Hi guys! My name is Brittany and I blog over atStories,
Songs, & Praise.
I am so excited to be guest posting here while Jenni has what I hope is a
fantastic time in China.
One of the reasons I enjoy reading Frankly My
Dear is because I enjoy Jenni’s discussions of faith, so I thought I would
discuss something frommy own Christian walktoday.
I grew up within the Christian church. I attended with my
grandparents as a small child, then with my parents through my teens. My
senior year in high school, I was accepted to a Lutheran university. In
talking to others, I realize how blessed I have been to have thisfoundation for my faith.
To be completely honest- even with this fairly Christian/church
heavy life,I didn’t make
reading my Bible a priorityuntil
I was approaching my mid-20s. I may have highlighted a few key verses (John 3:16,Joshua 1:9, etc). Sometimes I looked up a specific word or parable,
but it wasn’t a daily concern or desire.
My early 20s were…tumultuousto say the least (you can find the
highlights here&also here). After many years of feeling as though I was floundering
in my faith, I made a conscious decision to make Jesus Christ the main focus of
my life.
This lead tomanychanges within my life, including
my desire to read the Bible. Instead of just being a chore I felt like Ihad to doin order to claim Christianity, I
asked the Lord to imprint an actual desire to learnwithin me. I purchased a new
Bible for this new start in my life, and tried a few different methods of
reading it.
I’d always heard church elders talk about getting up early and
spending time in the word first thing in the morning. I tried it…and
just kept failing. I like sleep, okay? I tried using a reading
plan to “get through” the Bible within a year…and felt discouraged
as soon as I inevitably missed a day.
But I really wanted to become more familiar with this book! Why
could I not get into a habit? Eventually I just started carrying my
new Bible with me, in the hopes I would read it out of sheer opportunity (I
normally carried a book around anyway).
Naturally, during this overall of my faith,my life in general started to look
a little different. This included a new job. I now work for a
large organization in an admin position. I have a set lunch schedule and
large grounds laden with benches and shady treesperfectfor reading. I started
eating my lunch & then taking my Bible outside for some fresh air.
It took me a year to work through Genesis. In the past 2 months, I have read
Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, & Numbers- just started Joshua this week.
I have no set quotas for time or length, I just read what I can when I
can. Sometimes we each have to be realistic about our circumstances and
personalities. I did not get anything out of reading the Bible when I
made it into a chore I was supposed
to doa certain way. I
don’t want to just check this off on a Christian to-do list; I want to
understand the history of my faith, and apply His word to my life in adeeply personalway. Once I viewed my Bible as a
gift instead of a chore, my life (and faith) changed.
I’m not saying I have everything magically figured out now (far from it), but I have another habit that helps keep my life focus on
Christ. And that is a blessing.
I would encourage you to really think about what works best for
you, and what will draw you closer to Jesus. We are alldifferent parts of one body, and we require different things.
That’s okay- figure out what works for you. Maybe this requires
reworking your schedule…or your viewpoint. Just don’t loose focus on
whatreallymatters.
… Meet Brittany …
