Learning to read the Word

In which the authoress learns to read...more.

I absolutely love reading.  Cracking open a new book. Smelling the pages. Feeling the smooth fresh paper beneath my fingers.  Even the feeling of finishing a book and seeing the crease down the middle of the spine can be nice.  Wanting to read the book again, or even just the last few chapters where all the ends get tied together in small bows or double knots.  Mystery, suspense, romance or history. So many options and so many delights can be found in reading.

I don't know about you, but I approach reading as either a leisure activity or a chore.  It is rarely looked at as anything in between in my eyes.  I'm either reading for fun because I am on vacation and have time or I am trying to relax, because I love a good book or I found the second book in a series. I read late into the night with a headlamp so I do not have to get out of bed and turn the light off because I can hardly wait to see how the next chapter will end.  Once I read an entire series in a single day, staying up until 3 AM because I really wanted to know how it ended.

Then there is the reading as a chore.  Mostly related to school, these books are educational and somewhat dry.  Sure, they can be interesting, but for the most part I would rather be reading the next chapter in that other book I am in the middle of reading, or sometimes I would just rather be washing dishes (yeah, I know, but I honestly enjoy washing dishes sometimes, even if you hear me say otherwise, because there are very few feelings like that of clean sink).  Basically, even if I enjoy it at times, for the most part, I don't really want to read it, not in large chunks anyways.  Thankfully, I'm often interested enough, or "know I need to read it" enough to actually plug away and get those 68 pages of nutrition information read. Whew, that was hard.

There is one book though, that I always have flip flop feelings about.  I am never bored by it, but I go back and forth between pleasure and pressure. Spare time and planned time.  What book is it you might ask? Well, I suppose I have a hard time admitting this, but it's my Bible.

I love opening my Hebrew-Greek NASB and thumbing through the tissue paper thin pages.  I love reading a chapter and seeing my old notes, or previously underlined or highlighted passages.  My Bible contains a little of everything: fully history, romance, wars, intrigue and suspense.  PLUS is contains the story of salvation, which makes it all the more precious to me.  So why my inner turmoil you ask? Well, I often look at my Bible reading time as a luxury.  There's nothing wrong with that mind you, because the fact that I have a large print Bible and a pocket sized Bible and a slim-line Bible IS a luxury.  I just sometimes look at my Bible reading as something to do when other work is done, not something that will get me through the day with less blow-ups and melt-downs.

I go through phases of reading a lot and then reading a lot less.  I get busy with other things and take less time for my Bible reading rather than taking the time to read my Bible and taking less time to be on Facebook.  Well, recently (meaning last night after reading a blog post about diving into the Word of God) I decided I need to read my Bible more.  I need to take the time I have and spend it in the Word instead of online.  In fact, I need to be more purposeful in how I spend all my time, whether it's time in the Word or time spent doing other things.  I often feel I do not have enough hours in the day, when in reality, I just squander my hours on other things ( a minute or ten on Facebook throughout the day adds up to an hour or two, which ends up being 1/12th of my day).  See what I mean?

With how sporadic my Bible reading can be, it gets even worse over the holidays, just because I get busy doing other things and I do not take time to read my Bible.  So I am purposing to be more purposeful in my Bible reading, starting today.  I am going to read through the Bible in 90 days or less, using a reading program by Zondervan that goes straight from Genesis to Revelation.  Not only am I going to be accountable to God, but to whoever reads this post and any successive posts.  I'm going to try to write every week about how far I have gotten and little things I am learning.

Bible reading is not a chore, it is a privilege to be taken very seriously.  A mixture of responsibility and pleasure.  A responsibility because it is a necessity in our walk with the Lord, to know Him better.  A pleasure because it is how we know our Savior better, a way to get to know Him better each day. It is the written Word of our God... think about that!

Anyone want to join me on this challenge?