Whispering Winds Blog

I found a treasure last Saturday afternoon – a little, black, hard-cover “Memorandum Book.” From the inscription on the inside cover, it appears that Stella Lillesand, an elderly woman that I clearly remember from my childhood, had given the blank book to my mom in 1921. I remember my mom telling me that Stella had been her Sunday School Teacher.

The following was written on the top of the first page of the book: “Gems from the Bible memorized during my junior year 1921. Further down on the page, was written: “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.”  Psalm 119:11

The inscription and first page were written in handwriting that I don’t recognize. I assume those words were written by Stella. The rest of the little (3-inch by 5-inch) book is in my mom’s handwriting. The first entry is dated October 2, 1921. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

The second entry was dated October 9, 1921. “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2. It appears that my mom recorded and memorized one verse a week for a couple years. I had fun over the weekend reading through the book and seeing which verses my mom had memorized. There were quite a few from the Psalms, but also from all over the Old and New Testaments, even Nehemiah!

The verse for 90 years ago today (May 13, 1923) was “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

I always knew that my mom considered it very important to memorize Scripture. When my brother Danny and I were in grade school, Mom worked in Madison. To help us remember to do our chores when we got home from school – when she wouldn’t be there to remind us – she made charts for us each week. Basically, the charts were 8-column spreadsheets. The first column listed all our chores. Danny’s were on the top half, and mine were on the bottom half. The remaining 7 columns were for each day of the week. On the very top of the chart each week was a new Bible verse for us to memorize. Each time we completed a chore, we were supposed to read the Bible verse and then write the Bible reference in the appropriate square of the grid. (We weren’t supposed to use just a simple check-mark, except on Sundays when we recited the memorized verse to Mom.) I remember the first verse we memorized this way was Ephesians 4:32: “And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

That’s another treasure I found last Saturday. My mom had saved some of those old charts! I’ll have to admit that as I flipped through those charts, I don’t remember all the Bible verses I memorized more than fifty years ago, but I remember some of them. Maybe I should get myself a little black memorandum book like Stella gave my mom, and write down some of the Bible verses I’ve memorized, or would like to memorize. Then if I forget them, I can always go back to my little black book for the “Gems from the Bible.” But in the meantime, I’ll just use my mom’s.