My one and only resolution

For the most part, I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. I just think if we really wanted to change things in our lives, we wouldn't magically begin to change because the clock strikes midnight. For people that say they want to lose weight, eat healthier, be more adventurous... I say if you really wanted to do those things, you would have already done it. One day is not going to change your determination. Harsh, I know...

Now don't get me wrong, those are great goals to have, but I think making it a New Year's Resolution simply means you will keep it going for approximately 2 weeks, 4 days and 6 1/2 hours before quitting for the rest of the year, and trying once again in 2011.

Sorry for the lack of optimism.

I just think people should make those decisions because they truly want it... and again, not because the clock struck midnight.

Now I say all of that kind of hypocritically this year, because I in fact have a New Year's Resolution. I am going to read the Bible cover to cover!

I have been blessed to enough to go to a Christian school and even study biblical events first-hand during my time in Greece. But I have never read the Bible from Gen 1:1 to Revalations 22:21.

I feel like God has been slapping me in the face with this idea for the past few weeks! While in El Dorado for Christmas, the preacher gave his Sunday sermon about reading the bible in a year. Then my mom talked about how much that encouraged her to do it again. (She's done it several times, and she was still just as excited to do it again, how cool is that?!?) Not to mention that both of my grandmothers have read the bible cover to cover probably HUNDREDS of times, and that is no exaggeration. So why can't I?? Then on fb, I saw a friend from my home church mention that our preacher there talked about the exact same thing! (Coincidence? I most certainly think not!)

Here was her status:

"Today our preacher spoke on the significance of reading your Bible daily. He said what is it going to be like when you die and you are standing before God and you have never actually read it from front to back. Well... God I am so sorry I didn't have a chance to read the whole thing...sorry about that! That brought it home for me. I am going to read it from cover to cover this year...it is a promise to myself."

Just an interesting thought... how can we stand before God and explain that we never read all of his written, inspired word?!? Well, we can't. Simple fact. There is no excuse!

I've done my research and found the best website! Here it is!

This site maps it all out for me, day by day. It even lets you pick the order, the version of your bible, and what day you want to start on. So now I know exactly what to read and what day to read it on. I figure if I accidentally skip a few days, it will help me get back on track.

I'm doing it Chronologically. I know some people like to read straight cover to cover, or even break it up with Psalms and New Testament everyday (I guess parts of the OT can get pretty boring) but I've decided I want to read it in the order that everything happened, almost like a story.

So far so good! I'm in Genesis reading about Abraham. As someone who loves the Old Testament (I'm weird, I know, but I just LOOOOOVE all the stories and the history of it all.) I'm excited to start off with the OT.

Now, I may or may not get completely finished by Dec 31, 2010, but that's ok. As long as I stay on track, and stay consistent I will be happy. I mean, I really think God will be please that I actually finished reading it all, not that I finished in 365 days, don't you?