Last month I ran into Five Below to buy a graduation card. It should've just been a quick run through the store, but instead I walked around and glanced at a few things on the way to the check-out. I'm not a huge reader, but for whatever reason I kinda looked through the book section.
As I was walking away from that area, a cute cover with BIBLE in big print caught my eye so I picked it up and noticed the rest of the title... The Bible in 52 Weeks... A Year Long Bible Study.
Coincidentally I've been wanting to do a Bible study for quite awhile now. Not because it was something I'd always thought about doing, but because it was something mentioned to me more than once in the last few years and it just never happened.
I literally stood there in the store and said to myself, Ok God... I absolutely do not want to do this by myself, but this is too big of a sign.
So I bought it.
And not gonna lie. It took me a couple weeks to even get started. I don't know why. Mostly because as I read through the introduction and directions, it felt a little overwhelming. I also felt like I had needed someone else to do this with me, to lead me, to encourage me... just like I feel with most things. Other than my fitness job maybe, because I've had to lead and encourage others for the last 13 years and I'm fairly decent at it.
I'm a woman who's capable of taking the lead and figuring things out or doing things by myself, but I just don't necessarily always want to. Especially with this. Or with anything else I don't know as well as others might.
But whatever... I finally just dove in.
And I'm happy to say that the book breaks things down in a very UN-overwhelming way. Just a small amount of daily scripture, at the most maybe 15 minutes a day.
On day one, I read the first 4 chapters of Genesis in my Bible as directed.
On day two, I decided to grab my Bible and read the next 4 chapters while I hit the treadmill before work, at which point I realized I need to stop denying the fact that I need reading glasses because I couldn't read a thing while I was standing that far away, which really wasn't THAT far. Although in my defense, the lighting in my garage isn't very bright so that makes my sight worse.
Denial... I know, I know.
But the book also suggested that you could use a Bible app, so I downloaded one and let it read everything to me instead.
Problem solved and glasses not necessary. LOL
This app has actually become my new morning routine. But I will also mention that I cried for the first couple days of listening.
Part of the emotion was that I really hadn't read/heard all of these stories back-to-back since I was a young girl. But in all honesty there's a range of other emotions attached to having an idea of what I thought this would look like in my head and it's just not how I imagined it would be. But many times God has other plans for us and you've just gotta learn to roll with it and allow Him to take the lead.
I will say that in flipping ahead to some of the "Points to Ponder" and "Actions for the Week" down the road though, there's clearly a good reason I found this book. There's healing in scripture and this book encourages you to apply it to your own life.
And I know, you're probably like huh? This is not a typical blog post?
But we could probably all use a little more God in our world today, so I'm sharing.
Also, I'm proud of myself for stepping outside my comfort zone so it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks, about this or anything else.
Which is another thing we could all be reminded of... what other people think does not matter. In fact other people are usually too busy thinking about their own life to worry about what you are doing anyway.
I've just started on week 3, so I'm still in the beginning stages of developing this daily habit and committing to it for the year. And just like with your health and fitness or any other commitment you make... if you want to be successful, it has to become a priority with daily time and effort. Because it's what you do regularly that gets positive results, not what you do occasionally.
Although this seed was planted awhile back, it's better late than never with getting started on something new. And the timing of the universe is always right on time if you're looking for answers.
Minus the answer to the question... am I really old enough that I need reading glasses now?
Because I'm pretty sure I already know that one.
Have a great week...
XOXO
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