Activity from onfire247§↻

You're building quite the arsenal!

Thanks! I'm at 400 days, so two verses per day which is the target I'm aiming for. Only nine more years and I'll have the NT memorized. (That sentence is painful to look at.)

The whole NT ... that's awesome! Keep going strong!

just.... WOW. What an inspiration.

How long on average do you spend on the average day on the site, if you learn 2 verses a day? That was my aim but I'm thinking about peeling back because it just eats up so much time. I know that it's a worthy investment but I think it also needs balancing out! I no longer have time to read much else, for example.

And congratulations by the way!!!

I started off fast. My first 400 verses did not take long at all. But then my reviews started to backup on me and I almost quit. I've since found a system that works for me, so I've started picking up the pace again. It also helps that I'm on chapter 14 of John, so I feel the excitement building in me to finish it.

To answer your question, I spend about an hour a day. Today, for example, I had the following sets to review:

Review 1st - Monthly (Day 05): James 1:5-8 (ESV)
Review 2nd - Bimonthly (Day 05/20): John 06:1-15 (ESV)
Review 3rd - Weekly 2 (Tuesday): John 05:19-29 (ESV)
Review 3rd - Weekly 2 (Tuesday): John 07:25-36 (ESV)
Review 4th - Odd: John 13:1-11 (ESV)
Review Daily: John 13:12-20 (ESV)
Review Daily: John 13:21-30 (ESV)
Review Daily: John 13:31-38 (ESV)
Three random verses

All in all, it was a pretty slow day, so I spent some extra time in John 13. My max target is around 200ish verses per day. Today I'm at 184, so I'm close to that. Friday, on the other hand, I did two.

I don't beat myself up over a bad day. There's ebbs and flows to everything. Sometimes I'll spend all 200 reviews on one chapter. Sometimes I'll skip my dailies. I typically do all my reviews at once, but sometimes I'll split them up during the day.

When I first started, I was having to spend two hours a day to keep up with my reviews. I don't mind spending that much time, honestly. I mean, I probably waste that much time watching TV or browsing websites. But after a while my brain starts to hurt and I'm no longer productive. I switched from typing the full passage to typing the letter, which cut my review time in half, so that helped. Changing up my review strategy helped as well. After all, the more you remember the passages the faster it goes.

I think what is really helping me lately is following Saintman's advice to listen to the audio version of the Bible. I used Audacity to split those MP3s into chunks which match my groupings in John. When I come to a new section, I will listen to that MP3 five times in a row just listening and paying attention to the flow. On the sixth time, I will try to say it along with the narrator. Saintman recommended slowing it down. Personally, I just play it at full speed. By the tenth or fifteenth play through, I will say a sentence and listen, say a sentence and listen until I can do it from memory. I find the dramatized version to work best.

Figure out what you want from your memorization. There are people on here who do 12 reviews a day and they are perfectly happy. I've seen people that have memorized 30 verses total and felt that was enough. Pick your maximum review threshold and hang around that number. If two verses a day is too much, cut back to one. Add some every few days if need. Or you can go with a time limit per day. Be flexible with it.

I've spent most of my first year figuring out what doesn't work so I can get into a rhythm that does work. It helps to have other people here co-laboring with me in this endeavor. Many people on this website have given me ideas to help along the way. I'd love to hear more of them as well.

Well, that's a long answer to a short question. Sadly, that's the only kind of answers I know how to give apparently. My wife says I'm longwinded, to which I replied with a 40 minute point-by-point dissertation about why she is wrong. But I digress.

oh... you are amazing. and i do enjoy your humor! thanks for a view into your process. Agree with you that it takes some time to settle into a routine that fits. And to feel peace on days that the routine doesn't work. I am thankful for this community of supportive and encouraging people. To God be the GLORY.....

Very helpful. I too find the support on this site fantastic. I need to change the way I use this site. It’s all been going a bit pear shaped recently. But still love it and I am so blessed by it.

Great dissertation, onfire247! Thanks for outlining what you have found works for you. Your goals are commendable. 👍🏽

I related to a lot of what you wrote in that post, onfire. This site is a wonderful tool, but it takes time to understand best for each user how to most efficiently use that tool. You've clearly made a lot of progress in your understanding :) And as you pointed out also, there is no one set best way for using this site -- each individual determines it according to their learning style and according to simply what God is calling them to do ... I look forward to the near future, and seeing you have a lot of verses reach "fully learnt".