Sometime around March of this year I think I blinked and the rest of the year went flying by. I feel like our nephew was born like four months ago but no, he is about to turn a year old. I feel like the mission trip was like two months ago, but no, that was way back in the summer. It's almost Christmas. WHERE DID 2011 GO??? Another one bites the dust, this time at lightning speed.
You may remember I made some new year's resolutions at the beginning of this year. Click here to check out the actual post for details but basically they were:
#1: Continue my endeavor to read the whole Bible in a year (which I actually started Dec 1 of last year because I couldn't contain my excitement)
#2: Get in the habit of working out
#3: Simplify my schedule
#4: Make more time for things that are important to me
I figured it's only fair for me to give some updates on how these went this year so I'll start with the first one, my challenge to read the whole Bible in a year. In short, I DID IT! I actually finished this last Wednesday, November 30th, on time. I intended for us to go get frozen yogurt or something to celebrate but those plans were foiled by an emergency grocery trip that we had been putting off for a few days...hence why it became an emergency. Anyway. I finished the readings on time, but that doesn't mean I read every single day. On the contrary, tax season put me about a month behind and I spent until about October trying to catch up. I'd get so close, then life would explode once again as usual, and I'd end up behind again. That's ok though. I didn't set the goal to read every day, just to finish it in a year.
I intentionally used the same little Bible for all my readings that Trent gave me for my birthday in 2006. I thought it would be cool at the end to say that I have read every word of a particular Bible. It has been through a lot this year with me, done some traveling, been toted around in my purse, been attacked and chewed on by our dog, been DIY repaired... Needless to say, it's looking a little worse for wear, but hey, that gives it character and some stories.
Things learned from this endeavor:
~There are some super boring books in the Bible, f'real. Oh ma goodness.
~I simply was reading, not really studying, but it alerted me to several books or areas that I want to go back to and actually chew on more instead of just breeze through them.
~Revelation is nothing like the Left Behind movie... (I totally had a crush on Kirk Cameron back then, not gonna lie...)
~I should have probably chosen a Bible with bigger print before determining to read the whole of one Bible
~The Psalms are a great place to go when you can't express your emotions. There are plenty for happy, sad, scared, you name it. I labelled each Psalm with a one or two word phrase that I thought described or encompassed it, like "praise", "joy", "defeat", "weariness", so I can flip back through to find some that might apply to whatever I'm going through.
~My husband knows a LOT about scripture and was a super sounding board
when I had questions or exclaimed "I don't understaaaaaaand."
~I can still remember and sing the New Testament books of the Bible song but can't for the life of me remember the Old Testament. I can make it to Nehemiah, then I launch into Phillipiaaaans, Colossiaaaaans. Fail.
To anyone thinking of trying this, I highly recommend YouVersion's website and app. You can use it just as a Bible on your phone with tons of translations at your fingertips, or you can use their reading plans to keep you on track. It was super helpful to me.
This was definitely a challenge, but it was well worth it.
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