"I'm Stuck. Now What?"

If you memorize Scripture, then you've probably experienced getting stuck. It's that cycle where you practice a verse, can't recite it correctly, practice more, and still can’t get it right. The discouragement may freeze your overall progress for weeks or forever. So, take a word of advice. Move on! Skip it for now. If you’ve spent a week or more on this verse or passage without success, I suggest a new plan: 1) Acknowledge that this verse is tough for you. There's no use hiding it. Other verses were easy or medium difficulty. This one is hard. Take it to the Lord in prayer. 2) Commit to extra review. You need it, so plan on it. Whenever you review, add a few minutes for this verse. You might take this opportunity to experiment with other ways to memorize. (See scripturememory.com/how for ideas.) 3) Start memorizing the next verse or any verse that looks like it will be easier. You’ll be encouraged by progress! If you are memorizing on a schedule, this ultimately means staying on schedule and coming back to that tough verse with smart review (i.e. extra time, effort, and creativity). We're talking about individual verses here, but keep in mind this may apply to a whole passage also. You may never be able to recite Jonah as fluently as passages known from childhood, and that’s okay. The important thing is that your heart continues to absorb God’s Word with every passing year.