Saturday, February 26, 2011

Carving Out Bible Time

It's such a challenge! I get up with the boys. Gabriel usually catnaps, or he naps on me. Ethan rarely naps, and when he does, he's awake till midnight. I go to sleep with the boys. It's so hard to find quiet time to read my bible! It's not that I feel like I HAVE to. I WANT to! Why wouldn't I want to read my savior's love letter to me?!

So I made a decision this week. Quiet time just ain't happening! But if I can just read the bible - Not study. Not dwell on it. Just READ - at least it will be something!

Jesse bought me a nook in January as a late Christmas/early birthday/just because gift. It's so convenient for me to be able to have so many books at my fingertips! I can read it while the boys are playing (they're much less fussy if I'm in the room). I can read it while Gabriel is laying in my lap with a bottle or sleeping. I can read it in bed (with the reading light). The first thing I put on there when I got it was a bible.

Since then, I've stopped and started. Reading here and there. I wasn't happy with what I was doing but I didn't have a plan to follow. And I just felt like it wasn't working for me.

This week I bought a daily bible for my nook (a bible that has a plan to read it through in 365 days). It includes 52 devotional articles by Charles Stanley - one for each week of the year. The bible is in its usual format, but there is a list at the beginning with where the readings are for that day - one from the OT, one from Psalms, one from Proverbs, and one from the NT. And better yet, the readings work like a webpage. Each are links that I can click on. When I finished the OT reading for the first day (in Gen), there was a link at the end of the reading that brought me to the day's reading in Psalms. And so on. It's working out great! After I finish the day's reading, I go to the beginning of the next day's and bookmark it so it's ready for the next day. Then the next day I just pull up the bible and go to the bookmark for my first reading, then follow the links from there.

I sit in the recliner in the living room and read out loud. The boys play. Interrupt me. And even occasionally listen ;) If I'm reading out loud, I'm paying more attention to what I'm reading. And if the boys catch a bit here and there, all the better!

So it's not a traditional quiet time of reading and reflection. But I am getting the Word into my heart and my mind. And I'm looking forward to reading through the whole bible! I've read most of the OT and all of the NT, but never the whole thing. I timed it today and it took me less than 15 minutes to read the day's selections out loud. If I need to, I can break it up and bookmark where I am and pick it back up later in the day.

I'm actually excited that I have a method that looks like it will work for me and my needs :D

Ugh...

So many posts I want to write, but no computer time to do them! Trying to not get frustrated...