Do you remember that horrid punishment we sometimes had to do in school during detention? Writing sentences.

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Over and over, maybe one hundred times, you would be ordered to write the same sentence. Maybe something like: I will not deface school property. I will always speak respectfully to my teacher. Or I must not tell lies.

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The design here was, of course, to leverage the power of repetition and writing things down to help your brain remember the principle. And interestingly, God commanded the kings of Israel to employ a similar practice when they took on the mantle of leadership as king.

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Deuteronomy 17:18-20 says, speaking of the king, “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”

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God knew the importance of those leading his people to have the law not only in their minds, but also before them by their own hand. Something powerful happens in our memory when we write things down. And today I encourage you to leverage this truth in your own Bible memorization journey too. For the verse that you are seeking to memorize this week, today I encourage you to write it out multiple times. And hopefully, instead of feeling like you’re in detention, memorizing God’s words will begin to feel like a royal assignment.