Day 1- God Is and Was

Today, on the way to school, Sam's carpool buddy asked me why we wanted to read the Bible every day. I sort of stumbled through my answer saying that the Bible is full of great wisdom from God and that I wanted to try and start each day by focusing on God's word in the hope that it would provide me with some guidance. 

While all this is true, my little six year old friend got me thinking.  Why do I want to do this?  Is it because it feels like the "right thing to do" or is it because I am truly open to hearing what the Lord has to say to me?  I'll admit that in the past, when I have started to read the Bible cover to cover (and failed), it felt more like a spiritual "to do".  Usually, the impetus for such an endeavor was a rocky time in my life.  A dramatic breakup with a highschool boyfriend, one of many too late party nights in college or even just a time of lonliness like when my family moved from Georgia to Texas when I was twelve.  Now don't get me wrong, scripture has gotten me through some very tough times in my life.  The problem for me occrus when times are not so tough and sleeping in sounds so much better than getting up early to read through that dreaded geneology.  A day goes by, then a week, then a month....until my next slump occurs and I start back literally 'in the beginning'. 

This time I really do hope and pray that my experience will be different.  This time I am reading for a different reason.  As my six year old begins to ask questions that I can not answer, I am realizing quickly that all of my false starts in reading the Bible were not sufficient in preparing me for my greatest task which is to teach him to love the Lord.  For the first time, I am experiencing an urgency to turn to God's words with fervor and I believe with all my heart that this desire comes straight from God Himself.  Today, before we read the passage above, I prayed with Sam that God would bless our journey this year and that he would hold us fast to this committment.  I do not know what the next 364 days will bring, but I am certain God will bless us in many ways.