More Connecting with His Word

Several times a week I wait in line in my car to pick up my kids. Call me a little bit impatient (and you’d be right) or a little bit selfish (and you’d be right again) but it drives me crazy to just sit and wait when there is so much I want or need to get done. So I started keeping a Bible in my car to read during these times.

It didn't work to try to do a page of a Bible study curriculum since I can’t write well on the steering wheel and have to keep scooting the car forward as I make my way up the carpool line. So what I do is choose one verse. Just one. My goal is to read, contemplate, and hopefully memorize that one verse. I read that verse over and over out loud while emphasizing different words in the verse with each reading.

You can emphasize each word individually, which is great, or you can put some together in phrases to emphasize, but if you do phrases be sure to keep them short. It’s also important to do this out loud.

Let me give you an example using Psalm 139:14 from the New Living Translation:

 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it.

After going through it all several times, I simply end by praying the truth of that verse. Emphasizing different words each time you say it out loud will help to draw some of the meaning out of the verse while impressing it into your memory. Now you try it! Use Psalm 37:4, Romans 8:1 or Colossians 4:2 if you want some ideas for where to start.

Anyone try the last exercise I described on paraphrasing a verse? I hope some of these ideas will help you connect with God and His Word in your quiet times, your waiting times, or even your carpool lines!