Scripture Writing Challenge

I've always liked handwriting. As a child, I saw beautiful samples of handwriting and thought, "I want to be able to have handwriting as beautiful as that!" So, in my free time (sometimes in church during a sermon, I hate to admit) I would practice my penmanship until the letters looked like they came out of a book or a caligraphy print. I did end up taking a caligraphy class in college, just for the fun of it, even though I was an elementary education major.

I was obsessed with what my handwriting looked like, that I would often copy something two or three times so it would look nice. In high school and college, I would quickly scribble down the notes I had to take from the professor in order to grasp the material (this was before our digital age). That afternoon or evening, I would rewrite my notes in another notebook, so they were organized and legible. It helped me study as well. The problem was that I was so attached to my notebooks full of beautiful handwriting, I hated to throw them away when I no longer needed them.

As I become a mother, I started journaling, not so much for beauty, but for getting information down before it was forgotten. It was half diary, half memoirs. And then I had this idea to start writing out Scripture verses on a daily basis: 1. to keep me in the Word of God every day, 2. to teach my children handwriting (although that didn't last long), and 3. to perhaps encourage others from time to time by posting my writings on social media. 

In December of 2023 a few weeks before Christmas, I thought, "Why can't I use this task to encourage others?" And so began my Scripture Writing Challenge on Facebook. I began with verses from the birth of Jesus Christ from both the Old and New Testaments. By January I announced a challenge to my friends, which included them in a Messenger group, where they could be reminded daily & held accountable to writing out a verse or two every day!

Many people have tried it for a month. Some have signed up to do another month, and we have encouraged one another with our devotional thoughts as we read, write, and meditate on Scripture.