3:5-6

I always struggle with memorizing verses. 

In honest I actually have a difficult time remembering much of anything I am suppose to. All those algebraic and english concepts discovered in grade school and refreshed throughout the years of college are now gone...

Even with this issue every so often, motivation from my depth comes to build my desire to memorize verses and quote scripture. And each time I have some form of success for a few weeks or a month. Then I begin to once again fall off the wagon and begin down the path of forgetting what was so carefully recited and marked as knowledge to be remembered. First I drop a few words here and there, then begin to struggle with chapter and verse...running a scripture from John with the location of a chapter and verse from Romans...and so on and so forth. From there I begin to become demoralized in my goal and slowly slip back to a state of remembering only bit and pieces here and there...

THEN. In the thick of a moment, right in the heart of trouble, as soon as a hard time comes knocking...so comes this verse remembered.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

                                                                                                        Proverbs 3:5-6

I recall the first time I set out to memorize this verse. DWC (Dallas Winter Conference for all of you not in the know) 2005, James Camden and I sat in the hotel lobby at an early morning hour, after a night filled with worship and fellowship, games and conversations. Here, in one of the few hours that the majority of CRU's (Campus Crusade for Christ's) college students slept, we exchanged thoughts, confessed to each other regrets and sins, and spoke of dreams and hopes. It was then, that James handed me a paper. A paper with this verse on it. He was working on memorizing it, and had ask me to hold him accountable.

Since that morning, many more rotations has our world made on its axis. James is now married and I a groomsman for his wedding. I have gone to Alaska with CRU and returned...and James and I both to Italy for short while... Yes. Much has happened in our lives since then, much has changed. But through it all this verse stays.

When things get tough, God reminds me of something I worked so hard to remember. God speaks to me through this and other scriptures memorized. Even when moments before I could not recall the faintest of any...

That's how it works.

We read.

We pray.

We memorize.

He works on us.

He changes our hearts.

He reminds us...

He speaks to us...

God,

Thank you.

i will trust in You, even in the times i feel lost. i know You are here. i know You are my Shepard. You lead me to safe places. You protect me.

i love You.