Bible Memorization Tools and Ideas

   "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."  Psalm 119:11

One of the best ways to memorize the Bible is to start young. 
As a child, my family repeated the 10 commandments every Friday evening for worship. I never remember learning them, it seems as if they were always known. Cards with pictures for each commandment can facilitate this. 
My children sometimes also held a "stone" set of the commandments, or we used felts and a felt board for each commandment.
 
(See below for more ways to make learning Bible Verses interesting and fun.) 

Using Mnemonics or Hints
 Mnemonics (the initial “m” is silent) are clues of any kind that help us remember something, usually by helping us associate the information we want to remember with a visual image, a sentence, or a word.

Try the first letter hints for any Bible verse below.  
DOWNLOAD

Loading...

Scripture Songs
  "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."  Colossians 3:16 
As I have gotten older, this is one of the only ways I can still memorize scripture.  It is a wonderful way to teach children, youth, and even people who have had a stroke and cannot talk well, etc. since music utilizes a different part of the brain than just plain speech. 
As a family, we found it very helpful when coming up with our own scripture songs to record them immediately so that we could remember them later. 

To get you started, here is our most view scripture song and a link to our scripture song library. 
Also, the themarkedbiblemission.com has a more extensive collection categorized by each book of the Bible.  

Repetition
  "Keep your Bible with you. As you have opportunity, read it; fix the texts in your memory. Even while you are walking the streets, you may read a passage, and meditate upon it, thus fixing it in the mind." 
 {ST, June 25, 1902 par. 15} 
 
When the kids were younger, I wrote out texts we wanted to memorize on cards. We developed a two inch stack for each of the testaments. Each morning we would read through three or so, singing any we had scripture songs for. When we got the text on the card memorized (or had gone over it several times) we would move the card to the bottom of the stack and then move on to reading new ones.
 (Note: If a text was particularly hard, I didn't belabor it until the kids were sick of it, we simply moved on. Over the years, coming back to the same texts several times, they eventually learned most of the texts.)

Scripture Learning Ideas for the Young and Young at Heart

I recommend using a variety of methods in order to cater to different personalities.
 
Bean Hidden Treasure Scripture Dig

Write scripture texts you want to memorize on little slips of paper and fold them. Hide them in a container full of dried beans or lentils. 

Have the kids dig for the hidden treasure with spoons, little shovels, or their hands.

 Memorize the texts they find one or two at a time.

 When a text is memorized, let them dig for a new hidden treasure.

Note: For older children, this could also be done by hiding the separate words to a verse, digging for them and then unscrambling them before memorizing the verse. 

 
Fill in the Blanks
Have someone read the scripture text aloud leaving out different words for the others to try to guess and fill in the blanks. 

Using a Rebus

This is basically picture hints that can be put together and "read" for portions of the verse. 

Younger children enjoy being able to help "read" the Bible verse. 



 

Bible Verse Pictionary 

Older children may enjoy drawing their own picture hints for a verse and then letting others guess it. 
(To the right is a example that has been labeled as it was solved.) 



Bible Verse Puzzle

 Write out a Bible text on a piece of paper.  Cut it up into a puzzle, separating the words into different-shaped pieces. Hide these pieces around the room. Have your group hunt for the pieces and then have all the finders try to assemble the Bible verse.


Bible Verse Coloring Pages

A fun way for the young or young-at-heart to memorize scripture is by coloring Bible verses. 

“Coloring has been shown to have stress-reducing benefits by calming the amygdala, the part of your brain related to the fear/stress response, while stimulating the parts of your brain that are responsible for creativity and logic.” Also, "When you color, you use both sides of your brain and develop your bilateral coordination. You're simultaneously using logic to plan and creativity to color. Coloring also develops your fine motor skills." 

Find our Bible Verse Coloring Pages Here


Under Construction--More Coming Soon!