***NOTE: If you are looking to register your verse 1, go ahead and comment with your selected Scripture on the “SSMT 2017: Verse 1!” post.***
Hey Everybody!
We are revving up around here for SSMT 2017! The Scripture memory team we host and support every other year is the most extensive thing we do around here on the LPM blog, so you can know that you are the size of an Airbus on our ministry radar right now.Ā 
We are elated about the year we have ahead and believe with all our hearts that God finds tremendous delight in this group of diverse women banding together to memorize His Word. Here is everything you need to know about how to participate in the 2017 Siesta Scripture Memory Team! Please be sure you make it all the way to the bottom of the post where you’ll find the information about our matching spirals.
First, a few things up front since many people joining us have no previous interaction here:
*For you new-comers, an explanation of the name is in order. āSiestaā is just an endearment for āSister.ā Thereās no club to join and no person you need to become. If youāve trusted Jesus as your personal Savior, youāre a sister in Christ. If you don’t know Him, we’d love for you to stick around and get to know us and see if anything around here draws you. Everyone is welcome. Here’s a bit of our back-story on the weird name: When we first began the blog, it never occurred to any of us how much weād come to love each other. As the community grew closer and closer and the participants more and more familiar with one another, one of you asked what name we should call each another. I tried to say, āIāll tell you what we are: Weāre sistahs!ā but spell-check switched it to āsiestas.ā It stuck and thatās been us ever since. We even liked the thought that its actual meaning is to take a nap. Weāll know weāve been a place of divine intervention if weāre a respite from the female competition and clatter out there. Only Jesus can give us that kind of relief in this exhausting culture.
*We call this a Scripture memory āteamā because thatās exactly what we are. We cheer each other on, hold each other accountable, and urge one another to make it to the goal – 24 verses systematically memorized in 12 months – through a process that requires significant practice.
*Very often you will see me refer to SSMT. Just so nobody’s confused from the start, that is an abbreviation for āSiesta Scripture Memory Team.ā If you’re not participating in SSMT, please know that we donāt limit the entire blog to our Scripture memory participants. It has a big presence on here because itās twice a month but we still do lots of other things. Please donāt feel left out or forgotten.
*Why 24 verses? In previous years, weāve found this to be a very doable pace: 1 verse every 2 weeks. If you do much more, youāll tend to fall behind and not retain. If you do much less, the impact is negligible. You really can do this. So many of you will surprise yourselves with what youāre capable of doing in the power of the Spirit. Yes, it takes work but itās tremendously fulfilling and the results are nearly immeasurable. Look at it this way: weāre going to be meditating on something: unforgiveness, toxic memories, misery, lust, greed, dissatisfaction, jealousy, competition. Let’s choose Scripture instead! Christ Himself said as a man thinks, so is he. He also said His words are spirit and life. This is work worth doing, Beloved. Never ā NOT ONCE ā have I ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didnāt make any real difference. Not a single time.
OK, NOW FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS. You can cut and paste these somewhere if necessary. Hereās how it will go:
2 Options for you!
1. Print your SSMT 2017 cover from home.
(I took this picture with my phone standing on the shore of Galveston Bay, mesmerized by that sky. You can find a lot prettier beaches but I’m not sure our wide-open Texas sunsets can easily be surpassed.)
There are two sizes to choose between for your spirals.Ā Click on the size cover you would like to print for yourself then adhere it using any of the methods we suggested. You can certainly use regular printer paper but cardstock works perfectly:
2. Or, Order the spiral from LPM.
Our Siesta Scripture Memory Team 2017 Celebration will be in January 2018. I’m telling you about it now so that you can have it for a little extra incentive. Our main incentive is the will and good pleasure of God, of course, but He Himself authored great celebrations in His Name so feel free to be excited at the thought. Also, I want you to have plenty of time to start saving your money for your transportation and hotel. We do not charge for the event. Your entrance fee is your well-used spiral. More information still to come.
Whew! Have I exhausted you?? Iāve worn myself out. We just want to answer as many of your questions up front as possible.
I want to say something to you before I wrap up this diatribe: this community means something to me. I love it because I love you. I think about you on an ongoing basis. So does my staff. You are a huge part of this ministry. Thank you for the privilege to serve you and to embark on another wild journey with you. May Christ find such delight here that He astonishes us with His presence, favor, and power.
So, welcome to Siestaville: women walking alongside women on our way Home, stirring up excitement toward that great day. SSMT is one way we do that. AND ITāS A WHOPPER. Letās do it, Sisters, starting this coming January 1st! Iāll talk to you again about other things before then but I donāt want the New Year to take you by surprise.
I love you.
Beth
This is for me!
Connie from Eugene, OR
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life-“NKJV I John 1:1
As I am out of service 1/1/17, I am turning my verse in today; I hope this is ok
Excited to do this.
Looking forward to having more of God’s Word firmly planted in my heart!!
Excited! Love memorizing scriptures and way more fun with other sisters.
I started last year trying to memorize Scripture and it did not last. I hope to try this year with this being more if an accountability group for me. 24 in ’17!
Got my spiral notebook the other day. So I am ready. This is my second try I didn’t quite get 24 verse memorized but did memorize several. I hope to I look forward to this challenge again
Is the notebook just an empty journal book to write stuff in?
I am excited to be a part of this team! I look forward to what God has in store for me in 2017 as I dig deeper into His Word! He does not call the equipped; He equips the called.
I am in!
Can’t wait
Can’t wait
I’m joining in, never been very good at memorizing stuff but want to give it a try because I feel like it’s what I need to take the next step in my growth in Christ. Thanks for the support!
Hey Valarie–
You CAN do this!!!! Think about how many song lyrics you know– Press into the TRUTH — you are capable and GOD wants you to do it š
Together on the journey!
Excited to try this. I
So excited to do this with you all!!!
I want to join!
I want to join!
I want to join!
Excited to participate
I am so excited to join with you all!! āŗ
This is my first venture into SSMT …
Excited and Terrified …
š
I am joining in. I’ve done this before with the Siesta Sisters and so thankful foe the encouragement and accountability in memorizing the truths of God’s word.
So excited to be a new Siesta Sister!!
I will give you a new ā¤ļø heart, I will put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart & I will replace it with a tender, responsive ā¤ļø heart. Ezekiel 36:26 NLT I am choosing this verse as I need to be reminded
I need this!
I want to try this year to memorize scripture to combat the enemy and be victorious to glorifying God in everything I do in 2017.
San Bernardino Ca.
I can’t wait to start enjoyed year before last…
Love this!!
I saw this on FB tonight and knew that God was speaking to me. I have not been active in a church in a while and I know that He wants me back. I am giving this to God and hope to meet some amazing dynamic women in the process who can support me and I support them.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
NIV 2 Corinthians 4:16
Cara Richards Melbourne, Australia.
“And the King granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me” Nehemiah 2v8b NKJV
Sylvie Nicol Hiebert, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canadaā¤
Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
I need this! Can’t wait to grow in 2017 with a bunch of Siestas!
I want to join.
I am looking forward to this!
I would like to join too!
I’m ready to go!
So glad that I saw your Periscope this morning talking about SSMT. I am totally in and I look forward to doing this with everyone! Thank you Ms. Beth!
Would love to join this team!
If you haven’t already started, come on! So happy to have you here on SSMT, Githa!
My Siesta Denise is such a blessing to me and I thank her and God for bringing this opportunity to learn scripture!
#feelingblessed #SSMT2017letsgo
I am excited and am looking forward to reading the scriptures and memorising my two scriptures monthly
Can’t wait to get started!
So excited I saw this! I love hiding God’s
Word in my heart. And I love sharing in
fellowship with other sisters in Christ.
Sandie Powell
Albuquerque, NM
Psalm 34:1
“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” KJV
Julie Fawcett from Round Rock, Tx
“Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.ā
āāPsalmsā¬ ā131:2ā¬ āNKJVā¬ā¬
I want to join
Kathy in Milledgeville GA will join this group
Happy New Year from the deserts of Dubai – this is my first time joining and Im feeling challenged
And excited!
I’m in!
I would like to try this with you.
I want to join