Some days I’m up well before the sun, already running to stay on top of what comes next, and I don’t sit down to rest until I’m ready to drop into bed late in the evening. Life is full; our family schedule is packed. I’m wringing every drop out of this season of life, with all my kids at home and in a community with plenty of opportunities for enrichment and mutual support. And when I talk to my friends, I know I’m not alone. We’re all busy.
A few years ago, I realized that I had used “busy” as an excuse to leave my Bible in the corner gathering dust. I didn’t feel good about that, but I wasn’t sure how to squeeze Bible study back into my life. I missed my life in college, when I could spend an entire afternoon every week participating in a group Bible study and devote quiet, uninterrupted time every day to reading from my Bible.
Thinking about how easy it used to be made me want to give up before I even started. I couldn’t join a class at church and really dig into a book of the Bible, and the options for personal study overwhelmed me. So many booklets and apps, methods, and teachers that I wasn’t sure where to begin. Was it even worth incorporating scripture for a small amount of time? Could five minutes a day matter?
Wanting to Read the Bible More
Following the advice of a friend, I committed to reading the Gospel selection from Daily Mass every day. That’s all the scripture I read daily for months. I would sit down, say a quick prayer to acknowledge God’s presence, look up the Mass readings on my phone, read the Gospel passage, and then say a quick prayer thanking God for His Word. It took less than five minutes. It didn’t seem like a lot each day, but, when I looked back, I realized I had read quite a bit of one of the Gospels during that time.
After a couple of months, I realized that I wanted more. So, I started reading all the Mass readings. If something struck me, I’d re-read it. Sometimes, I’d find myself thinking about it later as I did the dishes or folded laundry. I also reincorporated Lectio Divina, a prayer practice of dwelling on a word or a phrase from scripture through meditation and contemplation. I don’t do it every day, but keeping it available to me when I have more time.
Read the Bible With Your Family
For the last couple of years, I’ve homeschooled some of my children. We’ve read Bible stories aloud regularly. Often, I’ll read a story first and then I’ll have my kid re-tell it to me. The discussions we have about our favorite parts, the people who inspire us, or the questions we have enrich me just as much as the Bible studies I participated in during college.
Slowly, I’ve tried other things. I’ve read books about certain scripture stories recommended by friends, made time for a summer study group, and used wonderful apps and podcasts. I began to see Bible study as an exploration rather than a race to finish. There’s always something new to try and never a need to perfect my time with God’s Word.
Read the Scriptures for Mass
Mass, as a mom of four, is often chaotic. I realized that I often didn’t hear all of the scripture readings during Mass or struggled to fully absorb them. So, along with the readings for Daily Mass, I now read the scriptures of the next Sunday Mass ahead of time. Taking the time to read these scriptures and think about what God might want to say to me through these words right now in my life before I get to Mass has helped me to get more out of the Liturgy of the Word at Mass. I recall what I read during the course of the week, so even if my attention gets split between the ambo and my kids in the pew, I feel more confident that I’m allowing the Word to speak into my life.
I thought that incorporating Bible reading into my life required a formal structure. In my mind, it seems like unless I had a checklist, a goal, and a workbook, then my time with scripture wouldn’t make a meaningful impact in my life. However, as I’ve released my expectations for what spending time with the Bible should look like and simply enjoyed spending time with the Lord in His Word, my love for scripture and the prayer that comes from it have grown. Day-by-day, little-by-little, I’m developing a relationship with the Bible which transforms my heart and mind.
