Yesterday, I spoke about Sunday devotion time with my family. We are going through a study of Psalm 119 on RightNow Media. In the first session, we learned about a command given to Israel’s kings. The command is found in Deuteronomy.

…when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law…

Deuteronomy 17.18 (NASB)

As a family we decided that it would be good for us to follow that same pattern. Well actually, I think I said something like, “Hey, we should follow this pattern.” Everyone sort of gave a nod of agreement so I assumed it was a family commitment. Well this morning, I woke up ready to start the pattern. I asked my wife if we had enough spiral notebooks for everyone. She went to a cabinet and pulled out five new spiral notebooks. “Perfect,” I said.

I took my notebook to a quiet place and started to make a copy of the Aleph section (the first eight verses of Psalm 119). First, I wrote the verse numbers down the left side of the notebook paper making sure to skip two lines after each number. Then, I began copying. It didn’t take that long; only about 20 minutes for all eight verses. I didn’t really do any heavy thinking. I just looked at each verse, committed it to short term memory and then started writing it out.

After I had all eight verses copied down, I went back to meditate on each verse for several seconds. As I looked at each one, it became clear that each verse had a particular function. Some stated facts, some implied purpose, some told results, and some gave commitments. I circled and underlined a few key words. I’ll do the same thing again tomorrow and the next day. I’d like to think that I could have those eight verses memorized in three days. That probably won’t happen, but I’m still looking forward to what God will show me though this new habit.