Learning to ask.

I grew up in a Christian home.  My parents are incredible and raised us to know and love the Lord.  They also taught me to love His Word, the Bible.  Somewhere along the way, in the last 10 years or so, that love has wained a bit.

I don't know what caused it.  Perhaps it was the busyness of life.  Perhaps it was being overwhelmed by other things.  Perhaps it was letting things like Facebook, reading novels, or planning lessons take the place of the time I spent reading God's Word.  Honestly, I don't really know what happened...all I know is reading it became less of a joy and more of a chore.

I wanted it to change...I wanted to love God's Word.  I wanted to desire to read it.  I wanted to grow in my knowledge of the it.  I just didn't know where to start!  Some days it seemed overwhelming to simply sit down and read the Bible and to expect to get anything out of it.  Suddenly, it dawned on me...I needed to pray.

I prayed and asked God to open his word to me in a new way, to provide within me that desire to read His Word and to know Him more intimately.  I wanted to internalize it, to "hide his word in my heart" (Psalm 119:11).  He supplied for my needs above and beyond what I could ever have possibly imagined...He has a way of doing that.

First, it was through enrolling in a Bible study.  Last year I attended a Mom's Connect group on Wednesday mornings that I did truly love, but it just wasn't working.  It was far away from us and it wasn't the intense study of the Word that I was desiring.  Even though it hurt to give that up because of the relationships I had formed, I knew I needed something different.  I enrolled in BSF, Bible Study Fellowship.  What an amazing course!  Each week we intensely study a different chapter of Matthew.  We spend time each day filling out questions relating to the chapter.  We then meet on Thursdays in a small group to discuss our questions.  After that we receive an amazing lecture related to that chapter!  What a gift!  Studying the same passage of scripture in three different ways!  It has blessed me and created in me an intense desire to know more, to study more, to learn.  I find that on the days that I can't seem to get to my Bible study my heart feels like it is lacking.  I can't wait to find out what I will learn next.  I am continually amazed at how the passage can challenge me in my growth as a child of God.  I love it.

God didn't just stop there though...he has a way of heaping blessings upon our heads when we ask for them.  At our annual Christian Schools conference in October we had a speaker named Keith Ferrin.  He has a ministry called That You May Know.  I can't explain what he taught me in those two days, but it transformed how I read the Word and how my family reads the word.  That has been the second blessing.  Thanks to some help and tips from him, not only am I falling in love with God's Word, but our family is as well.  Each night we read a different story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.  My kids are crazy about it.  Rusty wants to read multiple stories each night and he is always so excited to see what will happen next that he can hardly stand to wait until the second night.  One day he declared, "Mommy, I love you and God more than anything and I LOVE the Holy Bible!"  Oh those were sweet words for this Momma's heart to hear.  I pray daily that my boys will grow up knowing and loving the Lord and that they will serve Him with their lives.  Loving His word is a good step in that process.

Another joy has been my morning reading time.  I don't get to it every day, but some mornings I am able to get up early and just sit on the couch in the quiet for half an hour reading God's Word.  I'm not trying to analyze it or to answer questions, I'm just reading it...soaking in it.  This was another suggestion from Keith Ferrin.  Rusty is our early riser, and many mornings he has come out to find me reading.  He always asks what I am reading.  Lately, it has been Philippians.  I have been reading it over and over, hoping to internalize it.  One day he saw a verse from Philippians and said, "Look Mommy!  That is from your favourite book!"  I hadn't said it was my favourite, but him simply seeing me read it led him to that conclusion.  What a joy that was for me.  It reminded me of growing up and walking down the stairs in the morning to my dad's office.  He started every single day reading God's Word.  I remember walking in to see him reading, praying, or simply dwelling on the words he had read.  It was such an example to me.  I think it was part of what led me to want to know God myself.

I'm so thankful to be falling in love with reading God's word again.  It's a journey that I missed.  It's a journey that brings me so much knowledge, peace, and joy.  I will have to remember, I simply need to remember to learn to ask.

What is your favourite Bible verse?