The Hardest Thing To Do Is Open Your Bible

I’ve birthed 5 children in 7 years. 5 children. 7 years. That’s some tough math. You’re right that it’s been…

amazing

overwhelming

HARD

blessed

And we buried one of those five children. She’s now with Jesus, flying straight to him from my womb at 39 weeks, 4 days gestation. You’re right, that was …

awful

consuming

depressing

Then the twins came in 2010. Another mother of twins that I know calls it “life in a submarine.” She’s so right-on I can hardly stand it. We have completely submerged. Life is a series of survivals. I feel desperate and overwhelmed most of time. I barely get time to use the bathroom and I never get a chance to actually sit for a breakfast or lunch. Life is a series of sacrifices.

Through all this busyness, Bible-reading has become one of those sacrifices.

It’s funny how we convince ourselves that the main thing we need for survival of our soul is not a daily necessity. Over time it becomes an every-other-day thing, and then a weekly thing. Any of you with me on the monthly schedule?

One of my mentors is in her sixties. She raised four children. She buried one of them a month before my daughter died. She and I have been on many mission trips to the dark places of my soul after our tragedies. I’m so deeply thankful for her wisdom, her insight, her character. I’m also so thankful for her knowledge of the Word of God. She has studied the Bible for years, very diligently. The Bible was always a priority for her.

I asked her the other day, “How did you read your Bible when you had 4 kids at home?”

She told me, “My father always said, ‘The hardest thing to do is open your Bible.’”

Her suggestion to me was to have a Bible open on the counter. So if I have 2 minutes or 10 minutes that I use it to read there at my kitchen counter, asking the Lord to reveal what he has for me in that short amount of time.

I don’t know about you, but I’m simply awful at doing a Bible reading plan. A few years ago I read this article about Bible reading plans that I so resonated with. The basic premise was that she often fell behind on a daily read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan and often came to the Word guilty, and then reading only to try to check boxes off the list of chapters for the day. And for moms with young children, it’s just the reality that “life” happens.

So she developed her own Bible reading plan. It’s called “Bible Reading Plan for Slackers and Shirkers.” I was in love. I can’t pretend to the Lord anyway–he already knows I’m the poster girl for slacking and shirking my Bible reading. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I confess it here to all of you.

I’m horrible at reading the Bible regularly.

So as 2011 begins, I’m going to try to do the hardest thing–open my Bible. I’ll shirk and slack my way through it, probably. But it’s better than just giving up, right?

You can download the Bible Reading Plan for Slackers and Shirkers. Or you can just open your Bible on the counter, if that’s easier right now. Maybe it’s just one verse today. Maybe it’s just one chapter. Go at your own pace with the Lord. He is not a condemning Father, arms crossed over his chest, tapping his foot impatiently, shaking his head in scorn.

He wants to speak.
He has spoken.

And He will welcome all who will come to Him.

I’m stepping forward into the new year, completely confident of one thing: I will fail.

But can I try again and again? Yes.

Is there grace enough for all my failures? Absolutely. Every single one of them.

God sees our individual situations. He knows. And if opening the Bible is a hard thing in this season of life (for whatever reason), He is pleased with our doing the hard thing.

So, go ahead–open your Bible. If you come over to my house and there’s not one open on my counter, you can feel free to challenge me to do the hard thing.

By Molly Piper