Ten chapters per day revisited

Last February I wrote about the new Bible reading plan I had started in January 2011. Today I want to update how that went and tell about my Bible reading plan for 2012.

As of today, I am on day 106 of my original 10-chapter-a-day plan linked above.  If you click the link, you'll see that on Feb. 25, 2011 I was on day 40.  Hmmmm...that's not much progress.  As a geeky math teacher I couldn't help crunching the numbers.  The first 56 days of 2011 I read 71% of the reading I was "supposed" to, then the next 309 days of 2011 I read less than 21% of what I was "supposed" to read.  Do I feel condemned?  Discouraged?  NO!  Fortunately God doesn't accept us based on our performance (whew!)  BUT to a large extent my spiritual growth is tied to my ingestion of the Word, so reading, studying, and thinking about the Bible is VITAL!

Why the low rate?  Well, I wrote about it a bit here and here.  Basically, life got busy and sometimes I didn't follow through (in other words, sometimes I slept in and didn't read my Bible at all).  On many days I would only get half the reading done, so one day's worth of reading would take two (or more) days.  Also I spent some time going in-depth in a topic or two rather than reading the 10-chapters-per-day.  In-depth study is just as important as an overview.  We need a balance of in-depth study and reading the whole counsel of God.

My plan for this year is to just continue.  I consider this method a rousing success even though I have been slow getting through it.  It has helped me make connections like no other Bible reading plan has.  Although I have only done 105 days of this plan, I have completely read through each of the four New Testament sections and two of the six Old Testament sections.  In fact, I am on my third reading of the shortest New Testament section. (If none of this makes sense you can click on the first link above for a more in-depth explanation of the plan.)

Many parts of the Bible have linked together for me more than ever before.  Pieces of the puzzle are coming together.  I am starting to see the Bible more as a cohesive whole with a single author and a single message, rather than a bunch of good but somewhat unrelated ideas.  And I have thoroughly enjoyed it.  I love making it through all ten chapters in a morning! (But I also love delving deeply into a topic.)  I like having a plan, but I am willing to deviate from it as led. 

I am looking forward to being more consistent and growing even more in 2012.

Owls and Respite

Yesterday morning I woke up at 5:30 to a whooo-oooo sound.  At first I thought Super T was making the sound (he is a notorious early-riser, although it has been getting much better especially now that the days are getting shorter).  A minute later I realized that I was being serenaded by an owl.  There is nothing quite like that whoooo-oooo in the early morning to help me spring out of bed with a smile.  Well, spring might be a rather strong word, but I did immediately get up and go open the front door in hopes of hearing the owl better.  Apparently he was in my parents' back yard because the sound was fainter from the front (my folks live next door to me...a perfect arrangement when you are a single mom and have wonderful parents).  I thought then about blogging (it is usually early morning or not at all around here), but got distracted by a book I was reading.  Peace and quiet is so alluring to me.  :)

Yesterday afternoon two sweet little girls were dropped of for respite.  They have been here before for a longer period and this is just for the weekend, so we are all happy about it, especially Little Pud who desperately wants a little sister and will likely cry when they leave, but even LOTL who balks at having little ones for long periods of time is good with having them for the weekend, and Super T loves anyone who is littler than him since he almost always is around people who are bigger than him and boss him around.  He tries to boss the little girls around, much to their annoyance but his delight.  I am thrilled to help out some hard-working foster parents and care for some precious girls who have been in a bad situation.  It promises to be a busy weekend, so I am up early this morning to try to pound out on the keyboard what is floating around in my brain.  I guess we'll all find out if it gets done before the small fry get up...