Putting God first in your own life. Oy vey. Easier said than done, right? When Brooke first announced the theme, I’m not going to lie – I groaned a little. Can’t I just talk about these sweet, hysterical, exasperating boys of mine? ‘Cause I can write about that until next Tuesday.
Immediately I knew what I should write about, but I hesitated. Why? Because frankly, it’s boring.

Important, absolutely. Muy importante.

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But funny? Entertaining? Not so much.

The truth is, the basics of putting God first – they’re necessary and they’re rejuvenating but . . . they’re lacking in pizazz. They are simple. They require super unsexy things like discipline and steadfastness.

So even though I wanted to give you a super creative, bohemian answer for putting God first in your life, I can’t. However, I can give you good old-fashioned sound advice.

Read your Bible.

Ground breaking, yes? When the wild things are rumpusing and the dishes are piled high and God seems far . . . read some words of Life.

God’s Word can be like oxygen to dying embers. Fan those flames, girl. (<-Tweet)

Read with abandon. 

Sometimes you just need to pick that thing up and devour. No rules, no plan, no inductive study, just drink it in.

There will be seasons when you feel uninspired (ask me how I know). I know that sometimes The Bible gets reduced to a chore, or an item on a checklist, or a place of guilt and inadequacy. Well, forget that.

God doesn’t want that for you. He wants to rain down mercy and grace and big-fat-spiritual side-hugs on your parched soil.

And when your sad little roots begin to stretch and grow and flow with life, when you reach your pretty petals toward the warmth found in his presence – that’s His happy place. I think God looks at us in those moments like we look at our kids when they’re sleeping.

Overflowing with love and affection.

In those moments we don’t consider our boys’ failures, their mistakes and shortcomings, we simply breathe in their perfection.

God sees the perfection in us.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times. I know sometimes you don’t want to hear it (trust me). But if God is far, try looking for Him in the pages of your Bible.

It’s not sexy advice. But it’s sound.

And here’s where I shed my poetic side and step firmly onto my soapbox:

The Bible is a blessing. A blessing so wide and long and high and deep that I wish we had a better word for it in English.

In less than a year my family is moving to South Asia to work in Bible Translation. It’s taken me 31 years to truly appreciate this crazy book that we take so for granted. Millions of Christians around the world do not have access to the scriptures in a language they understand.

Can you even imagine? Can you imagine attempting to follow Jesus without being able to read His words?

Your ability to read your Bible is a pretty darn close to a miracle.

I guess that is sort of sexy after all.

Prayer For The Day

Thank you God for the privilege and the crazy miracle of a blessing to have access to this ancient, life-giving book.

Related Reading:

Changing lives and taking names

Would You Understand?

Scars and Light

Jessica (Bohemian) Bowman is a jack of all internets and a mother of four. Grace is her middle name (not really) and she’s been married for fourteen years to a guy she really super likes (since she was seventeen!). In early 2015 her family is moving to a sensitive country in South Asia to do good work. Because Jesus.

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