Congratulations on your first consistency badge! Off to a great start, may it become a habit that brings you joy and blessings. If you´d like company as you study, feel free to join us on the "Leaderboard Group for Everyone", lots of encouragement there!
I'm hoping to commit until January 2019. Undoubtedly, the sweetest seasons of my walk with God have been those that I've committed to the spiritual discipline of Scripture memory, not only is my mind being renewed and my spirit more sensitive to God's leading; without fail my interactions with believers and non-believers alike are undeniably more often influenced by the Holy Spirit as the Scriptures comes to light and alive in seemingly random discussions at an eye-popping rate. It's truly AMAZING...! Maybe in the same way a Butcher gets excited about getting his favorite knife finely sharpened, the Holy Spirit longs for us to sharpen our minds by His word that He may use it to first cut into our hard-hearts and then use us as carriers of His truth into the lives of others. Keep fighting the good fight...!
I have had a few seasons of committing to the spiritual discipline of Scripture Memory. What I've found is that it is much like any other worthwhile and meaningful endeavor; the better you get at it the more you enjoy it, thus you're that much more motivated to continue. As far as the verses sticking with me; I'm not able to lift them from my memory without a bit of review, but the lifting is not nearly as difficult as it was initially. Furthermore, it becomes progressively easier to memorize new and longer passages as we continue in the discipline and over the years more and more content is either at the tip of our tongues or at least maybe a jumbled mess that takes a little unscrambling, but all the basic pieces are present.