Refuge

My kids LOVE the storm shelter at their Nana and Papa's house in Oklahoma.  This past Thanksgiving they even turned it into a clubhouse and took games down there to play.

When the sun is shining that storm shelter is all fun, but when the big storms come, it is a refuge.

Where do you seek refuge when the storms come?

And if all else were blown away, what would still stand?

For me the answer is God's Word.  His promises.

There is so much to meditate on from Scripture.  So many verses chalked full of the good news!

I go back to them over and over, reading, re-reading, and have so many jotted into a small notebook to memorize.

But, instead I just reference the notebook, or my Bible, often.

I've been lazy with scripture memorization and therefore I know what many verses say, but cannot recite them word for word or include the correct verse reference.  There's really no excuse.  It feels like my brain just can't remember, but it's the same mind that memorized the entire Krebs cycle down to every last carbon in college!

I want to do better.  His Words are powerful.  I want them etched into my mind.

So, I'm trying anew.  With lofty goals because that's how I roll (and also perhaps why I often fail).  I'm taking on Ann Voskamp's Memory Project for 2013.  Romans 1, 8 and 12.  As in all three chapters in their entirety by 12/31/2013.  

Wanna join in?  All the details are here, including a link to a really cool program that helps you learn scripture by typing it.  Maybe I'll get my oldest 2 kids to join, too, they've been all about practicing their typing lately! 

I don't want His words just in my Bible or my notebook, I want them inside my head.  Not just to know of them but to know them by heart!

 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. 46:1b