Action Research Author: Mark Gruntz EDUC 526 Capstone Experience in Educational Technology and Learning Professor: Matthew

Hixson Term: Spring II 2013 APU Campus: Murrieta Regional Center Date Submitted: June 11, 2013

Abstract
I have never been very good at memorizing Bible verses and I have never put a lot of time or effort in making sure that I have Gods word in my heart. My problem is that I do have not meditated on Gods word and have not hidden his words and teachings in my heart; so that in times of trials and temptations I will not sin against Him. Over a twentyone day period, I implement different memory verse techniques into my life. I started this project with my original idea of just putting verses on index cards and doing my best to memorize it by continual repeating of the words. However, very quickly I discovered this method was not working so I adapted my methods to make it more personal and as a result of the adaptations made, it also became significantly more effective.

Introduction
Everyday for the past 5 months, my stepfather has been texting me random Bible verses. When this first started I was always excited to receive the text messages. I saw this as a great daily devotion I could do to research the Bible verse and apply it to my life. Shamefully though, as time went on it came to the point where I would delete the text messages as soon as I received them without even reading them. Instead of seeing these verses as the inspirational words of God, I saw them as an annoyance. About 6 weeks ago, I was going through my daily routine of getting ready for my day; waking up, eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, taking a shower and so on. Right before I was about to leave my apartment I received a text message from my stepfather. Instead of quickly dismissing the text message and instantly deleting it like I have done so many times before, I opened up the text message and read what it had to say. This is the verse I received on that day: Psalm 119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. As soon as I read this, it instantly convicted me. I thought how am I supposed to hide Gods words in my heart if I dont even know what it is? I have never been a person to put importance on memorizing scripture. This is a huge problem in my personal and spiritual life and it needs to be changed. My problem is that I do not know any Bible verses from memory besides John 3:16; but even people who have never been to church can quote that verse. I decided that I needed to find a way to memorize scripture so that when trials and temptations are present in my life; whether they are big or small, I will not sin against God because I will have his word hidden away in my heart.

Implementation
The very first day I started this action research project, I realized I have no idea on which Bible verses I want to memorize. So I decided to go through all of the text messages with scripture my stepfather has sent me and I wrote them down on individual index cards. For the first four days of this project, I committed to memorizing 2 different Bible verses a day. After the fourth day, I came to the realization that the method of I have been using to memorize scripture was not working for me. I tried to think back to the verses I memorized on the first day, and I was unable to recall them. On the fifth day of this project, I decided to do things a little differently.

One of the reasons I have been so horrible in the past at memorizing scripture is that I do not read my Bible. So over a 3-day period I read the book of Proverbs. As I was reading, I wrote down the Bible verses I felt that would help me the most in making the correct decisions for my life. After reading the book of Proverbs, I categorized the different memory verses on my computer by what the message of the verse was talking about. For example, I made categories for money, self-control, controlling the tongue, seeking wisdom/counsel, love, and joy. I decided to print out 21 different verses, one for each day of the length of the project. I then printed out the verses and placed them in areas of my life they impacted. For verses that had to deal with money, I put one in my wallet and taped one on the outside of my coin jar. So every time I reached into my wallet to pay for something, I was reminded of what the Bible says how my money should be spent. If I had a verse that I could not place on something that was relevant to the verse, I put it in a place where I would see it all the time. For example, for one of the verses I put it on my steering wheel of my car. At the end of this project, I had memory verses placed all over my life. On my nightstand, in my closet, on the mirrors around my house, in the kitchen, on the television, in my car and I even put them on my desk at work.

Results
When looking at my study, this project produced the results I wanted. I wanted to memorize scripture so that in times of trials and temptations I would not sin. However, the first 4 days of the study I feel were just a complete failure. I tried to memorize scripture that was given to me by writing them on index cards and just continually looking over the words and trying to memorize them. This method just simply did not work for me. So I switched my method to write down verses that are more personal and connect with me more. I then placed them throughout my daily routines. When it came to memorizing each passage of scripture I used word by word, that was not accomplished; but that turned out to be just fine. As the project went along I realized that it is not important to remember every word of every verse, but to remember the teachings of each verse. When different situations came up in my life such as becoming frustrated and about to use foul language, I would remember the verses that taught to keeping control of ones tongue. I didnt repeat the memory verse to myself using every exact word, but instead I meditated on the teaching of the verses. Below is a chart summarizing the main findings of the study over the 21 day period:

Action Research Results

# of Scriptures Used # of Scriptures I memorized word for word # of Scriptures I can recall the teachings 8 6 4 3 2 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 0 1

This chart shows the different categories I used while selecting the Bible verses for this project. Each category of verses has 3 different bars associated with it. The blue bar represents the number of bible verses I used within that category, the red bar indicates the number of verses I memorized word for word by the end of the project, and the green bar represents the number of verses I was able to summarize the main ideas and teachings of the verse on the last day of the project. For example, looking at the Self Control category, I used 3 different verses for this category. At the end of the project I was only able to repeat word for word 1 out of those 3 verses. Even though I didnt memorize all of the verses being able to repeat back every exact word from memory, at the end of the project I was able to summarize and give the main idea and teaching for each of the 3 verses. As you can see by looking at the chart, I only memorized every word of a specific verse for 7 out of the 21 verses. Giving me a percentage of success on memorizing scripture at only 33%. However, looking at the graph, I was able to successfully able to recall the main idea and teachings of 18 out of the 21 verses. The percentage of success for this category is 86%. I am happy with these results. Even though the results of this project turned out to be different from what I expected, I still obtained the goal I was seeking. I was seeking to have Gods word hidden in my heart, so that I may not sin against Him.

Conclusions
This action research project was a success, I now have more of Gods words and teachings in my heart to use so that I can make the better decisions and choices that help

me not to sin against God. There are some changes I would make if I were to start this project again from scratch. One change I would make is to skip the first 4 day period where I only wrote the verses on index cards and tried to memorize them simply by reading them. Instead, I would start the project with the adaption I made on day 5 of this project by choosing verses that were personal to me and placing them throughout my daily life. Another change I would make if I could start it again is in addition to placing the memory verses on different objects and areas I would encounter throughout the day, I would also write them on index cards. The difference here from the beginning of my project is that I am not only using index cards, but I am using the index cards in addition to the verses surrounding me. I would want to review the index cards with the scripture verses on them at night before I went to bed. Then seeing the Bible verses throughout the day on my personal objects would help cement the verses into my long-term memory. This is something I will continue to practice in my personal life. I do believe it is important to be living in the way that God has defined for us in the Bible. Studying and applying verses to my life helps me to live the life I am called to live.

General Comments
I am glad I decided to change my original thought for the project of just writing down scripture I received from my stepfather on index cards and trying to memorize it that way. Reading through the book of Proverbs and selecting the verses I felt could easily be applied to my life made this project increasingly enjoyable for me. It went from memorizing verses just so I could say I memorized them, to memorizing verses that had a true impact on how I live my life. I believe that is what memorizing scripture should be about. Not just how many verses you can recite to your friends so you can show off your amazing knowledge of the Bible, but memorizing verses that can be helpful to those around you and that can be applied to help you walk a better life with Christ. The part I enjoyed the most of the research project was reading the verses and trying to come up with creative places for those verses to be placed. Having them throughout my apartment and workplace was fun. What I learned form this experience is that in order to obtain the results you want, you need to work hard at it and you need to find a way to get the results that work best for you. I could have done this project a number of different ways, but I feel the route I decided to implement this project worked the best way for me.