Guest post by Kimberly of Raising Olives
**This was originally posted in January 2010. If you are currently reading the Bible in 90 Days with us, please DO NOT check in here. Instead check in with the current session’s check in post.**
If you are participating in the Bible in 90 Days challenge, today you are on Day 18 and should have read through the end of page 216 in the Bible in 90 Days Bible or through Judges 15:12.
At the end of this post, I’m going to ask you to report in either with a blog post or a comment and let us know where you are in the reading. Before then, Kimberly from Raising Olives is going to share with us how her entire family is participating in the Bible in 90 Days challenge:I enjoyed Toni’s post about her “how-to” plan to complete the challenge and thought that I would share our plan for reading through the Bible in 90 days. One of the beauties of being a Christian and a child of God is diversity. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, talents and gifts. What works for one person may or may not work for another, so here is our plan for the 90 Day Challenge.
The participants in our family are my husband Mark and our 4 oldest children, Amber (13), Kaitlin (12), Matthew (10) and Alyssa (9). Amy enabled us to get off to a solid start and to be more consistent with our reading by posting, “What’s your time trade-off?” She pointed out that if we are going to spend an hour each day reading the Bible that we would have to give up time on other things.
Thanks to that advice we began with a plan. We’ve always had a half hour of individual Bible reading and prayer time in the morning, but we needed another half hour. We now begin school a little later and the children give up some of their afternoon free time and I give up some blogging time.
We read our Bibles first thing each morning and it’s a family activity. I usually rise first, grab a blanket and a cup of tea and begin reading. I’m joined by the others within the first 30 minutes. All those who are able to read, read their Bible during this time (several of them are not doing the 90 Day Challenge).
Our two youngest (1 and 3 years) usually snuggle with me under the blanket for a few minutes and then play quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) in the room with us.
Those who are unable to finish during the hour that we have scheduled take the first portion of quiet time (immediately after lunch) to finish up the day’s reading. (Mark finishes up at night.) I’ve found that, for myself I need to finish my reading in the morning, so I get up and begin before everyone else to make sure that I can finish before the day really gets going.
We read our Bibles with pens and paper and when we come to something that strikes us, that we have a question about or that we don’t understand we jot down the chapter and verse and a quick note and move on. Then during breakfast and our Bible time during school and sometimes during dinner, we discuss our questions, ideas and thoughts about the morning’s Bible reading. This has led to some wonderful (and interesting) discussions and has given us new insight into our children’s spiritual lives.
Here are a couple of the questions that our children asked this week.
“Why did God tell Balaam to go with the men if they asked him to go and then when he went with them why was God angry?” (Numbers 22:20-22)
“In Deuteronomy 24:16 God says that children shall not be put to death for their father’s sin, but then I thought about Achan. Achan was stoned with his wife and children for his sin. (Joshua 7) Why?”
It’s a precious blessing to see our children thinking about and pondering God’s Word. A special thanks to Amy for the time and effort that she has put into coordinating this, it has been a time of blessing and special fellowship for our family.
Thanks, Kimberly, for sharing that with us! I am super impressed and moved by your whole-family involvement!
So… what does everyone else think? And how is your reading coming along?
If you are getting a little too far behind, please check my latest post on catching up. If you are getting frustrated, give yourself a time-out to breath, pray and jump back in. You can do this. It isn’t easy… but it will be worth it.
Have you made the time to listen to Jack Modesett Jr.’s week 3 audio message? What did you think?
Please leave a comment or a link to your own post below to let us know where you are in the reading and any observations you would like to share. You must click on the words “Click here” to see the list of links.
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After linking or commenting, please pick two or three other commenters and pray for them by name.
And, of course, don’t forget to join us for our Tweet-Up tonight from 8-9 CST. Just follow me and use the #B90Days hashtag.
PS: Yes, I’m up-to-date. You can see my Day 18 Bible in 90 Days post here.
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