a church meeting with a verse which members are committing to memory.

7. Use a tape recorder.

If you select a longer passage, record it on tape. Read slowly, pausing after a section so you can repeat. Listen while housecleaning, driving or during an office lunch break.

“I memorized the eleventh chapter of Hebrews while I prepared meals, listening to one taped portion at a time,” says Florence.

8. Sing the Scriptures.

Learn Bible verses that are set to music. Or make up tunes of your own. In either case, include the reference.

As you add new verses to your mental storehouse, review earlier ones. Don’t worry about “overlearning.” And don’t be frustrated if you forget. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will” … bring all things to your remembrance” (John 14:26). A verse will often pop into your mind in times of crisis, because once you’ve mastered a scripture, it becomes life to you (John 6:63).

“I heard a speaker make a profound statement [about the value of books],” recalls Florence.” On a scale of 1 to 1,000, where does the Living Word of God come? We all know it is at 1,000. Compared to it, every other book is at 1. How important to store God’s Word in our minds!” (John 15:7)

Does the “Living Word” lady have a favorite verse?

“Oh, my, I love them all,” Florence says. “There is one Scripture, however, that means much to me. Mother chose it as the theme verse for her Bible memory groups, and I used it as a theme for my high school classes. It’s the only one in the Bible containing the word ‘success.’

“A former student who became a Navy officer wrote his mother that these words were on his lips as he boarded his submarine before a wartime mission.”

The verse: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

“It’s great to attend retreats,” says Florence.” Prayer meetings are wonderful, as are Bible study groups. And I wouldn’t miss going to church services. But if God is to be our portion (Lamentations 3:24), we must walk in His light daily. We do that by writing His words upon the table of our hearts ( Proverbs 3:3). Then we can say with the prophet Jeremiah, ‘ … and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart …’ ” (Jeremiah 15:16).

Florence reminds her listeners of the suggestion that a casual reading of the Bible is like a bee skimming the surface of a flower—but praying the Scripture is like a bee penetrating into the blossom’s depth to remove the nectar. Then Florence adds, “Memorizing God’s Word is like the bee taking the nectar home and making honey of it.”

Shirley Pope Waite is a free-lance writer living in Walla Walla, Wash.

[1] All Scripture references are Kings James Version