Goals for 2012

Posted on January 02, 2012 Andy 63 comments

Well, we missed our Christmas blog post and have almost missed our New Year one too! We trust, though, that everyone had a blessed and merry Christmas and quality time to reflect on the birth of Christ. The passage of two thousand years has not dimmed the significance of God sending his own son into the world.

As you think about your goals for 2012, consider setting yourself a memorization goal. In an upcoming release we will make it easier to see how many memorization sessions you have completed this year. Since it's difficult to know exactly how many verses it's possible to commit to memory in 366 days, consider setting a goal of completed memorization session. My personal goal is 250 sessions, or five per week. Let us know in the comments what your goal for 2012 is. Make it attainable.

Finally, a sequence of events over Christmas reminded me again of the importance of coupling memorizing with understanding. We continue to feel that memorizing Bible verses is most valuable when it is a discipline combined with a deep study of the meaning behind the word. Read Proverbs 2 for details. Even if you are memorizing select verses from a passage, please make it a habit to read and understand the full context.

If you're memorizing Matthew 2:11, more than memorizing which three gifts the Magi gave Jesus, it is important to understand why Matthew includes this account in his gospel. What does this tell us about Jesus' message to first century Jews? How does it introduce a major theme of Matthew's gospel? What light does this shed on Jesus' cleansing of the temple? How does this inform our eschatology? Combining your Bible memorization with deep study will give you a much richer understanding of the King we serve.

We look forward to hearing from you on December 31st, 2012. Memorize with a friend. Find support in a group. Be encouraged by the global church.