Daily Bible Reading

So, I saw this video a while back on FB or somewhere... it's truly amazing. This 9yo boy can grasp the Bible better than most adults. And he's read the whole thing... the.ENTIRE.Bible. It blew me away when I first saw it. He's read the whole thing in a year. At nine years old. Inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu0NVSXM9cY&feature=player_embedded

It's just really impressive.

Anyway, I opened the most recent copy of The Christian Chronicle today... the one that has been waiting for me to read it for weeks now and there he was. I hadn't realized he attended a church of Christ. hmm. cool. Anyway, I read the article, which was mostly about him. It went on to speak of other churches that were encouraging their members to do daily Bible readings. There was a section in there about a pastor from Texas who did a video stream live of him reading the entire Bible. It was a marathon. Volunteers showed up to help him for short breaks to eat and take a catnap, but he (and some helpers) read the whole Bible in one sitting. It took suprisingly less time than I would've thought. A mere 75 hours and 37 minutes...

Let's think about this for a minute. If we were to read at the same rate as what he did, it would take 12 minutes a day to read the whole Bible in a year. TWELVE MINUTES. Just stop and ponder that. That is less than 1% of the minutes that you have in a day. Somehow, we make it out to be this huge thing, this enormous committment. That's less time than most people spend on FB. That's less time than most people spend drinking their coffee. For cryin out loud, some people spend more time in the bathroom than that! And think of this: if you would commit to reading the Bible for just 30 minutes a day, you could read it twice in a year. I realize that we also spend time in prayer and time in Bible Study, which is different than a daily Bible reading. But still, don't you think that God deserves at least, at the very least, 1% of your time. Imagine what you could learn from that.

Doing a little bit of math just created an epiphany for me. That completely changes the way I look at it. And let's face it, if a 9yo can do it, then I really have NO EXCUSE. right?

Just a quick update...

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to all those who've been praying for us during this whole process. I wanted to let you know that our prayers were answered and God moved on our behalf. I'll write more about it later.

Praise God! We were able to get the interviews for our homestudy finished (at least the ones we needed DH for) before he left to go play in the sandbox with the other good ole boys over there. So our homestudy should be approved within a few weeks and completed a few weeks after that. At which point we would be able then to officially request files on waiting children. At the same time, we will be working on our dossier paperwork. I'm not sure how much is going to get done with DH gone... I'm not sure how much needs his signature and such... we'll see. And to be completely honest, I'm not sure just how I'm gonna request files when you consider that I'd have to make the decision on my own. That could be fun, though! "Welcome home, honey. By the way, I signed for us to get some kids while you were gone. Pack up, we're leavin to get em."

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Today, the first full day without him, was rough. Rough on the boys, rough on me. I'm tired, and emotional.

One small step or one giant leap?

Yes, it is.

It is both a small step on this adoption journey and a giant leap for us. We just submitted the first volume of paperwork for our adoption. This is all the paperwork necessary for our homestudy. Now we are trying to get the interviews that DH is involved with lined up prior to his departure. I never imagined that it would take this long to get it done. I'm really kind of ashamed that it did, I mean, its just paperwork and there's no excuse for that. It's just one small step on this road, there's more paperwork and more larger, more difficult steps that we have to go through to get our kids home. But somehow, it seems soooo big to have turned it in. To have finished it. I think *and hope* that it's all correctly done and we won't have to redo any of it. I hope that we can get the interviews in before he leaves so we can tie up this part. I'd like to be working on the Dossier while he's over there... I have a lot of time while he's gone since I can't sleep. I plan on reading, doing home projects to be ready for more kids, and doing more paperwork of course.

If you have the time, please pray for us:

... that DH is safe in the sandbox

... that we are able to move quickly (or at least quicker) on this next step

... that the LORD provides the finances we need (this is weighing heavily on us right now)

... that our children feel safe, loved, and they hear God telling them that a family is coming

and most importantly

... that we hear God speaking and directing us, the sound of His voice drowns out everyone else and we obey.

Thank you all for following along, and thank you so much for your prayers.

We'll keep you posted.