Back in the habit.

Hello again, and welcome to a two post day!

I think this will be a quick one. I just really need your guys prayers right now. For as much as I am a youth leader, and spend a considerable amount of time preaching on and from the bible, I have a confession to make. I am absolutely horrible at keeping up with my daily bible reading. Like really bad. I would harken back to a day where I was good at it, but I don't really think that day ever existed.

This is a weird confession to make, but I would bet some pretty cold hard cash that I am not alone. I bet there are other people in ministry to speak on the bible, and probably are even pretty knowledgeable about the bible, but don't read it at all. At least not for themselves. We come up with all kinds of excuses, like "I read it all the time for work!" or "I just don't have time when I get home!" or "Have you seen how busy I am! Seriously!" But if we're honest, I don't think any of those excuses cut it. And I don't think a life without being in the word is actually all that spiritually healthy.

According to the first site that came up on google, and just about everyone else I've ever talked to, it takes about 21 days to actually form a good habit. I could get into how ridiculous it is that I've started bad habits in significantly less amounts of time, but that's not what we're here for. There are of course some tips. You should keep the habit at the same time each and every one of the 21 days. You should have clearly defined goals. You should wear a costume while doing the habit (not true).

So, because I'm all about public accountability, here are my goals for the new habit:

• What: Read the scriptures. I would actually like to get through the Bible in about a year, but that's less important to me than actually reading a bit every day. The plan is to read three chapters every day: one in the OT, one in the NT, and one from the Psalms. For those curious, I'm in Ezekiel and Matthew at the present.
  
• When: Every morning. Or at least I should say when I wake up, as today I woke up around 2. But I still did them!
  
• Why: Because God does some pretty important things in your life when you open yourself up to his word. You'd be amazed at how much his light will shine through when you're dedicated to reading the scriptures!
  

So today was day eight. I would really appreciate all of your prayers as I dig through this. Eight days straight is pretty hard to do, I don't know what 21 days is going to look like. But I'd really like to get into some good habits!

Godspeed,

Jason

PS: LET'S GO PENS!