Wisdom for the weekend

In 2015 I made several New Years Resolutions.  Like most people, most of my resolutions didn’t make it past the first month, ummm day.  But one resolution has lasted.  In fact, it is the first time that any of my New Years Resolutions have made it to the end of that new year.

For years I heard people talk about the scripture in the Bible.  I heard many people, on both sides of the fence, offer their opinions that either supported or rejected the teachings. Yet when I asked them if they had read the Bible, I received the same answer over and over.  I’d hear things like, no but I grew up in a religious family or went to a Christian school or no but I go to church every week.  That just didn’t seem good enough to me so for 2015 I set a goal to read the Bible, I really wanted to know what it said.

After consulting several people I decided that reading the Bible from front to back was not going to work for me so I settled in on a Bible ap for my iPhone called YouVersion.  It’s a very robust ap and it is absolutely FREE.  I made the decision to go with the NIV version, so I could understand what I was reading. Next, I found a plan inside the application called “The Bible in a Year”, PERFECT, I was on my way.

Like normal, I started out the year with guns blazing.  I stuck to my plan everyday.  By February I was starting to miss a day here or there but I would make it up on another day by reading 2 days worth of material.  By the middle of summer I had fallen WAY behind.  I don’t know exactly how far but I remember it being July 1st, the halfway point, and I was less than a 1/4 of the way finished.  I felt pretty bad but kept going.  I decided that it was better to keep going and take 2 years than to stop and not read it at all.

In the middle of September I was on day 100 something and then something switched.  I decided to wake up early in the morning and read the Bible before I did anything else.  So I set my alarm clock and started waking up about an hour earlier than normal.  Something amazing happened.  My study became consistent and because there were no other distractions, I was able to read and read and read.  Instead of missing a day I was reading 4 or 5 days worth of scripture every morning.  I was still very far behind but it didn’t seem to matter anymore.  I was getting very interested and made the decision to commit to what I had started.  I promised myself that no matter what, I would complete the Bible in 2015.

One of the best features of the ap is that it will read the Bible to you, so I started listening to it while driving, on an airplane and when I just didn’t have the energy to read.  Today, I am proud to say that, I am right on track and will complete my 2015 New Years resolution with ease.

I find it very interesting that the first and only resolution I will ever complete, is reading the Bible.  I’ll be honest, it wasn’t always easy and there is a lot of it which I struggled to understand, really, really, struggled to understand. But overall, I am really glad that I took the time to read it as I now have a much better understanding of God’s word and his desires for us and how we should live.

In 2016 I will dig in deeper and spend more time understanding, rather than just reading.  In a future post I will discuss a few of my biggest “take- away’s”.  Until then, If you have never read the bible or want a refresher course, I highly recommend downloading YouVersion to your phone.  There are many plans available as well as a “verse of the day”.

I will leave you with something that I read this morning.  I think that it is a great piece of advice for defeating mediocrity.

Proverbs 28:19 Those who work their land will have food, but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.

Have a great day!