Michelle DeRusha

Every Day Faith. Faith Every Day.

Bible study

How to Make Bible-Reading a Habit that Sticks

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Bibles

Let me tell you straight up: I don’t read the Bible every day. My goal is to read a bit of the Bible every day, but I frequently fall short. This week, for instance, we’ve endured raucous thunderstorms at all hours of the night. You may not know this, but Nebraska thunderstorms don’t simply blow in and out in 20 minutes. Rather, they last hours…sometimes all night long. Which means I don’t sleep. Which means sometime around 3 or 4 a.m. I turn off my alarm. Which means I don’t get up much before my kids get up…which means I don’t get my morning Bible reading time in. It’s the truth: sometimes I choose sleep over Jesus.

When the Nebraska skies are calm, however, I do usually begin my day with at least a few minutes of Scripture reading. If I don’t sit down with my Bible first thing in the morning, it won’t happen at all. I know this because I’m a morning person, and that little bit of personal knowledge helps me maintain my spiritual habits.

The Four Tendencies* and Scripture Reading

I’m not going to write about how or why I read the Bible (I wrote about that here, if you’re interested). Instead, I want to talk about how understanding your Tendency (Upholder, Obliger, Questioner, or Rebel) and your distinctions (lark vs. owl; familiarity lover versus novelty lover; marathoner versus sprinter versus procrastinator) can help you stick to the spiritual habit of daily (or near-daily) Scripture reading.

Case in point: As I wrote about here, I’m an Upholder,which means I’m self-directed and usually work pretty diligently at achieving my goals on my own, once I identify them. Therefore, I read the Bible at my own pace, and it’s typically a solitary endeavor.

However, if you are an Obliger — which means you typically respond readily to outer expectations but struggle to meet inner expectations — the way I read the Bible won’t necessarily work well for you. Because Obligers are motivated by external accountability, a Bible study group that meets regularly might help you stay on task. Checking in with your group once a week to read and study Scripture together (or even enrolling in an online Bible study group like Women’s Bible Cafe or She Reads Truth) might offer you the accountability you need.

Likewise, a daily Bible reading plan might offer the Obliger the perfect mix of accountability and structure. Online resources like Bible Gateway offer a variety of plans. You simply subscribe to the plan that suits you best, and you’ll receive the appropriate verses in your email in-box each day.

My friend Deidra gets a daily Bible verse delivered to her phone, which she reads first thing in the morning (there are several free versions like this one for Android and this one for iphone available for download).

Or, if like me, you prefer to hold the Book in your hands, there are dozens of hardcover and paperback options like this one, in various translations available online and in bookstores.

Now, a word of advice for Questioners. If you’re a Questioner, you like to do your research and explore all your options before making a decision, BUT, you’re also prone to analysis paralysis. Knowing that, you might want to avoid the online Bible study plans (Too many options! Overwhelming!) and simply visit Barnes and Noble or your local independent bookstore, where you can page through a more limited selection of options. Or better yet, ask your best friend, your pastor or your women’s ministry leader for suggestions – that way you can “do your homework,” but avoid option overload.

Know Your Personality Distinctions to Read the Bible Better

As I mentioned earlier, I’m also a familiarity lover, which means once I find something that works for me, I rarely stray from it. I love the New Living Translation, and I prefer my small, paperback Bible, so I can snuggle into the couch and comfortably hold my coffee in one hand and the Bible in the other. I’ve been reading the Bible this way for about five or six years now.

You, however, might be a novelty lover, which means you’ll likely have to switch up your routine every now and then to stay committed. That might mean trying a new translation or interpretation, like The Message (which offers a contemporary paraphrase of Scripture); a Bible with accompanying devotions; or even something non-traditional, like The Book of Common Prayer or The Divine Hours (I read The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime all through Lent and found the change refreshing and inspiring).

Likewise, if you’re a Sprinter, a “Read the Bible in 90 Days” plan might appeal to you, whereas if you’re more of a Marathoner and prefer to divide up big projects into manageable bites, a “Read the Bible in 365 Days” plan is probably a better bet. And if you’re a Procrastinator, you might want to consider enrolling in an actual in-person Bible study group or an online group, so your peeps will help keep you on task.

Knowing whether you’re a lark or a night owl is important too. If I tried to read the Bible before bed, I’d be asleep in 14 seconds flat. But if you’re a night owl, you’re just hitting your stride when my head is hitting the pillow. Don’t force yourself to have “Morning Quiet Time” just because that’s the “Christiany” thing to do. Work with your personality, not against it.

Too often we are critical of ourselves for struggling to stick to a steady routine of Scripture reading, when in fact, it’s really just a matter of identifying our Tendency and personality distinctions and then finding the approach that fits best with who we are.

So tell me, do you have a favorite way to read the Bible?

Want to figure out which Tendency you are? Take this quiz. 

For more information about Gretchen Rubin’s personality Distinctions, read this. 

If you missed the first three posts in my Spiritual Habits series, you can catch up here:

How Our Habits Can Impact Our Spirituality {introduction}

The Spiritual Habit of Digging Dandelions

The Spiritual Habit of Staying in Place

*Based on Gretchen Rubin’s book Better Than Before: What I Learned about Making and Breaking Habits.

How I Read the Bible

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I write about Scripture pretty frequently here because, well, I write about faith, and for me, faith and Scripture are woven together like a brightly colored tapestry. But let me be clear: I don’t consider myself a teacher of Scripture at all. At all, at all. This gets tricky, because I write in a public space. I have a platform, and though it’s a small platform, it’s still a platform. People are listening. I need to remember that.

Which is why I feel like I need to set the record straight. We might read the Bible very differently, you and I. And while I believe this is perfectly okay — I believe there is more than one way to read the Bible — I feel like I need to tell you how I read the Bible, just so we’re clear.

I read Scripture mostly in a lectio divina kind of way. Lectio divina literally means “divine reading.” It’s a contemplative way of reading, a practice first established by St. Benedict way back in the sixth century. Reading the Bible this way means that I’m typically reading it very slowly, just a few verses, at most a chapter, at a time, and while I’m reading, I’m opening myself to the possibility that God might have a personal, intimate word for me. This doesn’t always happen. Sometimes — frequently, in fact — I read my morning verses and I come away with nothing. But sometimes a word or a phrase resonates, and so I stay there for a few minutes. I often jot that verse in my notebook and scribble a few thoughts about it, trusting that I am hearing it right and true. These verses and my reflections often come to comprise my Weekend One Word posts.

I believe God’s word is infallible, but I also believe we can interpret his message differently today than, say, the first Christians did 2,000 years ago. I believe the essence of God’s word is constant, yet at the same time fluid.

So, for example, I don’t believe Paul’s exact message to his audience 2,000 years ago is necessarily the exact same message God intends for us through his word today. What God needs you to hear in his word might be different from what he needs me to hear, which might be different from what he needed the Roman Jews and Gentiles to hear (even if we’re all reading the same verse). How God speaks to me through his word might be different from how God speaks to you through his word, which in turn might be different from how God spoke to the Jews and the Gentiles through his word (via Paul’s teaching).

I guess what I’m getting at is that I’m not an authority. I’m just muddling through, trying to make sense of what is often a confounding mystery. My interpretation of Scripture in this space is exactly that – my interpretation; the way I believe God is speaking to me through his word. I trust that the Holy Spirit is leading me in the right direction — and I’ll often ask the H.S. (that’s what I call him for short) outright, “Tell me if I’m off-base here!” — but there are no guarantees. I very well could be wrong. I do not have the last word on God’s word.

I like the way Kathleen Norris puts it in The Cloister Walk. “When I quote Scripture, I am not trying to convince the reader that I have some hold on the truth,” she explains. Instead, she says, “I am telling the story as I have experienced it, as ‘an open door which no one is able to shut.’ (Rev. 3:8)”

Scripture is the living, breathing word of God, an open door which no one can shut. It’s as alive and relevant today as it was yesterday, which means God speaks personally and intimately into our immediate circumstances, just as he did yesterday, a century ago, and two thousand years before that. God is bigger, deeper, fuller and broader than we could ever possibly comprehend. Likewise, I believe his word contains more space for us than we could ever possibly imagine.

 

How to Step Out of a Spiritual Rut

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Yesterday afternoon I did something different. I’d been feeling frustrated with my work, at a loss for what to write about on the blog, uninspired by my current freelance editing project. But instead of doing what I typically do when I’m stuck — ie. scroll through Facebook and browse the Internet — I stepped outside. I donned my gardening gloves and tackled one of the raised beds I can see from my desk – the one that will bloom a fireworks display of orange, yellow, fuschia and red in a few weeks, the tulips we planted several years ago in memory of my mother-in-law. Right now, though, the tulip leaves are choked with a jumble of dead grass, desiccated oak and chestnut leaves and weeds.

The chore took me only 20 minutes or so – I wasn’t out there all day (thought I would have liked to have been) — but when the bed was clean of debris, and I’d shucked my gloves, washed my hands and sat down at my desk again, I found not only that I had something to write about (this post you’re reading now), I also felt reinvigorated and refreshed in a way I never would have, had I stayed seated, mindlessly scrolling through my frustration.

This is a good lesson for me and my writing life, but I think it can also be applied to our spiritual lives, our work lives and our lives in general as well.

The lesson here is this: when you’re stuck, change your routine. 

Lately I’ve found myself mired in a spiritual rut. My standard spiritual discipline is morning Bible reading, and it’s something I’ve done pretty regularly, ever since I found my way back to God and Christianity several years ago. Recently, though, Scripture hasn’t shimmered for me in the way it has in the past. More and more I’ve found my mind wandering, obsessing about the day’s to-do list or the emails stacking up in my in-box or the fact that I forgot to send in Rowan’s field trip permission slip. I was still going through the motions of my morning spiritual practice – the Bible was open on my lap, my eyes were reading the words — but I wasn’t benefitting from it in a real way.

So I tried something new. I purchased a used copy of Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime, and I began to read the daily offices first thing in the morning with my coffee and last thing at night before I snap off the bedside lamp. I even occasionally manage to read the afternoon office, tucking the book into my purse and pulling it out while I wait in the mini-van for the school dismissal bell.

Changing up my spiritual practice in this one small way has helped. The Daily Office contains some Scripture – a couple of psalms, a reading from the Gospels — along with several prayers and recitations. I am enjoying the rhythm of it – the prayers that are repeated each day of the week, the one that opens the new day and the one that closes the day out in the evening. I find it soothing, and I appreciate the language, which differs a bit from what I’d grown accustomed to in my New Living and New International Bible translations. It’s breathed new life into a routine that had grown stagnant and dull, one that I’d stuck with out of habit and obligation.

I’m a rule-follower, which means I don’t typically have a problem with discipline. The downside to that, though, is that I resist relinquishing a particular discipline, even when it’s stopped working. I feel guilty. I feel like I’ve “failed.” And I especially feel that way because my primary spiritual discipline is Bible reading. I mean really, what kind of Christian burns out on the Bible?

But listen, if this is sounding familiar to you, too, give yourself some grace. Try something new; change up your routine. There are other ways to “read” the Bible. Experiment with The Divine Hours or The Book of Common Prayer. Download an app like Daily Bible, which will send you a verse on your phone every morning that you can either read or listen to. Listen to the Bible while you’re walking the dog. Or try something new altogether – contemplative prayer, silence, weeding. I promise, God will still love you, even if you’re not reading his Word every single day.

If you’re feeling stuck, whether in your spiritual life, your work life, or your life in general, step outside…literally and/or figuratively. I think you’ll be surprised by the postive impact even a small change in your routine can make.

Bible in the Bathroom

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I call it Bible in the Bathroom.

When I heard a well-known Christian speaker mention that she writes a verse or two on a three-by-five card and tapes it over the bathroom sink, I thought I’d give it a try. I admit, I was desperate. Every one of my previous attempts to introduce regular Bible study into our family’s routine had flopped. Badly.

At dinnertime I’d tried reading a verse or two with a brief commentary geared toward children. The kids pronounced it boring after a week.

I’d experimented with various Advent and Lent devotional booklets, even some that included games and other gimmicks, but their eyes glazed over by the third day.

I’d tried scripture straight-up — an Old Testament story or one of the more interesting parables — but the boys preferred to discuss Minecraft over their macaroni and cheese.

My husband Brad wasn’t keen on the idea of Bible in the Bathroom. He suggested I might want to peel the scotch-taped index card off the tile and stash it in the cabinet when we had guests over for dinner.

“I’m not taking it down just because we have guests,” I announced, all high and mighty, standing in the living room with my hands on my hips.

“But think how you would have reacted just a few years ago if you’d spotted a Bible verse taped over someone’s bathroom sink,” he reminded me.

True. I would have deemed the person a creepy, freaky Bible banger, remembered suddenly that I had a “dentist appointment” and made a beeline for the front door.

Honestly, I’m no good at evangelizing. I’m about as likely to inquire if you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior as I am to ask what size pants you wear. Still, I decided to try Bible in the Bathroom for one reason: I want to introduce my kids to the Bible in a way that didn’t feel like a burden or punishment to them.

I didn’t talk about the verses with the boys, except to suggest they might want to read the card while they brushed their teeth. I didn’t expound on the scripture or explain why I chose the particular verses. I simply taped a card to the tile and changed it out once a week. At the very least, I figured, it gave me something to ponder while I flossed my teeth and plucked my eyebrows.

One morning a few weeks into the project, my son Noah turned to me, toothbrush in hand, as I gathered towels for the wash. “You know,” he said, leaning to spit into the sink, “sometimes I think about these Bible verses when I’m at school. Sometimes they help me worry less.” A couple of weeks later, Rowan began to remind me when it was time to change out the verse.

Clearly a softer, subtler approach to Bible study is the best option for my kids right now. As much as I want to dig into the parables and discuss deep questions with them over dinner, they aren’t ready for or interested in that. They may grow into it…they may not. Right now, though, I’m glad that a few words from the Bible occasionally offer them a little light to see by as they walk through their days.

What about you? Do you have any tips for doing Bible study with kids?

*This post ran last Saturday in the Lincoln Journal Star. 

Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: When You Think a Bible Verse Doesn’t Apply to You…Think Again

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I have a bad habit of assuming certain Bible verses don’t apply to me.

Take the story we read this week, for instance, about the day Jesus cleared the Temple of the merchants and money changers. First of all, the scene itself is difficult to picture. Jesus, whom I typically think of as even-tempered and mild, fashions a whip – a whip! – out of rope and uses it to chase the transgressors out of the building. He scatters the coins onto the floor and then, consumed with anger and disgust, he turns over the tables, one after the other. This is a side of Jesus we haven’t seen before and won’t see again in all of Scripture. This is a side of Jesus I don’t want to mess with.

So what’s my reaction to these verses?  “Whew!” I say to myself. “Glad I’m not as bad as the money changers! Glad I’m not the one abusing God’s Temple.”

Every time I’ve read this passage in the last three years, this has been my response. I assume because I’m not selling goats in the church lobby that I’m okay, I’m good – these verses don’t apply to me. But this week when I read this story, I discovered something I’ve never seen before in the verses that immediately follow the scene in the temple:

“Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature. No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.” (John 2:23-24)

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that these two verses immediately follow the scene in the Temple.

Suddenly this story wasn’t only about the merchants and the money changers, it was about all of humankind.  Suddenly I knew this story was about me.

The truth is, my inclination, my human nature, is to put material concerns – wealth, status, achievement, recognition – ahead of God. I do it time and time again. When I covet someone else’s house, I put money before God. When I yearn for someone else’s position, I put status before God. When I desire more blog readers and a bigger platform, I put achievement and recognition before God. I struggle with my priorities. I struggle to put God first.

Jesus was angry with the merchants and money changers because they dishonored his Father’s house. But on a deeper level, he was angry with them because their motives, actions and priorities dishonored God himself. They put worldly concerns – wealth, status and recognition – ahead of God, and that, I know, is something I’m guilty of, too.

Questions for Reflection:
What do you put ahead of God?  Can you think of how you might better arrange your priorities so that God comes first?

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