Last night I received an email from a mom who read the Bible in 90 Days with us the first time I offered it on MomsToolbox. Her daughter was scheduled for open-heart surgery and she thought it might help her get through the experience.
I am so thankful she read with us. And I am so thankful she decided to share her story. As soon as I hit “publish” I’m off to print this post, slip it into a copy of the Bible in 90 Days Bible and give it to a friend of mine who is facing her own challenges right now.
Please take a moment and soak this beautiful story in…
Last December I once again began to ponder my 2010 Bible reading. I had been just reading with no solid plan, and was beginning to feel like I once again needed something more solid, more structured. It was during this time I once again came across reading the Bible in 90 Days, and initially I discounted this as being impossible for me.
Why was it impossible?
Well, our then-15 month-old was completing her hip dysplasia treatment, we were (and still are) in the watching-her-grow phase, and while this was not a big deal, every appointment had me holding my breath and begging God that she would be moving along. She had spent 17 weeks in a pavlik harness beginning a year before, and it was still heavy on my heart and hard. Plus she had a small cyst removed from her mouth late November, and my heart was still bruised from letting the doctors, as sweet as they were with her, take her away from us for the 20 minutes she was gone.
But that was not the biggest thing.
The biggest thing was that our then 4 and a half-year-old was scheduled for open heart surgery January 11 to remove a subaortic membrane.
I could barely let the our baby go for 20 minutes to have a small cyst removed, now I was going to have to let them wheel our older daughter into surgery, a surgery that would require a heart lung bypass machine?
To say I was overwhelmed would be a substantial understatement!
And then I read about reading the Bible in 90 Days again. This time there was a strong nudge from God to do it, that this was what I needed to get through the next months.
You see, this reading program is not really for the super spiritual people, I think it is really for those of us who are so desperate for God that we need to all but drown ourselves in scripture so that life cannot overwhelm us.
I looked at our schedule and started a day early – I figured I was going to need it.
At first it was a lot of reading, but then something very interesting happened. God met me in my Bible reading. He strengthened me, He encouraged me, He watered my parched soul, and soothed my hurt heart. Each time I opened the Bible for my reading God was there, speaking to me. Even after getting up early to be with our baby before heading to the hospital to spend the day with my daughter and husband who stayed with her the whole time before heading home for supper and time with our baby again who I held a little bit more tightly as I nursed her to sleep, I reached for my Bible. I was so incredibly weary, so completely exhausted, so mentally overwhelmed that I could do nothing else. And in my Bible reading God quieted my mind so I could rest, and gave me the strength to do it again.
When our daughter came home from the hospital our hearts were filled with joy, and my time with God remained as rich. I began getting up early and reading all but one or two chapters of the reading, which I would finish at bedtime. It was a sweet time.
When the doctors declared the all clear, it was time to face another hurdle. My husband was miserable at his job and he could not continue this way. Resumes were sent out. Interviews began. On site interviews began. And offers were made.
The first Friday in April was my husband’s last day at his old job. The last Wednesday of April was his first day at his new job… 2 states away. In that time we sold our house, rented a house for a year and our whole family moved. It was crazy and insane and completely fun. But it was that time with God in January and February that got me through March and April.
The first time through the Bible in 90 Days took me about 120-ish days because of the move. Part of me felt happy to finish, part of me felt like I had made a promise to God I had not kept.
So in July I started again. You know what? It was great! And I finished in 87 days because I could not possibly leave those last couple chapters unread for the next day. The readings did not seem long, they felt rich and enjoyable, edifying and strengthening!
We don’t read the Bible in these large portions because we are amazing super saints. We do it because we are curious, or because we are flawed human beings desperately in need of our Lord.
–Kristy
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