Amber! you know what? You can call me and quote to me anytime(I might not be able to listen any time, but you can still call)! That is, if I can trust you not to cheat and just read it to me. :P

I think I will (memorize hebrews again)! But, first I want to re-learn 1st and 2nd Peter. There have been so many times this year when I've wanted to remember something from it, but I couldn't quite figure it out or something, and I didn't have a bible on hand.

Memorizing stuff is amazing! I'm just going to go ahead and give my 41 cents (figure that one out, eh) on the subject.
In quizzing, there are several people who memorize TONS of stuff (like, the entire book of matthew), and it still amazes me, even though I do it too.

Amber and I were talking about this earlier today, and I'll say it again: the gift of memorization is amazing! It's not just something that some people can do, and some people can't, that's something God GAVE to everyone, and I'm blown away by it. Especially when I look back and see how much I've memorized in quizzing, or when I was in Awana.
God called some to be evangelists, some to be missionaries, some to be encouragers, and so on, but I don't think he called just some to memorize scripture, and some to say that they can't do it.

I think it's true that a lot of people have the pretense that it's kind of nerdy to memorize scripture, too. At least, I thought that at first. Maybe that's another reason the value of it is overlooked.

I know we don't all have the ability to learn it quickly. There are people who have a hard time remembering stuff. At the last quiz meet, a lot of conversations came up about study time between I and a few good quizzers. I generally learn a 30ish verse chapter in half n hour. Someone told me that it takes much longer for him, but he still learns it, even though it's difficult, or more time consuming for him. It's something you have to see through to the end for it to be beneficial at all, but it's amazing how much more sense the bible makes when it's memorized. Because then you don't just know what it means, you know it.

As Christians, we're called to study God's word, and the more knowledgeable about it we become, the more we'll grow in the Lord, and how much more will we be able to witness? I think about how I look at people who are agnostic, or maybe some false religion and they aren't able to convince me of the truth of their god (or lack there of). Won't people look at us in the same way? Don't we need to know what we're talking about? I don't think I've thought about that enough to really go off on it at all, so I'm not going to. I'll only get lost in my newly forming thoughts and say something that doesn't really make sense to anyone but me, and may be taken in some weird way that I wouldn't even expect. It was just a thought that came to me now.

But, I know that we're called to be witnesses, and our witness can only be improved by knowing the word of God by heart.

I can relate with amber! I thought hebrews would be absolutely impossible to learn because it was all about the old testament and didn't make any sense as is. I was surprised to find it the opposite. The bible has such great writing too, the words flow so well! I think that's a big part of memorizing, the wording has to flow. I've noticed with some monologues and skits I've been in, they weren't always easy to learn because of the way they were written. But, yo! The bible flows.

Hebrews is such an amazing book. I was so excited to keep learning the chapters because the pieces were coming together and I couldn't wait to find out what point was going to be made next. It probably also helped that I like essays so much. Hebrews is like a big essay, and, maybe it's ridiculous, but I've always loved writing and reading essays.

I'm always surprise too, that when people get out of quizzing, they're so relieved that they no longer need to memorize scripture anymore. I know I'll be relieved by the fact that I don't have to commit to all the quiz meets, and even more so, that I don't have to be confined to some pushing schedule. Sometimes it's really hard to learn all that stuff in just a matter of weeks - at least with work and school going on at the same time. When I'm done with quizzing, I"ll have the freedom to memorize what I want, and do it in my own time frame, and that seems so great!

Bible Quizzing is a wonderful program, by the way. I would nevr have realized that I could do all this if it weren't for that program, so everyone who has a chance should be involved in it at least one year!

I think I'm done on that subject for now.

I played tennis today with kaitie. I haven't played in a while. I won the game too! mwa ha. Then we went to WAL*MART because I needed to get some notebooks and shirts for work. The latter was a little hard to find. I wanted to get the cheap three packs of shirts they sell in the mens department, but at first I could only find them in Large and Extra Large. I had to look on the bottom shelf aaaaalllll the way in the back before I found any Smalls. They're still big, but that's okay, because I like big shirts, and they serve the purpose.

Today I came across my Chopin Mazurkas book which I completely forgot I had! I'm all re-excited to play from it now! I think I learned only one song in there, and then I got all of those music books for Christmas and my Italien Arias book for school, that I got a little sidetracked and forgot (perish the thought) about Chopin.

I'm all registered for school! I also had to drop $96 that I hadn't considered before. I have nooo extra money. But, I do get to take English 253 (Creative Non-fiction writing), Botany 120 (Mycology - the study of fungi), aaaaand American studies 103 (American art and architecture - mainly focusing on architecture). Ah, it should be a fun quarter! I think it's 16 credits. Yes, I'm sure of it. I almost went for 21, because I wanted to take a nutrition class as well, but I decided that would be too many credits for a "fun" quarter.


Man. Today has been the most perfect Saturday! REALLY! I slept in, I wasted time, I played tennis, I cleaned my room, and I still have the night ahead of me. I think I'm going to catch up on Biology because I can, and it would be really great to get ahead in that class.

ha, only two more weeks of school! And, I don't have to work tomorrow! woo!

Hey, this is almost like an amber post!

-becca