Monday, November 5, 2012

Memorizing My Blessing

I love my patriarchal blessing. I always have. It has comforted me in moments of great distress, and provided direction when I was lost.

Recently, I decided to commit my patriarchal blessing to memory. I knew I already had portions of it memorized just from reading it so frequently, so I figured it would be pretty easy. I've been committing one sentence to memory each day.

It is not difficult to memorize my blessing, but I am amazed at the difference it makes to me, personally, to hear this blessing as I read it aloud, and as I internalize every single word. Even just noticing that one phrase says "of your life" instead of "in your life" holds meaning.

This memorization has helped in my everyday life, too: on those days when I get discouraged, these new phrases that I've memorized come into my mind and give me hope. They are a powerful combat to those negative voices in my head which whisper discouragement and failure.

Maybe after this I'll keep memorizing scriptures. Like my blessing, there are several scriptures which I already know, simply because I have read them and heard them so frequently. But memorizing will still be beneficial: there's a certain layer of understanding that you can only obtain when you learn things by heart.