Day 4 = A, B, C!

One of the methods suggested by several sources as being helpful and good for studying scripture is to learn it, commit it to memory and carry it all the day through internally. I have difficulties with short-term memory, and I find memorisation really quite difficult, so I thought I'd look around for tips on remembering scripture, and came across the following quote: "I know an easy way to memorise scripture - through the alphabet!". This particular comment precedes an internationally-known children's song, performed and written by Ernie Rettino (a.k.a. Psalty). 

Thus, in my prayer and study time today, I listened to, and sang along with (www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn3C2H8bgYQ) 'The Alphabet Song'. I had to listen to it a number of times, as each time, I learnt something different, and it required a great amount of concentration to succeed in being able to get the whole song internalised, which, was rather disconcerting to my passengers! (My main CD player is in my car as that enables me to be able to sing along with music without being a nuisance to my housemates).

It's a good song, and useful to teach younger Christians. It contains a mix of scriptures, which together, do a decent job at summarising the overall message of the Bible, and each is succeeded by its reference. It's catchy. upbeat, melodious and fast-paced, and is a song that can be listened to, in certain contexts and times, repeatedly. I find it difficult to hear in places as the singers stumble over, and muffle, their words somewhat, but if the aim is to learn some scripture from different parts of the Bible, it's pretty effective.

I think it might be useful to learn several chunks of scripture (i.e. lots of different chapters) rather than having a number of random verses in my head, as this facilitates access to context and background as well as making it easier to remember the references, but it's a helpful start. Learning scripture is important as it's not always easy to locate meaningful verses, find the accompanying reference to an arising thought and the Bible is not always at hand, but with the age of the internet, the need becomes less prevalent in today's society. It's not as essential in the western world as it is in less developed or more politically hot countries.