In the past I've come up with big picture goals, plans, and schedules, only to become overwhelmed after the first few days. I've decided to give up on making a lot of changes all at the same time, because I always end up making little or no change. Instead, I will attempt to make small changes, one at a time. Each week in 2012, I will add a new habit to my routine, hoping that the gradual introduction to change will be less overwhelming and more doable. Not only will I be making changes, but I will be publicly writing about them so as to have accountability and motivation to keep up those changes.
As I am already a very busy women, I will keep the posts to one or two per week. I don't want this endeavor, which is meant to grow me and bring organization to my life, to consume my time such that I am undoing any of the good it is accomplishing. And I most likely will not be proofreading any of this. Ah!! The horror! Those of you who know me well, know that that is way out of my character.
Seeing as this is the first week of the year, I think a good place to start would be with a spiritual habit. Given my busy life with a husband, four children ages seven and younger, a house, church activities, my other blog, my cake business, and everything else life throws at me, my time in God's Word has been on a roller coaster over the last few years. I want that to change because "all Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16). I actually resolved to do this a few months ago while reading out of Donald S. Whitney's Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. But be forewarned, it is very convicting.
On a side note, I was reading Whitney as an assignment for my Women's Discipleship Training Program (Women's DTP) at church, Grace Bible Church of Pleasant Hill. For those of you who attend Grace, I cannot urge you enough to take this class!!
To bring some order to my Bible reading, I stopped by the church library and picked up a reading plan (they're free!). You can find reading plans online and even in the front or back of some Bibles. The Grace bookstore carries two: M'Cheyne's Calendar for Daily Bible Reading and The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. They both have readings from four different passages each day. I decided on the latter because there are 25 readings each month rather than 30 or 31.
"But that encourages you to be lazy!" Possibly, but for this point in my life, it's a more realistic expectation. There are those days when all the kids are extra needy, one of the appliances gives out, we have doctor appointments, and Robbie gets hung up at work late. Life with young children does not get lived by a calendar, but by lovingly, graciously, and sacrificially loving each one of them every moment of the day.
I think part of the reason (other than sin) I go through periods when my time in the Word is neglected or minimal is that I am a perfectionist. Looking at my house, you'd never think so, but that's the problem. If I can't do a job completely, I tend not to do it. For some reason I've had this idea in my mind that my time with God's Word needs to be completely focused and completed in one quality sitting. While that is desirable, it's an unrealistic expectation for this time in my life. I finally realized that a few shorter times in the Bible were much better than attempting to get in one long time. So I read a little while the kids are eating their breakfast. I read a Psalm while I'm on hold on the phone. I read a passage while I'm waiting for the pasta water to boil. And that seems to be making all the difference.
So, I hereby resolve to saturate my heart and my mind with the Word of God by consistently spending time in it, understanding that life will throw in some interruptions, but never using those interruptions as an excuse.
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