[1] As the month goes on we are continuing to experience a lot of “firsts” with Tyler. Over the weekend, Tyler had his first trip to Disneyland, when I spent the day there with my older sisters. We couldn’t go on many rides, but the ones we did go on he really enjoyed, especially the Jungle Cruise. Another “first” happened this morning when I got him after his nap. I could hear him jabbering away and when I opened the door I was very surprised to see him holding on the side railing standing up in his crib! I wonder what is next…

This week women’s Bible study started and I am so thrilled to be a part of it. We will be studying through James together with a time of worship and teaching and a time where we break into small groups to share and have some practical application and accountability. I’m excited to be in the “young moms” small group because all the ladies there are all in a similar stage of life. I’m really looking forward to meeting with them and learning together for the rest of the school year.

I have never been a part of a women’s Bible study so I’m not sure if ours is dynamically different. I assumed that a women’s study would be a little less meaty, but I was glad to be wrong! Stephanie, the woman who taught this week, spoke the Word of God authoritatively and clearly. She drove home the point that God has spoken to us through His Word, that it has been tested and is true, that we need to place our full confidence in the Bible and develop an appetite for studying and obeying it.

I was most convicted when she started delving into the question–Why do we fail to study God’s Word? I knew in my heart my own excuses for not studying it as much as I should, but then she said them out loud!–

“By nature we are lazy. We don’t like to work and we heed our feelings.”

I know that I have time to study the Word, but it’s just that I choose to do other things instead. I like how Stephanie made the point that it’s easy for weeds to grow–easy to be lazy. We have to work hard at growing the right things–disciplining myself to study and love God’s Word. I need to value God and be awed by the realization that the Creator of the universe has spoken to me in this book. There will be lots of things that distract me and try to take me away from time in His Word, but I need to value it and subject myself to its authority. Only then can God shape my heart and mind and change the way that I live to be pleasing to Him.

Stephanie told a story about how her daughter was in a class where the teacher asked what was most important in life and the student’s biggest response was “money.” She talked about how today we tend to be very motivated by money and we are concerned if we have enough or if we’ll be comfortable when we don’t have as much as we used to. She asked, “If someone wanted to give you $50 if you read your Bible for an hour every day, would you? What if they wanted to pay you more the more you read?” I was sitting there thinking, “Can you introduce me to this person, I’m ready to read and earn!” But seriously, I get her point…our affections are so often with money and wealth rather than God’s Word.

We need to value it and do what it takes to spend time studying it, thinking on it and praying it. The Bible has the power to radically transform our lives, but we miss out on what God wants to do through it because we neglect it. God has humbled Himself to write to us but we ignore Him. That is scary that we think so much of ourselves, that even God is sometimes not enough to make it into our daily routines. I hope you’ll start praying with me for an increased passion for God in His Word.

“I rejoice in following Your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.”
Psalm 119:14