Forgetfulness and Memorizing
My Journal
Like other people who says they are forgetful that is why they are doing Bible memorization, same is true for me, maybe I'm the foremost in being forgetful - that is why I am doing this as my preparation. This is a weakness I can boast so that the Lord's power may dwell on me. Well maybe if I have a removable body part I have already lost it! That is why I gave up using eyeglasses and rely in the Lord's grace that my eyesight is enough for my daily living needs. I remember then that whenever I leave my eyeglasses (the grade I remember was 300 and 500), I could not function well and gives me headaches that is why I resolve to not use any eyeglass (and I can't risk on contact lenses either, what if I sleep with it!) , the Lord is faithful who provides what I needed daily.
In fact I found my old journal I wrote 18 years ago on my college days, that my problem is being so forgetful.
I show above only those weaknesses because I cant stand reading my own diary how I flaunt myself to myself on other areas like doing well in school despite my forgetfulness and other things I was proud then but not now. If I have anything to be proud of now, its only that the Lord Jesus has known me.
I'd like to stress that in my experience, while I was not yet very conscious about relying on the Lord, one can be successful in some areas of life with some motivational fuse, but could fail on some other areas beyond measure. I say in "human will" I have improved from a mediocre student into above average before I was 14 years old. When my mother died I unable to go to school due to her long wake, a teacher gave me an almost failing grade of 75% in Math (74% is failed), I am thanking her for that because the next school year I started to read the math book ahead of our lessons thus I became really good on it and I earned back that teacher's commendation. Suddenly my classmates asks help from me and teachers trusts me to mark Math papers, then surprisingly I started to become better on the other subjects too using the same technique - learning ahead. Things gets different when I was truly converted, in case one wants to read my rather long testimony here.
Another weakness I have which I wrote in that diary is I sometimes easily believe and trust, and the world is full of distorted truths, so I prefer to soak myself in the truth in the bible.
One thing I do to combat forgetfulness is having a backup of everything I usually use like combs, water bottle, umbrella, phone, wallet because I have the tendency to leave them. (For tasks or events I would use an alarm, like time to pack-up to leave office because the office bus will leave on the dot), I don't bring too important things like my Identity Card in Singapore, (unless I needed for the day) since there will be a fee if I lost it and it happened once. I also try to put name tags to my things, I've lost my bible that I use for memorization once, left it in a bus stop and it came back to me because I put my calling card on it, I somehow knew it might happen. Since it is easier for me to memorize using the same bible, after that incident I bought a copy for each of my family member - 5 copies, that's all the stock I found online of that type of bible. I also bought a belt bag that fits my bible to make sure that incident wont happen again when I am outdoors. I forgot birthdays, meetings, occasionally my laptop at home going to work and even interchange names of people I usually talk with. I researched about it and it comforts me to know that our brain is designed to keep the information that is relevant to save us in critical situations (thanks God I never forgotten anything that might risk myself in the road or a critical matter for a project go live in my work for example). Since we keep on adding on our memory and keep using it, some unimportant that we don't often use will be deleted. In fact research says that those people who are forgetful are brilliant, the brain sacrifices trivial matters so that the 'power of the brain' may be focused on what they are aiming their attention or what they regard having high importance.
Now I treasure the Word of God so much and I want to keep them forever in my memory if that is ever possible, that the Holy Spirit can have something to draw from me when needed in an instant. Therefore I had incorporated in my routine this 'memorizing His words' activity. The good thing about staying in Singapore is travel times will be predictable. So I would wake up in the morning and I will peak in my excel daily schedule in my phone and redeem the time like when showering, maybe just a chapter. Morning commute to work is never boring because that time I will review the recently memorized new verses then I can also review some chapters and even an entire book with 6 chapters (if I did this in morning I don't have to do anything in evening unless I am still up for it). Then I look forward in my break time at lunch not because of the physical food but because right after my lunch I will memorize my spiritual food - my new verses - that's the most fun part for me of this quest. In fact I have to control myself not to take in so much new verses because if I do the reviewing the next days will take more time. I really enjoy a lot those moments that I am learning a new material and having bursting of insights and "uhuh!" when I got to understand something that I didn't understand before when I merely read them. I also notice the connection to other books that I already memorized, even written by different authors - this proves that they are inspired by the same Spirit or they have witnessed the same things that is why they agree on each other. Then going home, I could also redeem the time to review if anything I left out, usually I don't do much on this time - especially once I'm home with my children, I give them my quality time.
This has been a habit that I really love to do, I cant imagine a day not taking at least one verse to memorize and recall a few chapters. I really look forward to do this forever until the Lord calls me and transform my body into the glorious body as promised in His words - maybe at that time I won't worry about my forgetfulness anymore.
Like other people who says they are forgetful that is why they are doing Bible memorization, same is true for me, maybe I'm the foremost in being forgetful - that is why I am doing this as my preparation. This is a weakness I can boast so that the Lord's power may dwell on me. Well maybe if I have a removable body part I have already lost it! That is why I gave up using eyeglasses and rely in the Lord's grace that my eyesight is enough for my daily living needs. I remember then that whenever I leave my eyeglasses (the grade I remember was 300 and 500), I could not function well and gives me headaches that is why I resolve to not use any eyeglass (and I can't risk on contact lenses either, what if I sleep with it!) , the Lord is faithful who provides what I needed daily.
In fact I found my old journal I wrote 18 years ago on my college days, that my problem is being so forgetful.
To continue above thought, I know I am not perfect but I believe that the perfect God has created me perfectly for the mission he gave me. I am journalizing as I think I need to learn to harness the gifts He gave me and not forget what I learned already.
I show above only those weaknesses because I cant stand reading my own diary how I flaunt myself to myself on other areas like doing well in school despite my forgetfulness and other things I was proud then but not now. If I have anything to be proud of now, its only that the Lord Jesus has known me.
I'd like to stress that in my experience, while I was not yet very conscious about relying on the Lord, one can be successful in some areas of life with some motivational fuse, but could fail on some other areas beyond measure. I say in "human will" I have improved from a mediocre student into above average before I was 14 years old. When my mother died I unable to go to school due to her long wake, a teacher gave me an almost failing grade of 75% in Math (74% is failed), I am thanking her for that because the next school year I started to read the math book ahead of our lessons thus I became really good on it and I earned back that teacher's commendation. Suddenly my classmates asks help from me and teachers trusts me to mark Math papers, then surprisingly I started to become better on the other subjects too using the same technique - learning ahead. Things gets different when I was truly converted, in case one wants to read my rather long testimony here.
Another weakness I have which I wrote in that diary is I sometimes easily believe and trust, and the world is full of distorted truths, so I prefer to soak myself in the truth in the bible.
One thing I do to combat forgetfulness is having a backup of everything I usually use like combs, water bottle, umbrella, phone, wallet because I have the tendency to leave them. (For tasks or events I would use an alarm, like time to pack-up to leave office because the office bus will leave on the dot), I don't bring too important things like my Identity Card in Singapore, (unless I needed for the day) since there will be a fee if I lost it and it happened once. I also try to put name tags to my things, I've lost my bible that I use for memorization once, left it in a bus stop and it came back to me because I put my calling card on it, I somehow knew it might happen. Since it is easier for me to memorize using the same bible, after that incident I bought a copy for each of my family member - 5 copies, that's all the stock I found online of that type of bible. I also bought a belt bag that fits my bible to make sure that incident wont happen again when I am outdoors. I forgot birthdays, meetings, occasionally my laptop at home going to work and even interchange names of people I usually talk with. I researched about it and it comforts me to know that our brain is designed to keep the information that is relevant to save us in critical situations (thanks God I never forgotten anything that might risk myself in the road or a critical matter for a project go live in my work for example). Since we keep on adding on our memory and keep using it, some unimportant that we don't often use will be deleted. In fact research says that those people who are forgetful are brilliant, the brain sacrifices trivial matters so that the 'power of the brain' may be focused on what they are aiming their attention or what they regard having high importance.
Now I treasure the Word of God so much and I want to keep them forever in my memory if that is ever possible, that the Holy Spirit can have something to draw from me when needed in an instant. Therefore I had incorporated in my routine this 'memorizing His words' activity. The good thing about staying in Singapore is travel times will be predictable. So I would wake up in the morning and I will peak in my excel daily schedule in my phone and redeem the time like when showering, maybe just a chapter. Morning commute to work is never boring because that time I will review the recently memorized new verses then I can also review some chapters and even an entire book with 6 chapters (if I did this in morning I don't have to do anything in evening unless I am still up for it). Then I look forward in my break time at lunch not because of the physical food but because right after my lunch I will memorize my spiritual food - my new verses - that's the most fun part for me of this quest. In fact I have to control myself not to take in so much new verses because if I do the reviewing the next days will take more time. I really enjoy a lot those moments that I am learning a new material and having bursting of insights and "uhuh!" when I got to understand something that I didn't understand before when I merely read them. I also notice the connection to other books that I already memorized, even written by different authors - this proves that they are inspired by the same Spirit or they have witnessed the same things that is why they agree on each other. Then going home, I could also redeem the time to review if anything I left out, usually I don't do much on this time - especially once I'm home with my children, I give them my quality time.
This has been a habit that I really love to do, I cant imagine a day not taking at least one verse to memorize and recall a few chapters. I really look forward to do this forever until the Lord calls me and transform my body into the glorious body as promised in His words - maybe at that time I won't worry about my forgetfulness anymore.
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