Note: Since the original edition of this blog post (2020), there have been excellent devotionals published that have helped to bridge these gaps. My favorite to recommend is Paul Tripp’s Everyday Gospel which takes you through the entirety of Scripture in a year, while offering gospel connections to the passages you have read.
I lost track of the interruptions that morning while attempting to clean up breakfast from my children. The three year old needed help using the bathroom, my five year old couldn’t find the right clothes in the dryer, and my youngest had taken the opportunity of an open door to help himself to brushing his teeth (with my toothbrush of course.) Amidst the distractions of getting them dressed and ready for the day, I had finally managed my way back into the kitchen to put away the last of the dishes when one of my children approached me, “Mom, is it snack time yet?”
I know I’m not alone in this battle of motherhood no one warned us about. Where you’d spend most of your waking hours preparing food to only have children pick at it, and then cry they are hungry again an hour later. I’m pretty convinced my kids would be happy if I let them live off of snacks alone.
Unfortunately, I think sometimes as moms we’ve been taught to approach the Word of God like that. Those 15 minutes before our kids get up we find ourselves grabbing for that quick morning devotional, reading the verse at the top, a quick few paragraphs of the author’s commentary, and maybe (if someone hasn’t found us yet) we underline a few sentences and begin our day. What can be really good, solid resources have over time become our snack platters. We graze here and there, depending on our interest and willingness that day. Believing it’s enough to fill us, but finding ourselves hungry with the things of the world just a short time later. But it’s not our fault, right? And it’s certainly better than nothing. At least that’s what we said last month, and the month before that. Those devotionals (and the author’s perspective) have become our only view of God’s Word.
Moms, you need more than a good devotional.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be completed, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
We so badly need the Word of God and all of it. We need the judges, the building of the temple, and the ceremonial laws of Leviticus. We need the stories of Saul and the anointing of David to understand the psalms, we need the wisdom of the proverbs, and we need to feel the silence in the prophets. We need the stories of the exile of God’s people, the promises of restoration, and the calls to repentance time and time again. We need more than a few verses from Matthew on Jesus calming our anxiety, we need the bigger picture. We need the calling of John the Baptist, the choosing of the twelve disciples, and the stories of those Jesus chose to heal (and the ones He didn’t). We need to see all of the teachings leading up to the weight of Passover, the agony in the Garden, and the darkness surrounding the most brutal death in history for the sins of the world.
We want the few verses from Ephesians that tell us how to put on the armor of God without actually knowing anything about being on guard against false teaching and how to respond to it.
We want the verse that talks about Jesus giving us the desires of our hearts without actually knowing anything about the things Christ Himself desires.
We want the comfort of a psalm when we’re having a stressful day without the instruction in Ephesians of looking carefully how we walk, making the best use of our time because the days are evil.
We want the promise of blessing to God’s children without the callings to welcome the stranger, care for the fatherless, love our neighbors, and seek the good of all those in our sphere of influence.
Do not be fooled, our culture is steeped with foolishness. We will not know how to rightly handle the word of truth if we don’t actually know the Word of Truth. It is only in the Word itself that you can have the confidence to know who God is, what He is about, and how your life fits into the plan of His eternal Kingdom.
One of my favorite fitness instructors, Lindsey Bomgren, often encourages people to finish her workouts by repeating the phrase, “ Yes, you can!” That line has stuck in my head for many different things in life, and one of which is Bible reading.
Yes, you can pick up God’s Word and learn how to study it for yourself. Yes you can. Stop believing the lies of the world (and my goodness, sometimes our own Christian culture) that this isn’t for you. It is! When we stop viewing the Bible as a snack platter and see it as the full meal, things begin to change. You can have the confidence to open up entire books of the Bible for the first time and be fed by them. You can read God’s Word for yourself and watch it teach you, train you, shape you, and equip you for every good work you are called to do today.
Yes, by the power of God’s spirit who works in you, you can.
Practical tips from one mom to another
- Choose a book of the Bible to read through start to finish. If you’ve never done this before consider picking a shorter book that won’t overwhelm you (James, 1 or 2 Peter, Colossians, 1 or 2 Timothy).
- Use a spiral bound journaling Bible to help you take notes while reading.
- Try reading or listening through the entire book in one sitting. You want to know everything the author was trying to say in his letter. It can be helpful to do this several days in a row so you become more familiar with the entire passage.
- Invest in a physical copy of a good study Bible.
- Write a summary of each chapter. In one of Jen Wilkin’s Bible studies she made us go back through each chapter of the book we were studying and write a summary in 1-2 sentences.
- Ask the important questions. Who wrote this? Why did they write it? Who are they talking to? Who is God in this passage? What do I need to learn about following God in this passage? How does this affect my life today?
- Identify the main themes of the book and write them in your Bible. Use Paul Tripp’s: The Gospel One Chapter at a Time to help you.
- Highlight any repeating words or phrases and key themes. The Daily Grace Co. has this highlighting guide that can be a helpful tool for starting.
- Pray Scripture. One of the best books I’ve ever read on prayer is this short little book by Donald Whitney, Praying the Bible.
- Grab a copy of One to One Bible Reading and work through it with a friend.
Little Roots Co. 
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