# 469 From Guilt to Joy: Rethinking Your Bible Reading Routine

An episode of [Praying Christian Women](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1436550370), 30 Mar 2026, 50 min.

Audio: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/a837a939-ace6-481d-bf0d-b28100f43afd/408eb068-55a0-4beb-a20e-b41c015a556c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=6aef5ed9-9c32-4b5a-9f54-b28100f43e4b

Don't forget to grab your free scripture journal at PrayingChristianWomen.com/journal today! When spending time in God’s Word feels impossible to fit into your busy routine, how do you move past the guilt and find a rhythm that actually works? In this episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast, Jaime and Alana return for part two of their series on overcoming "Bible blocks," offering highly practical, everyday solutions to get you back in the Word. What happens when we stop coasting on past knowledge and start craving Scripture? Jaime and Alana unpack creative, actionable strategies to seamlessly incorporate the Bible into your day. We explore the power of "habit stacking," the freedom of leaning into your unique learning style—whether auditory, visual, or tactile. Along the way, they share personal insights—from the unexpected benefits of physical movement while meditating, to the surprising ways reading fiction can deepen your understanding of the Bible's grand story. Whether you need the convenience of an audio Bible, a fresh approach to memorization, or just permission to enjoy a cup of coffee while you read, we hope you’ll join us as we discover grace-filled, practical ways to connect with God every single day. Episodes Mentioned in this Episode: • Tapping For Christians: Fear https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/370-tapping-for-christians-fear/id1436550370?i=1000703618047 • Tapping For Christians: Insecurities https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/371-tapping-for-christians-insecurities/id1436550370?i=1000704270414 Discover More: Explore additional episodes of Praying Christian Women, Mindful Christian Prayers, and other Christian podcasts at Lifeaudio.com Check out our new podcast, Christian True-Crime Junkies!, on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts! Connect with Us: Stay updated and engage with our community: On Substack @PrayingChristianWomen On Facebook @PrayingChristianWomen On Instagram @PrayingChristianWomen On YouTube: @PrayingChristianWomen Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Life Audio.
[0:05] Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to the Praying Christian Women Podcast. I
[0:08] Speaker 2: am Alana here with Jamie. How are you.
[0:11] Speaker 3: I'm doing great?
[0:12] Speaker 1: How about you? Good?
[0:14] Speaker 2: We are here with part two. So a couple of
[0:17] Speaker 2: weeks ago we talked about blocks that keep Christian women
[0:22] Speaker 2: from spending more regular Bible time. Then we all feel
[0:26] Speaker 2: like we should be spending or I'll say at least
[0:29] Speaker 2: eighty percent of us feel like we should be spending.
[0:31] Speaker 1: Well, we'll guess.
[0:33] Speaker 2: That there's a portion of you listening who have a
[0:38] Speaker 2: system and feel good about it and are doing it
[0:41] Speaker 2: just fine. But for everybody else that I am convinced
[0:45] Speaker 2: as a majority and I know includes you and me,
[0:49] Speaker 2: it is hard to not feel guilty about the lack
[0:53] Speaker 2: of Bible study time we spend. And it's just practically
[0:56] Speaker 2: hard to do all the things like finding the time,
[1:00] Speaker 2: I'm finding the focus, finding the right routine. Where do
[1:03] Speaker 2: you start? So in part one we talked about some
[1:07] Speaker 2: of the mental or spiritual blocks that can keep Bible
[1:10] Speaker 2: City from becoming a more regular part of our spiritual life.
[1:14] Speaker 2: And today we are both coming to you with different
[1:18] Speaker 2: tips for how to incorporate more Bible time into.
[1:23] Speaker 1: Your daily schedule. So I'm really excited we get to
[1:26] Speaker 1: jump into this. Me too.
[1:29] Speaker 3: I love this topic. I think it's going to be
[1:31] Speaker 3: really good.
[1:32] Speaker 4: We can start off with our verse of the day,
[1:34] Speaker 4: which is Jeremiah, chapter fifteen, Verse sixteen. When your words came,
[1:39] Speaker 4: I ate them. They were my joy and my heart's delight,
[1:42] Speaker 4: for I bear your name, Lord, God Almighty. And I
[1:46] Speaker 4: love this because I feel like this idea of God's
[1:50] Speaker 4: word being our joy and our heart's delight, and not
[1:55] Speaker 4: just reading them as a thing to check off our list,
[1:58] Speaker 4: but consuming them and incorporating them because God's word is living, inactive,
[2:02] Speaker 4: and I think more than just changing to fit our
[2:05] Speaker 4: circumstances or the Holy Spirit translating them to fit our circumstances,
[2:10] Speaker 4: the word of God, like when we take it in,
[2:12] Speaker 4: I really believe that something happens. You know, it's food, literally,
[2:17] Speaker 4: I think for our soul. We take it in and
[2:20] Speaker 4: it's consumed and it's processed, and it's becomes part of
[2:23] Speaker 4: us in a way that just you know, that is
[2:27] Speaker 4: more than just reading by looking at words or you know,
[2:31] Speaker 4: consuming content.
[2:33] Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I think that the idea of food is
[2:37] Speaker 2: really applicable as well in terms of it's not like
[2:42] Speaker 2: I come to your house and you say, hey, can
[2:45] Speaker 2: I fix you something to eat? And I say, oh, no, thanks,
[2:47] Speaker 2: I ate last week. Right Like, just because you ate
[2:51] Speaker 2: last week or yesterday or this morning doesn't mean that
[2:54] Speaker 2: you still need to eat something later.
[2:57] Speaker 1: And that can be a big block.
[2:59] Speaker 2: And I know we about that when you know, well,
[3:01] Speaker 2: I basically know the bulk of what the Bible teaches,
[3:07] Speaker 2: or I know the gist of it, which is what's important,
[3:10] Speaker 2: and that completely misses a pack That's like saying, well,
[3:13] Speaker 2: you know, I ate a meal when I was in
[3:15] Speaker 2: third grade, so why do I need to eat anymore? Yeah?
[3:20] Speaker 4: Yeah, And we went through a lot of the reasons
[3:22] Speaker 4: that kind of keep us from the Bible. But there
[3:25] Speaker 4: are just so many different ways that I think people
[3:28] Speaker 4: don't realize to incorporate scripture into their lives that I'm
[3:33] Speaker 4: so glad we're doing this because I just think pointing
[3:36] Speaker 4: out a few opens the floodgates for more ideas for
[3:40] Speaker 4: our listeners, because it's done that for me when I start,
[3:43] Speaker 4: you know, when we started talking about this and working
[3:45] Speaker 4: through some of the ways, I think, once you start
[3:47] Speaker 4: thinking outside the box, it's going to just open up
[3:51] Speaker 4: so many more creative and just really effective ways of
[3:55] Speaker 4: incorporating Scripture into your life that you might not have
[3:57] Speaker 4: thought of.
[3:58] Speaker 1: I agree.
[3:59] Speaker 2: My brain's been going over some of the blocks we
[4:01] Speaker 2: talked about and identifying even more of them or coming
[4:05] Speaker 2: up with solutions to some of my specific Bible blocks,
[4:10] Speaker 2: and so I love that. I want to go back
[4:12] Speaker 2: to your Bible versus about food for ar just for fun.
[4:15] Speaker 2: I have been having like the strongest food craving. So
[4:20] Speaker 2: I want to know if you had like a complete
[4:23] Speaker 2: cheat day where you could eat anything and it wouldn't
[4:26] Speaker 2: impact your health or how you felt, what would you
[4:29] Speaker 2: fill that day with?
[4:30] Speaker 3: Oh wow, like a whole bunch of.
[4:32] Speaker 1: Things or anything you want.
[4:34] Speaker 2: I'll tell you mine, because like my mouth was just watering.
[4:37] Speaker 2: So I have been off of multiple things for almost
[4:41] Speaker 2: a whole year now. So I'm totally off dairy and
[4:44] Speaker 2: red meat. Those are my two like completely cut out.
[4:47] Speaker 2: I'm also off a caffeine almost exclusively, and I started
[4:53] Speaker 2: to feel so much better with some of my joint
[4:57] Speaker 2: stuff and inflammation stuff. I didn't miss it, but now
[5:02] Speaker 2: maybe it's a sign that I'm just getting more used
[5:05] Speaker 2: to feeling better because I'm getting like, oh that sounds
[5:08] Speaker 2: so good. So I had this whole thing in my head.
[5:11] Speaker 2: It started with a dream about creamy seafood lasagna and
[5:16] Speaker 2: I just could didn't get that out of my head.
[5:19] Speaker 2: So I came up with an entire my if I
[5:22] Speaker 2: had a complete sheet day where I could eat whatever
[5:25] Speaker 2: I wanted and I wouldn't like get the inflammation that
[5:29] Speaker 2: I know results from it. My breakfast is gonna be
[5:32] Speaker 2: biscuits and gravy. That's like my just favorite greasy diner breakfast.
[5:37] Speaker 2: And for lunch, oh, we just had Saint Patrick's Day
[5:41] Speaker 2: and the family had corned beef and I don't really
[5:44] Speaker 2: care a ton, Like cutting out red meat wasn't a
[5:46] Speaker 2: big deal, but I do like some corn beef, So
[5:48] Speaker 2: corn beef would.
[5:49] Speaker 1: Be my lunch.
[5:50] Speaker 2: And for dinner it would be like that creamy pasta
[5:55] Speaker 2: previa there with lots of seafood and stuff like that,
[5:58] Speaker 2: with a cheesecake for dessert.
[6:00] Speaker 1: That is my like dream meal day. Do you have something?
[6:06] Speaker 4: I have so many things going through my head right now,
[6:08] Speaker 4: I would say, so. I've been trying to stay off
[6:12] Speaker 4: of sugar a lot, you know, like like not totally
[6:16] Speaker 4: cut it out, but definitely staying away from it when
[6:18] Speaker 4: I can. So I would say, like a latte. I've
[6:22] Speaker 4: been drinking either lattes or black coffee with no sugar
[6:25] Speaker 4: at all, nothing, no sweetener, just like cinnamon powder. So
[6:28] Speaker 4: I do love I've kind of gotten away from liking
[6:32] Speaker 4: super sweet lattes, but.
[6:33] Speaker 3: A little bit of a nilla or hazel nut.
[6:35] Speaker 4: So I would say like a sweetish, not sweetish, sweetish, sweetish, a.
[6:41] Speaker 3: Lott bit sweet latte, And like kiche I love Kishe,
[6:46] Speaker 3: like like a.
[6:47] Speaker 4: Qishe with a whole bunch of like vegetables, and like
[6:51] Speaker 4: maybe some ham or bacon for breakfast, and a side
[6:56] Speaker 4: of something sweet, like a coffee cake. There's this rast
[7:00] Speaker 4: Ferry Creek cheese coffee cake that's really sweet and I
[7:03] Speaker 4: haven't made it or had it in a long time,
[7:04] Speaker 4: but that I would love that. And then for like
[7:08] Speaker 4: a dinner type dish, the pasta, either like a super
[7:14] Speaker 4: creamy alfredo pasta or like a meat sauce. I do
[7:20] Speaker 4: love the like the red meat sauce pasta just sounds
[7:24] Speaker 4: really good too, like either a lasagna or a you know,
[7:28] Speaker 4: like a meat sauce with a bunch of cheese on it.
[7:30] Speaker 4: Those are my Those are my favorites, and I do
[7:33] Speaker 4: love desserts, so I'm trying to think of like Tira
[7:37] Speaker 4: me Sue is one of my favorites, and also cheesecake
[7:40] Speaker 4: came to mind, so we're kind of on the same wavelength.
[7:43] Speaker 1: We really are.
[7:45] Speaker 2: Got the same So you know, I think that, yeah,
[7:48] Speaker 2: that was literally just a frivolous, just for fun question.
[7:52] Speaker 2: But if people are thinking like I could hear in
[7:55] Speaker 2: your voice and I could feel in my body like
[7:57] Speaker 2: this sounds so good, right, And I think a beautiful prayer,
[8:02] Speaker 2: So what I don't want to be is like and
[8:04] Speaker 2: this is just how you should feel about the Bible, right,
[8:06] Speaker 2: and you know, come down heavy handed, But I think
[8:08] Speaker 2: a beautiful prayer would be like, God, help me to
[8:11] Speaker 2: crave your word in this way. I love going through
[8:15] Speaker 2: Psalone nineteen, and you don't need to read it all
[8:18] Speaker 2: in a chunk. And I think if you do read
[8:20] Speaker 2: it all in a chunk, it's just to rush you.
[8:23] Speaker 2: It's like a I mean, it literally is a poem,
[8:26] Speaker 2: and poems aren't necessarily made to just read as fast
[8:30] Speaker 2: as you can to say you did it. And just
[8:33] Speaker 2: this idea of longing for God's word, loving God's word
[8:37] Speaker 2: craving God's word. It's sweetness to my soul. If you
[8:41] Speaker 2: don't feel that way, if you don't feel about the
[8:43] Speaker 2: Bible the way that Jamie and I feel about cheesecake, A,
[8:47] Speaker 2: that's okay, that's normal, but be a great prayer.
[8:50] Speaker 1: Could be God, give me that longing for your word.
[8:55] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[8:55] Speaker 4: And it's kind of the sort of thing where you
[8:59] Speaker 4: have to put in the discipline to consume enough of
[9:04] Speaker 4: God's word. I think this is my personal experience. I
[9:08] Speaker 4: won't speak for everyone, but I have to put the
[9:11] Speaker 4: time and discipline into making scripture a priority for the
[9:14] Speaker 4: sake of the discipline of it, to get into a
[9:18] Speaker 4: rhythm of experiencing God in his word in a way
[9:24] Speaker 4: that gives me the reward feeling kind of And I
[9:28] Speaker 4: just hate to tread on this because like you don't
[9:32] Speaker 4: want to only be in it for the feeling that
[9:34] Speaker 4: you get from it, obviously, but if the goal, which
[9:39] Speaker 4: the goal for me, is to have this like they're
[9:41] Speaker 4: my joy, the words of God are my joy and
[9:44] Speaker 4: my heart's delight, I do sometimes have to put the
[9:46] Speaker 4: work in to consume enough of it to understand it
[9:51] Speaker 4: and be taught by the Holy Spirit and establish that
[9:56] Speaker 4: relationship that is the reward.
[9:58] Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
[10:00] Speaker 2: So I'm one hundred percent behind what you just said.
[10:03] Speaker 2: I think about it kind of like a runner's high.
[10:05] Speaker 2: It's not like and I am not a runner, but
[10:09] Speaker 2: I know enough runners know about this, but.
[10:13] Speaker 3: We understand what it might be like to be a runner.
[10:16] Speaker 1: And not a runner.
[10:17] Speaker 2: But once I wrote a novel about a person who
[10:19] Speaker 2: had to run once in her life.
[10:21] Speaker 1: But you know, it's not like every.
[10:24] Speaker 2: Single time you run, you put your foot on the
[10:28] Speaker 2: pavement and you get this euphoria, and you have that
[10:31] Speaker 2: euphoria the entire time you're running. It doesn't happen every time,
[10:37] Speaker 2: and it doesn't happen the first time.
[10:38] Speaker 1: There needs to be discipline to get to that point.
[10:42] Speaker 2: So I am one hundred percent behind you, and I
[10:45] Speaker 2: really feel like we need to get over this block
[10:50] Speaker 2: of saying, well, we shouldn't want to read our Bible
[10:54] Speaker 2: for what we get out of it, because why else
[10:58] Speaker 2: would we read our Bible? Wise, to me, I'll do
[11:02] Speaker 2: the same thing you did. This is just how I
[11:03] Speaker 2: see it. And to me, if reading the Bible because
[11:08] Speaker 2: it brings me so much joy, or it brings me euphoria.
[11:12] Speaker 1: Or it makes me so inspired.
[11:14] Speaker 2: If those are selfish reasons to read the Bible, then
[11:18] Speaker 2: my only other reason is because God's going to be
[11:22] Speaker 2: mad at me if I don't well.
[11:24] Speaker 4: John Piper in his book Desiring God, he has this
[11:27] Speaker 4: term that he coined I think he coined it Christian hedonism,
[11:31] Speaker 4: and the idea is that when we seek God for
[11:36] Speaker 4: the reward of the relationship with Him, that's a good thing,
[11:41] Speaker 4: and it's not. I think there's a fine line between
[11:45] Speaker 4: that and seeking out experiences or seeking out like miraculous
[11:52] Speaker 4: signs and wonders as the only thing that you want,
[11:55] Speaker 4: which I have fallen into the trap of I guess
[11:59] Speaker 4: oneh to connect with God for the purpose of I
[12:05] Speaker 4: want to see what happens next, like I want to
[12:07] Speaker 4: see him do something, and then coming away disappointed when
[12:12] Speaker 4: I don't have the same mountaintop experience or the same
[12:17] Speaker 4: miracle or the same perceived I don't want to even
[12:21] Speaker 4: call it a manifestation of God, but whatever. When I'm
[12:24] Speaker 4: seeking like a performance by God or something, there's something
[12:28] Speaker 4: that I know in myself that that is not right
[12:30] Speaker 4: about that mentality. But it's such a fine line between
[12:35] Speaker 4: I want to see what God can do, I want
[12:36] Speaker 4: to live with anxious expectation, and I want to meet
[12:39] Speaker 4: with him every day because I know that he's amazing
[12:44] Speaker 4: and I want to I want to celebrate that. So
[12:47] Speaker 4: there's and I don't know if I can articulate in
[12:49] Speaker 4: myself when I know I've crossed the line into what
[12:52] Speaker 4: isn't good and what's seeking the wrong thing, But I
[12:55] Speaker 4: know it's there. So I just would encourage everyone find
[12:59] Speaker 4: your own line, but don't be afraid of I think
[13:02] Speaker 4: you made a good point. It can be a block
[13:06] Speaker 4: to say I don't want to read my Bible for
[13:09] Speaker 4: the good feeling. Same with worshiping God through music. You know,
[13:12] Speaker 4: some people say, oh, you shouldn't worship God for the
[13:16] Speaker 4: experience in song, like or the feelings, and like you said, like,
[13:22] Speaker 4: well what's wrong with that to a certain point.
[13:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, Well we both came with just what we hope
[13:29] Speaker 2: are going to be really practical tips and tricks for
[13:33] Speaker 2: women like us who just want very usable, implementable ideas
[13:38] Speaker 2: for making scripture reading a more regular part of your day.
[13:42] Speaker 2: But before we jump into that, could you middle us up?
[13:45] Speaker 2: I don't want to say open us up. Can you
[13:46] Speaker 2: middle us up?
[13:47] Speaker 1: In a word of prayer?
[14:00] Speaker 4: I can God, we just thank you for your word.
[14:03] Speaker 4: We thank you for the miracle of having this book
[14:08] Speaker 4: that is full of instruction and wisdom and basically this
[14:15] Speaker 4: living tool that can speak to us, that can feed us,
[14:20] Speaker 4: that connects us to you, that reveals your character and
[14:23] Speaker 4: who you are to us, and it teaches us how
[14:26] Speaker 4: to live. And we take it for granted. I take
[14:29] Speaker 4: it for granted every single day. And I just pray
[14:32] Speaker 4: that this week, this today, that this would be an
[14:35] Speaker 4: opportunity for us to just kind of take a step
[14:38] Speaker 4: back and look at your word in a new light,
[14:43] Speaker 4: to look at it as if we didn't even know
[14:46] Speaker 4: what it was, so that we can appreciate the miracle
[14:49] Speaker 4: that it is. Thank you for meeting us through your word.
[14:53] Speaker 4: And we just pray that today you would help us
[14:56] Speaker 4: to approach this topic with grace, for ourselves, with excitement,
[15:01] Speaker 4: and for all of us. I know every single one
[15:04] Speaker 4: of us can pray this prayer. Lord, Help us to
[15:08] Speaker 4: crave your word. I know none of us do that
[15:11] Speaker 4: all the time. Help us to crave your word, to
[15:14] Speaker 4: seek after it, to long for it like we long
[15:17] Speaker 4: for some of the things on earth, like food and things,
[15:21] Speaker 4: and the pleasures of this world, let your word be
[15:24] Speaker 4: at the top of our list of things that we
[15:27] Speaker 4: just hunger and thirst after in Jesus name.
[15:30] Speaker 2: Amen, Well, I will go ahead and start with the
[15:34] Speaker 2: first one on my list that I came up with.
[15:37] Speaker 2: And for people who want to become more regular with
[15:41] Speaker 2: your Bible reading, one really effective hack is habit stacking.
[15:47] Speaker 2: And so this is where you pair your Bible reading
[15:50] Speaker 2: to something that you already do very regularly.
[15:54] Speaker 1: So the two.
[15:56] Speaker 2: Times that this has worked really good right for me
[16:01] Speaker 2: is once our church was doing an entire read through
[16:05] Speaker 2: the Bible in a year together, like we were all
[16:07] Speaker 2: trying to be at the same spot, following the same plan.
[16:10] Speaker 2: And this was maybe ten ish years ago where Facebook
[16:15] Speaker 2: was still like a really fun place to.
[16:17] Speaker 1: Be and lots of community there.
[16:20] Speaker 2: And I made a discipline that I would not get
[16:27] Speaker 2: on to Facebook until I had completed my Bible reading
[16:30] Speaker 2: for the day. And so I had an incentive because
[16:34] Speaker 2: at that point, like so many of us, my go
[16:38] Speaker 2: to was to reach I didn't have it on my
[16:39] Speaker 2: phone yet. This was still pre smartphones even but I
[16:42] Speaker 2: would reach for the iPad or tablet or whatever I
[16:46] Speaker 2: got on Facebook with. And that was one of the
[16:49] Speaker 2: first things I would do in the day. And so
[16:52] Speaker 2: by telling myself, well, you can't do this thing that
[16:55] Speaker 2: you already have a small bit of an addictionary compulsion
[16:59] Speaker 2: to do until you've done your Bible reading. That means
[17:02] Speaker 2: that I wouldn't want to wait until like right before
[17:05] Speaker 2: bed to do my Bible reading.
[17:08] Speaker 1: I wanted to get it done right away.
[17:10] Speaker 2: Or another form of habit stacking is pairing it with
[17:13] Speaker 2: something that you do, especially every morning, like you know,
[17:17] Speaker 2: your first cup of coffee for people who have a
[17:20] Speaker 2: morning drinking ritual, just pair that with your Bible reading.
[17:26] Speaker 2: So either find the thing that you always want to
[17:30] Speaker 2: do and do it simultaneously, like drinking your first cup
[17:33] Speaker 2: of coffee, or find the thing that you love to
[17:36] Speaker 2: do and tell yourself you're not going to do that
[17:38] Speaker 2: thing until you've done your Bible reading. And then yes,
[17:42] Speaker 2: you are using something else as a reward for reading
[17:47] Speaker 2: the Bible, which I can hear some people being like, well,
[17:49] Speaker 2: you should want to read the Bible for the sake
[17:51] Speaker 2: of reading the Bible, And my thought is, yes, technically
[17:54] Speaker 2: that's true, but have the humility to acknowledge that that
[17:58] Speaker 2: doesn't work for you. Right If if that's the case,
[18:02] Speaker 2: then you don't need this habit stacking hack, and then
[18:06] Speaker 2: you don't need to worry about it at all. If
[18:08] Speaker 2: the habit stacking hack works for you, don't feel guilty
[18:12] Speaker 2: about it. Have the humility to recognize, Okay, I don't
[18:17] Speaker 2: have the discipline to open up my Bible first sitting
[18:20] Speaker 2: of the day unless I pair it with my cup
[18:22] Speaker 2: of coffee, and instead of saying I must be such
[18:25] Speaker 2: a selfish, terrible person, say I'm so glad that I
[18:29] Speaker 2: have this tool to use that gets me into the Bible.
[18:33] Speaker 2: And then, like we talked about with the Runners High,
[18:37] Speaker 2: the discipline turns into love and passion. Right, but this
[18:42] Speaker 2: can get you on the right path for it.
[18:45] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's great. Habit stacking is like it's
[18:48] Speaker 4: just ingenious. I remember hearing about it for the first
[18:50] Speaker 4: time and I was like, well, of course, and with
[18:54] Speaker 4: I have a few suggestions that can be used with
[18:57] Speaker 4: habits stacking that are Yeah, I think that could be
[19:01] Speaker 4: so good for me. I really find it beneficial to
[19:04] Speaker 4: like the delayed gratification part of I will not do
[19:08] Speaker 4: so and so until I have done this and that
[19:11] Speaker 4: really works with me.
[19:13] Speaker 2: Do you have a specific have you done that with
[19:16] Speaker 2: your Bible reading before.
[19:17] Speaker 4: So one of the things that I've done is before
[19:20] Speaker 4: my coffee, like because I make coffee every day every morning,
[19:25] Speaker 4: and so it's just an easy trigger, and I have
[19:29] Speaker 4: in the past. I've even stuck a sticky note or
[19:31] Speaker 4: something just as a reminder to get me in the habit.
[19:33] Speaker 4: I'm not currently doing that with anything, but after recording this,
[19:36] Speaker 4: I think I will because it really is good. And
[19:40] Speaker 4: so one of the things that could work really well
[19:43] Speaker 4: with this is either just having it to read your
[19:48] Speaker 4: Bible or one of the things I've been doing recently
[19:51] Speaker 4: is I've been listening to Bible in a Year or
[19:53] Speaker 4: you can listen to something similar where someone reads through
[19:56] Speaker 4: the Bible. And what I like about Bible in a
[19:59] Speaker 4: Year is that it actually like brings in Old Testament,
[20:05] Speaker 4: New Testament, you know, like it brings in different parts
[20:09] Speaker 4: of the Bible, which is kind of nice for those
[20:12] Speaker 4: that really like the continuity of staying in the same
[20:18] Speaker 4: kind of book and go or going through a Bible study.
[20:21] Speaker 4: You might not like that, but I kind of like
[20:23] Speaker 4: bringing in a whole bunch of different things. So but yeah,
[20:26] Speaker 4: just but you could do something like that. Maybe I'll
[20:28] Speaker 4: start doing that because I've gotten away from I was
[20:31] Speaker 4: just kind of doing it.
[20:32] Speaker 3: Whenever I thought about it and listen to podcasts, I
[20:34] Speaker 3: would be like, oh, let me just listen to that.
[20:36] Speaker 4: But doing it first thing in the morning would be
[20:38] Speaker 4: really good before coffe.
[20:40] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[20:41] Speaker 2: That ties into another one of my tips is if
[20:44] Speaker 2: you can bring it into some type of audio Bible,
[20:49] Speaker 2: that can definitely help. Literally every single person who is
[20:53] Speaker 2: listening to us talk about this listens to podcasts. Otherwise
[20:56] Speaker 2: you wouldn't be hearing it.
[20:57] Speaker 3: It wouldn't be with us.
[20:58] Speaker 2: I guess there's a small chance that you're watching us
[21:01] Speaker 2: in video format, but it does mean that you know
[21:05] Speaker 2: how to access the podcasts that read you the Bible,
[21:09] Speaker 2: or my husband loves to recommend the Bible Dots app
[21:15] Speaker 2: and you can download it in lots of different translations.
[21:18] Speaker 2: You can read it or have it read it to you.
[21:22] Speaker 2: There are some times I'll even go to YouTube and
[21:25] Speaker 2: just look for an audio Bible. So if you are
[21:30] Speaker 2: which we assume that most of you are, somebody who
[21:33] Speaker 2: likes to listen to content, then listening to an audio
[21:37] Speaker 2: Bible or a podcast that will walk you through the Bible,
[21:40] Speaker 2: or getting an app that walks you through the Bible
[21:42] Speaker 2: in an audio format can really help.
[21:46] Speaker 4: And I think that kind of goes to the what
[21:49] Speaker 4: is your learning style? Are you an auditory learner? Are
[21:54] Speaker 4: you a visual learner? Like?
[21:57] Speaker 3: Do you learn better?
[21:58] Speaker 4: And I'm sure there are some really easy tests to
[22:00] Speaker 4: do to figure this out, but just thank to yourself.
[22:03] Speaker 4: Do I prefer reading something and looking at it in
[22:08] Speaker 4: word form? Do I prefer listening to something? Or if
[22:13] Speaker 4: you're a tech tile learner, that means that you do
[22:16] Speaker 4: best by doing something. So you know, obviously, for media consumption,
[22:21] Speaker 4: you could either read your Bible or you could listen
[22:23] Speaker 4: to it. But what if neither one of those really
[22:26] Speaker 4: sticks or really I think someone that neither of those
[22:30] Speaker 4: is a viable option for them would just feel like, well,
[22:33] Speaker 4: I guess I'm just not in luck. But there are
[22:36] Speaker 4: some really cool ways that you can incorporate the Bible
[22:40] Speaker 4: into your life if you are a techtile learner or
[22:44] Speaker 4: a kinesthetic learner. So one of the ways that you
[22:47] Speaker 4: could do it is I loved we had Genevangelista. She
[22:51] Speaker 4: was on our Praying Christian Women online conference that we had.
[22:55] Speaker 4: We've had a couple of them, and I think she
[22:57] Speaker 4: was in both. She incorporates the Bible into art, and
[23:02] Speaker 4: I think that's so neat, and so she will actually
[23:05] Speaker 4: like do many different types of Bible art. Sometimes she
[23:13] Speaker 4: will write a word and just kind of do art
[23:15] Speaker 4: around it. Other Times she writes out scripture and then
[23:18] Speaker 4: like paints over the whole thing. Sometimes she will do
[23:24] Speaker 4: like the like the Bible that you actually can get
[23:27] Speaker 4: Bibles that you can like draw in the Bible itself
[23:32] Speaker 4: and while you're reading the scripture. They're just all different
[23:36] Speaker 4: ways you can do calligraphy and write it out beautifully.
[23:40] Speaker 4: So they're just they're just incorporating art into your scripture consumption.
[23:47] Speaker 4: Can actually be a really I don't know. I think
[23:49] Speaker 4: it could open doors for people who aren't traditional listen
[23:54] Speaker 4: to scripture or just read it out of a book.
[23:57] Speaker 2: Yeah, I can absolutely take us out a tangent and
[24:00] Speaker 2: talk to the tactile learners out there, because that's me.
[24:04] Speaker 2: I wants to have a thing. So an eReader Bible
[24:09] Speaker 2: is never going to do anything for me.
[24:12] Speaker 1: It just is not.
[24:14] Speaker 2: And I have you know, it's not the same for
[24:17] Speaker 2: fiction or anything. But I want the substance of a
[24:21] Speaker 2: book in my hand, and I want the feel of
[24:25] Speaker 2: turning the page, and to me, because I am tactile,
[24:30] Speaker 2: the quality of the material does matter.
[24:34] Speaker 1: So I've never spent hundreds of dollars on a Bible.
[24:36] Speaker 2: But I'm also not going to enjoy sitting down with
[24:41] Speaker 2: like the five dollars flimsy paperback, right like there is
[24:46] Speaker 2: something to me. If you are tactile, the act of
[24:49] Speaker 2: turning the pages becomes part of what solidifized, what you
[24:55] Speaker 2: have just read, and that is how God designed you,
[25:00] Speaker 2: and so don't fight it, go with it. I think
[25:03] Speaker 2: being tactile is the reason why I love writing out
[25:06] Speaker 2: Bible verses. And you can do it in a beautiful way,
[25:10] Speaker 2: or you could do it just in a way, or
[25:12] Speaker 2: even sitting with a highlighter and highlighting. That is a
[25:16] Speaker 2: tactile experience there. And if none of those work for you,
[25:23] Speaker 2: I would encourage some people who are tactile are going.
[25:28] Speaker 1: To love this.
[25:29] Speaker 2: Learn how to sign a Bible verse and see if
[25:36] Speaker 2: learning how to do the sign language to a Bible
[25:39] Speaker 2: verse helps bring that verse to life for you. So
[25:44] Speaker 2: being tactile, I love to not just ruminate because that
[25:49] Speaker 2: feels more mental. I love to manipulate a verse, right,
[25:54] Speaker 2: which is why I like for me writing it out
[25:56] Speaker 2: can do that for me, but for some people well,
[26:00] Speaker 2: like the act of learning the sign language. It keeps
[26:04] Speaker 2: your hands engaged and it slows down your brain so
[26:07] Speaker 2: that you're having to think about each word. Pairing words
[26:12] Speaker 2: to motion is proven to increase your memory. So if
[26:18] Speaker 2: you're trying to memorize the Bible, learning the sign language
[26:22] Speaker 2: to it can be significantly more effective than just sitting
[26:26] Speaker 2: down and forcing yourself to learn the words to it.
[26:30] Speaker 2: So if your tactile learner and you want to try that,
[26:33] Speaker 2: go for it and let us know how that works
[26:35] Speaker 2: for you.
[26:36] Speaker 4: That is something I've never thought of, but I still
[26:39] Speaker 4: remember the signs for this song that I did in
[26:43] Speaker 4: like early elementary school. It was like be kind to
[26:46] Speaker 4: each other and love one another, and I remember the
[26:48] Speaker 4: signs to all of it. And it really does when
[26:52] Speaker 4: you incorporate that other, that motion aspect that is neat.
[26:56] Speaker 3: I think I want to start that. I want to
[26:58] Speaker 3: I want to.
[26:58] Speaker 4: Get into that and and learn some verses with sign
[27:02] Speaker 4: language or even just hand motions. You think about subjects
[27:05] Speaker 4: when you do songs of hand motions. But yeah, that
[27:08] Speaker 4: that is pretty cool.
[27:09] Speaker 2: Did you ever do the walk through the Bible program
[27:14] Speaker 2: or do you know it?
[27:15] Speaker 1: Oh?
[27:15] Speaker 3: I loved that.
[27:17] Speaker 1: That was so neat.
[27:19] Speaker 4: Was that the one where it's like and he was
[27:21] Speaker 4: seen and seen and seen? Was that part of it
[27:24] Speaker 4: when we were talking displaying himself?
[27:27] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[27:28] Speaker 1: Yes, Oh.
[27:28] Speaker 4: And it takes you it, I mean, it is what
[27:31] Speaker 4: it says. It like literally takes you through the Bible
[27:33] Speaker 4: from beginning to end. And I remember coming away from that.
[27:36] Speaker 4: I don't remember the motions to that. But for our
[27:40] Speaker 4: listeners that don't know, it's basically a program where the
[27:43] Speaker 4: person comes and they'll do this, you know, presentation of
[27:46] Speaker 4: teaching hand motions to help you remember the Bible.
[27:51] Speaker 1: Story of the Bible. It starting time.
[27:54] Speaker 4: From Genesis to Revelation, and it just takes the highlights
[27:59] Speaker 4: and high points of each I don't not necessarily book
[28:03] Speaker 4: of the Bible, but each each important event of the Bible,
[28:06] Speaker 4: and presents it in a way with hand motions to
[28:08] Speaker 4: remember it. I'd like to do it again so I
[28:10] Speaker 4: could actually remember it and put it to memory, because
[28:14] Speaker 4: it was for the first time I think I put
[28:17] Speaker 4: the Old Testament and the New Testament together in a
[28:20] Speaker 4: way that was very really transformed the way I saw
[28:25] Speaker 4: the Bible as a whole, which kind of brings us
[28:28] Speaker 4: to another, you know, ways of incorporating scripture into your
[28:31] Speaker 4: daily life. When we talk about prayer, I just have
[28:35] Speaker 4: been finding I think this two part episode came about
[28:38] Speaker 4: because we were both talking about I think I'd shared
[28:40] Speaker 4: with you that I just had realized that I'd been
[28:42] Speaker 4: coasting on Bible knowledge from you know, previous Bible knowledge,
[28:47] Speaker 4: and I had been focusing so much on prayer that
[28:51] Speaker 4: my prayers were not I did not feel like my
[28:54] Speaker 4: prayers were being as powerful because I was not as
[28:58] Speaker 4: rooted in scripture.
[29:02] Speaker 3: And Jesus talks about if you.
[29:05] Speaker 4: Remain in me and my words remain in you, ask
[29:07] Speaker 4: whatever you wish and it will be given you. Well,
[29:10] Speaker 4: my prayers had been more driven by kind of what
[29:13] Speaker 4: I wanted and my whims and my hopes and dreams,
[29:16] Speaker 4: which isn't bad. I mean, God wants us to bring
[29:18] Speaker 4: all of it to him. But I just believe that
[29:22] Speaker 4: by being connected with God's word and knowing it in context,
[29:26] Speaker 4: not just pulling out little snippets here and there, but
[29:29] Speaker 4: knowing it in context, which this walks through the Bible,
[29:33] Speaker 4: helps you to gain that perspective. I just really believe
[29:37] Speaker 4: it refines our prayers so that the prayers we pray
[29:43] Speaker 4: are more in alignment with who God is and what
[29:46] Speaker 4: he wants and not just kind of vending machine kind
[29:52] Speaker 4: of prayers.
[29:53] Speaker 3: If that makes sense.
[29:55] Speaker 1: Definitely. Yeah.
[29:57] Speaker 2: Well, in one of the tips that I had for me,
[30:02] Speaker 2: I don't get very much out of intellectually reading a
[30:09] Speaker 2: chunk of the Bible in order. I think it's important,
[30:25] Speaker 2: and I think things like walk through the Bible are important.
[30:29] Speaker 2: I think a good litmus test is ask yourself, do
[30:32] Speaker 2: you know, like if somebody just said, okay, walk me
[30:35] Speaker 2: through Genesis to Revelation and walk.
[30:39] Speaker 1: Me through the flow.
[30:40] Speaker 2: And that doesn't mean you need to know exactly who
[30:42] Speaker 2: Obadiah was and which minor prophet came first, but do
[30:45] Speaker 2: you know the general flow? Do you know that Daniel
[30:48] Speaker 2: had to come after David because David was the first king,
[30:51] Speaker 2: and David had to come after Abraham because Abraham was
[30:54] Speaker 2: the first patriarch, Like do you know that just very
[30:58] Speaker 2: general flow of Bible history? And if you don't, then
[31:03] Speaker 2: something like walk through the Bible that can give you
[31:06] Speaker 2: that just bird's eydeal can be really helpful, or a
[31:10] Speaker 2: chronological Bible or starting in in the Old Testament and
[31:14] Speaker 2: just going those can all be really helpful things. But
[31:17] Speaker 2: for me sitting down and reading the Book of Romans
[31:21] Speaker 2: start to finish, what I get out of that is
[31:24] Speaker 2: not the intellectual This is what Paul taught to the Romans,
[31:28] Speaker 2: and this is the history of what was going on
[31:31] Speaker 2: with the Christians in Rome at the time. What I
[31:34] Speaker 2: get are the verses that jump out to me that
[31:38] Speaker 2: I find inspiring or encouraging. And like I said, I
[31:41] Speaker 2: am trying to get over the fact that I've been
[31:44] Speaker 2: taught that I should feel guilty for that. I've been
[31:46] Speaker 2: taught that I should feel guilty for reading the Bible
[31:50] Speaker 2: for inspiration. And when you put it in those exact
[31:52] Speaker 2: words like I hope everybody understands that sounds really stupid,
[31:57] Speaker 2: which is not a word stupid y close to a
[32:00] Speaker 2: four letter word in our vocabulary, And but I hope
[32:05] Speaker 2: that people if you put it in those terms like
[32:07] Speaker 2: I hope that sounds appalling, right, Like if you have
[32:10] Speaker 2: a love letter that your husband wrote you and you
[32:13] Speaker 2: say I read it because it makes me feel so good,
[32:15] Speaker 2: and someone's like, well, that's stupid.
[32:17] Speaker 1: You should love your husband because he's your husband.
[32:19] Speaker 2: Like I hope people understand what I'm saying. I'm also
[32:24] Speaker 2: not saying that if you read the Bible and you
[32:26] Speaker 2: don't feel an emotional connection or a sense of grand
[32:29] Speaker 2: or a sense of inspiration, that you're doing it wrong.
[32:31] Speaker 2: I'm just saying we're wired differently. I read the Bible
[32:34] Speaker 2: for that sense of this was beautiful, this was lofty,
[32:39] Speaker 2: This was encouraging to me. And ay, I think if
[32:42] Speaker 2: you're like me, that doesn't mean that you can ignore
[32:45] Speaker 2: all the context. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't have
[32:48] Speaker 2: at least a general view. Okay, Paul is running to
[32:51] Speaker 2: the Romans, and this is after Jesus's ascension to heaven,
[32:55] Speaker 2: and you know, this is for Christians today. This isn't
[32:59] Speaker 2: a letter that somebody wrote to the exiles of Jerusalem
[33:03] Speaker 2: in the Old Testament, right, Like, you kind of need
[33:05] Speaker 2: to know at least where it fits. But beyond that,
[33:08] Speaker 2: if you're like me and you are looking to go
[33:11] Speaker 2: maybe deeper into a verse or two, or into a
[33:15] Speaker 2: concept or two, as opposed to I want to learn
[33:18] Speaker 2: everything about the history of this. You know of this
[33:22] Speaker 2: book or something one way that I have learned. And
[33:27] Speaker 2: this is going to sound really silly, or we were
[33:29] Speaker 2: frivolous to some people. But I have been doing a
[33:33] Speaker 2: little bit of tapping through like a specific Bible verse,
[33:37] Speaker 2: And so if you're not familiar with tapping, Jaimee and
[33:40] Speaker 2: I recorded several episodes. The first one we did was
[33:44] Speaker 2: tapping prayerfully to overcome a phobia. And you can find
[33:48] Speaker 2: that that might not be the exact verbatim title of it,
[33:51] Speaker 2: but you know, google praying Christian women tapping phobia and
[33:55] Speaker 2: it's gonna pull up for you. And what I have
[33:58] Speaker 2: found again, I think this go back to me being
[34:01] Speaker 2: really tactile. Is it when you are applying pressure on
[34:05] Speaker 2: certain points of your body To me, it allows me
[34:08] Speaker 2: to focus in a way that I have not been
[34:11] Speaker 2: able to replicate in any other setting. So as a
[34:15] Speaker 2: quick example, I love doing this for versus that feel like, oh,
[34:19] Speaker 2: I've read this so often that it doesn't even mean
[34:22] Speaker 2: anything to me anymore. So let's take Psalm twenty three
[34:25] Speaker 2: The Lord is my Shepherd. I won't talk you through
[34:28] Speaker 2: all the or actu pressure points that I'm tapping on,
[34:30] Speaker 2: but just go watch our video previously, or maybe we
[34:35] Speaker 2: could even do just a clip of this tappic I'm
[34:37] Speaker 2: going to do right here, and throw it up on
[34:40] Speaker 2: our Instagram and YouTube and stuff. But I'll start on
[34:43] Speaker 2: one of the points, say the Lord is my shepherd.
[34:45] Speaker 2: The Lord is my shepherd, The Lord is my shepherd.
[34:49] Speaker 2: And then when I feel like that has sunk in. Right,
[34:53] Speaker 2: like when I water my plants, there's the and they're
[34:55] Speaker 2: really dry, I need to wait until I see that
[34:57] Speaker 2: the water has sunk in before I can do anything. Otherwise,
[35:00] Speaker 2: you can't just keep pouring water on really dry soil
[35:04] Speaker 2: because it just falls off the site. So once i
[35:06] Speaker 2: feel like it's sunk in, then I'll go to the
[35:08] Speaker 2: next part of the verse. I shall not be in one.
[35:11] Speaker 2: I shall not be in want, I shall not be
[35:13] Speaker 2: in one. And maybe I'm gonna stay here for several
[35:15] Speaker 2: rounds of tapping, and I'm just gonna say I shall
[35:17] Speaker 2: not be in one.
[35:18] Speaker 1: I shall not be in one.
[35:20] Speaker 2: To me, that helps me to slow down, which as
[35:24] Speaker 2: someone who is reading the Bible for that sense of
[35:27] Speaker 2: connection to God and to somebody who really likes having
[35:30] Speaker 2: a tactile sensation, that really helps me.
[35:33] Speaker 3: Yeah, so I know.
[35:34] Speaker 4: At least one of our tapping episodes is episode three
[35:37] Speaker 4: seventy one Tapping for Christians, and it's about insecurities. There
[35:40] Speaker 4: was also a phobia one, and I just I do
[35:44] Speaker 4: think that. You know, the idea behind tapping has to
[35:47] Speaker 4: do with pressure points and you know actu pressure, But
[35:51] Speaker 4: even if you take all of that out, it's like
[35:55] Speaker 4: the hand motions, it's the act of doing it does something.
[35:59] Speaker 4: So so you like to pace while you think or talk.
[36:04] Speaker 4: It's so funny because our middle kid the other day
[36:07] Speaker 4: he was talking, we were I was helping him study
[36:10] Speaker 4: for something, and he stood up like on a chair.
[36:14] Speaker 3: I have done that before.
[36:15] Speaker 4: So when I worked in laboratory research, when I was
[36:18] Speaker 4: thinking through a problem, one of my lab mates was like, yeah,
[36:21] Speaker 4: I like to like stand up on this like stool thing.
[36:24] Speaker 4: It helps me think better. So I tried it and
[36:26] Speaker 4: I was like it does. It helped me work through
[36:28] Speaker 4: problems better. And so when he did that, I said, oh,
[36:31] Speaker 4: does that help you think better? He's like, yeah, it does.
[36:33] Speaker 3: And he said.
[36:34] Speaker 4: Another thing is when I when I'm pacing and walking,
[36:36] Speaker 4: and I'm like, oh, I have to tell a lot
[36:38] Speaker 4: of that because that's what you do. You like to
[36:41] Speaker 4: pace while you're thinking and brainstorming. And I do the
[36:44] Speaker 4: same thing sometimes when I'm on the phone and it
[36:46] Speaker 4: really the act of doing something with your body other
[36:50] Speaker 4: than thinking helps incorporate it in better somehow, and.
[36:54] Speaker 1: I just does it sink shit.
[36:56] Speaker 3: Happing really does help.
[36:57] Speaker 2: But if you don't like the tapping side of it,
[36:59] Speaker 2: or if if you're in a place where like you
[37:01] Speaker 2: can't be tapping because you're sitting in church or something,
[37:05] Speaker 2: another way you can do it is just like squeezing.
[37:08] Speaker 1: Each individual finger.
[37:11] Speaker 2: So let's say I want to meditate on the fruit
[37:15] Speaker 2: of the Spirit, so I'm gonna squeeze, and it doesn't
[37:18] Speaker 2: really matter where you do it. I'm squeezing my pointer
[37:21] Speaker 2: finger just thinking love. God is love, Thank you God
[37:24] Speaker 2: for your love.
[37:25] Speaker 1: And then I'm going to my next.
[37:26] Speaker 2: Finger and squeezing it thinking joy, God, please give me joy,
[37:30] Speaker 2: give my friend's joy. Then I'm going to my next finger.
[37:33] Speaker 2: So that can be another way. And it goes back
[37:37] Speaker 2: to one of our very first I think this might
[37:40] Speaker 2: be our very first quote prayer hack that we have
[37:44] Speaker 2: ever talked about, and that's praying with the timer, and
[37:47] Speaker 2: it's setting a timer for one minute and realizing how
[37:50] Speaker 2: much you can get done in one minute, and it
[37:53] Speaker 2: completely shatters this false assumption we all have that in
[37:58] Speaker 2: order to pray thoroughly, you need to have a huge
[38:01] Speaker 2: chunk of time, and you need to be in exactly
[38:03] Speaker 2: the right mindset. Do the same thing with a Bible
[38:06] Speaker 2: verse or a Bible passage. Tell yourself, I'm going to
[38:10] Speaker 2: think about this passage for one minute, and it is
[38:15] Speaker 2: going to blow your mind how deep you can get
[38:19] Speaker 2: in that short amount of time.
[38:21] Speaker 4: Yeah, and along those lines, one thing that probably just
[38:27] Speaker 4: has transformed my prayer life through scripture is scripture memory.
[38:33] Speaker 4: And I don't memorize things easily. It doesn't come easily
[38:38] Speaker 4: for me to memorize things without a context, so it
[38:44] Speaker 4: was tough in the beginning. But when I was in
[38:46] Speaker 4: college for the very first time, I did scripture memory,
[38:49] Speaker 4: like a bunch of verses. The navigators had like scripture
[38:54] Speaker 4: memory cards, and I wasn't part of the navs, but
[38:57] Speaker 4: I ended up getting those cards, a little like plastic
[39:01] Speaker 4: thing that you put the cards in. I remember walking
[39:04] Speaker 4: across campus and I would memorize. I had an accountability partner,
[39:08] Speaker 4: my roommate Stephanie and I and we every week we'd
[39:11] Speaker 4: memorize a new verse and then we would add the
[39:13] Speaker 4: next week and we would kind of quiz each other
[39:16] Speaker 4: and it was so cool to me, because you know,
[39:20] Speaker 4: Jesus said that when he sent the Helper the Holy Spirit,
[39:25] Speaker 4: that he would bring to mind the words that I've
[39:27] Speaker 4: said to you, But he can't bring to mind words
[39:30] Speaker 4: that you don't know. So when I started memorizing scripture,
[39:36] Speaker 4: I just found that I was all of a sudden
[39:39] Speaker 4: able to bring God's word into my circumstances at my need,
[39:45] Speaker 4: at the time of need. And I at the time
[39:49] Speaker 4: there were not smartphones, so you couldn't just look up
[39:53] Speaker 4: a verse like you had to go to your concredits.
[39:55] Speaker 4: You had to look in the back and figure it out,
[39:57] Speaker 4: and may or may not find it. And so there
[39:59] Speaker 4: were times when I was stuck and I couldn't find
[40:01] Speaker 4: a verse, and it helped me. Now, I guess fortunately Unfortunately,
[40:05] Speaker 4: now all you have to do is type in the
[40:07] Speaker 4: gist of a verse or Bible verse about X, Y
[40:10] Speaker 4: or Z, and you could get a whole list of them,
[40:12] Speaker 4: you know, because of our ability to search. But scripture
[40:16] Speaker 4: memory is still the very best thing. I don't always
[40:19] Speaker 4: I seldom remember the reference, but I remember the verse,
[40:24] Speaker 4: and so I just think it's a great Scripture memory
[40:27] Speaker 4: is a great way to incorporate scripture into your life
[40:31] Speaker 4: in a way that it just keeps on giving. It's
[40:33] Speaker 4: the gift that keeps on giving, it keeps coming.
[40:35] Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, Yeah, let's go ahead and just put a pin.
[40:39] Speaker 2: Let's do our next episode together on just tips and
[40:43] Speaker 2: tricks for memorizing scripture, the importance of scripture memory. Yeah,
[40:47] Speaker 2: because that, honestly, I feel like, puts a cap on
[40:50] Speaker 2: exactly what we're talking about, because you can't memorize scripture
[40:53] Speaker 2: without meditating on it. You can't meditate without it turning
[40:57] Speaker 2: into something akin to prayers. So I think that that
[41:01] Speaker 2: really ties it into who we are as praying Christian women.
[41:05] Speaker 2: And I agree that it's important. But there are tips, tricks,
[41:10] Speaker 2: and blocks that we can discuss for that.
[41:13] Speaker 1: Which I think would be great.
[41:15] Speaker 2: So back to incorporating just regular Bible reading into your day,
[41:19] Speaker 2: I've got one more tip. This is straight from Atomic Habits,
[41:24] Speaker 2: which kind of follows the ideas of habit stacking and
[41:29] Speaker 2: that kind of thing. And so it's this idea of
[41:33] Speaker 2: make your Bible reading something that is going to be
[41:36] Speaker 2: easy and convenient and inviting for you. So whatever that means,
[41:42] Speaker 2: if that means that you always set your Bible out
[41:46] Speaker 2: the night before on the table, so when you go
[41:48] Speaker 2: and eat your breakfast, it's right there.
[41:50] Speaker 1: Do it.
[41:51] Speaker 2: Theoretically, should we all have the discipline to be about
[41:55] Speaker 2: to sit down at breakfast, notice our Bible isn't there,
[41:58] Speaker 2: and go and get it. Absolutely, but we don't. So
[42:02] Speaker 2: let's not feel guilty about that, and let's just do
[42:06] Speaker 2: what works well, you know. Or you can also do
[42:09] Speaker 2: the opposite. Maybe when I read my Bible, my phone
[42:12] Speaker 2: must be more than fifteen feet away from me so
[42:15] Speaker 2: that I'm not tempted to go and you know, pick
[42:20] Speaker 2: that up. I am going to sound really really old school,
[42:25] Speaker 2: but you talking about concordances made me realize tactile me
[42:30] Speaker 2: has lost a lot by not using concordances anymore to
[42:33] Speaker 2: look up books or to look up verses, because there
[42:38] Speaker 2: was something Like I said, flipping through the pages of
[42:41] Speaker 2: the Bible is like pacing for me. It is like
[42:44] Speaker 2: the act of movement that solidifies what you have just
[42:48] Speaker 2: read or what you're thinking about. And I'm going to
[42:52] Speaker 2: throw in one extra bonus here that just popped into
[42:54] Speaker 2: my head. If you have a really hard time, some
[42:57] Speaker 2: of us have hard times now like reading because we
[43:02] Speaker 2: have gotten so used to skimming, or we have just
[43:05] Speaker 2: gotten so used to needing distraction. Don't beat yourself up
[43:09] Speaker 2: over it. Recognize that that's what your brain has done,
[43:13] Speaker 2: and then ask yourself what can I do to improve this?
[43:16] Speaker 2: So keeping your phone farther away from you is one.
[43:20] Speaker 2: Also going back to reading actual books, whether you love
[43:25] Speaker 2: reading novels or nonfiction or like. So I'm not just
[43:32] Speaker 2: saying it has to be the Bible or books about
[43:35] Speaker 2: the Bible, but training your brain in your eyes to
[43:39] Speaker 2: get back into the habit of reading like lying to
[43:41] Speaker 2: line and not.
[43:42] Speaker 1: Just skimming, can really help.
[43:44] Speaker 2: I find that reading fiction is so important because we
[43:49] Speaker 2: talked about having that bird's eye view of the Bible
[43:52] Speaker 2: as a story, and if you don't know story structure,
[43:56] Speaker 2: you're not going to be able to grasp that as easily.
[44:00] Speaker 2: So one of my best high school teachers was my
[44:04] Speaker 2: literature teacher, and I had him for two years, and
[44:07] Speaker 2: I owe him some of what made me a writer,
[44:12] Speaker 2: even more so because I wanted to be a writer
[44:14] Speaker 2: like way before I met him. More so, I owe
[44:17] Speaker 2: him to teach me how to read, and that taught
[44:21] Speaker 2: me how to understand scripture, and we were reading like
[44:24] Speaker 2: crime and punishment. We weren't reading the Bible, but learning
[44:29] Speaker 2: how to look for symbolism, learning how to follow a
[44:33] Speaker 2: character arc, just learning how stories are shaped made the
[44:40] Speaker 2: Bible so much more accessible to me. When I was
[44:42] Speaker 2: a kid, I would watch movies, and I actually didn't
[44:46] Speaker 2: follow the story of a movie. To me, a movie
[44:49] Speaker 2: was like a scene and a scene and a scene
[44:53] Speaker 2: with the same characters. A lot later, like late teens,
[44:58] Speaker 2: maybe even earlier day builthood, that movies started to be
[45:02] Speaker 2: a fully formed story to me. And I think that
[45:08] Speaker 2: once you learned that the Bible is a story, and
[45:11] Speaker 2: you learn how to look for those story arcs, and
[45:15] Speaker 2: you learn to look for those things like symbolism and
[45:17] Speaker 2: motif and parallel and you know all those literary terms,
[45:21] Speaker 2: you can understand the Bible so much better.
[45:24] Speaker 4: I'm still stuck on how that trend that has to
[45:27] Speaker 4: have something to do with your process as an author,
[45:30] Speaker 4: So we'll have to talk about that another interesting maybe
[45:33] Speaker 4: that does well, very interesting the way that you. I
[45:37] Speaker 4: just wonder if it's because you analyze it so because
[45:41] Speaker 4: you know, just like with scripture, there's nothing wrong with
[45:45] Speaker 4: analyzing the compartment and seeing it for what it is,
[45:50] Speaker 4: because each book of the Bible, each chapter, each segment.
[45:53] Speaker 4: I mean, it has benefits and should be looked at
[45:56] Speaker 4: in that way, but it needs to also have that
[46:00] Speaker 4: big picture in order because of things like different verses
[46:06] Speaker 4: that say different things that could be perceived as contradictions,
[46:10] Speaker 4: but put together gives you like a broader picture of
[46:13] Speaker 4: what God's message is overall. But anyway, I would love
[46:16] Speaker 4: to talk to you another time, just out of curios
[46:19] Speaker 4: about how that translates to you as an author and
[46:22] Speaker 4: a creative.
[46:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, well how about biggest takeaways are think about
[46:29] Speaker 2: your own personality and your own learning habits and find
[46:34] Speaker 2: the things that work for you and step away from
[46:39] Speaker 2: the guilt, step away from the shame of Well, a
[46:42] Speaker 2: real Christian wouldn't need to reward himself with a cup
[46:45] Speaker 2: of coffee for reading the Bible, But you know what,
[46:47] Speaker 2: if it works and it gets you into God's word,
[46:50] Speaker 2: do it, And that cup of coffee is a gift
[46:53] Speaker 2: from the Lord just as much as his word is,
[46:55] Speaker 2: you know, or maybe not just as much.
[46:57] Speaker 1: But I hope everyone gets the gist of what I'm saying.
[47:00] Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think to give yourself permission to find
[47:05] Speaker 4: hacks to get yourself into the routine of scripture for
[47:10] Speaker 4: the sake of connecting with God.
[47:13] Speaker 3: That's what it's all about.
[47:14] Speaker 4: And not to be afraid to do the things out
[47:17] Speaker 4: of discipline to get to the point of loving it
[47:20] Speaker 4: and not being guilty for not loving it right away,
[47:23] Speaker 4: and also not being afraid to ask God to give
[47:26] Speaker 4: you a love for His word. Yes, just as a
[47:30] Speaker 4: great starting point desire.
[47:32] Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and the idea of like, well, a real
[47:37] Speaker 2: Christian shouldn't need to hack their Bible reading. I think
[47:40] Speaker 2: there's also humility in recognizing, Okay, maybe you're right. Maybe
[47:44] Speaker 2: I shouldn't need to have to reward myself. Maybe I
[47:47] Speaker 2: shouldn't need to have to have my Bible here the
[47:51] Speaker 2: night before in order to get into God's Word. But
[47:54] Speaker 2: because I'm not as perfect as some people think I
[47:57] Speaker 2: should be, these are the things that I've chosen to
[48:00] Speaker 2: do to make it work for me. There's humility in
[48:03] Speaker 2: recognizing that, so, did you have anything else you wanted
[48:07] Speaker 2: to add or you want to jump into our blessings
[48:09] Speaker 2: of menediction?
[48:10] Speaker 4: Now I feel like we kind of wrapped it up,
[48:12] Speaker 4: and I'm just excited because I think now that people
[48:15] Speaker 4: have started to get some ideas. I think our listeners
[48:19] Speaker 4: are going to have, like some of their own ideas
[48:21] Speaker 4: coming up, So I'm excited.
[48:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, the best ideas are going to come from you,
[48:26] Speaker 2: because you and the Lord know.
[48:28] Speaker 1: What works for you exactly, exactly well.
[48:31] Speaker 2: To leave you with our blessing and men addiction. Then,
[48:34] Speaker 2: may God stretch the mature your faith on a daily basis.
[48:37] Speaker 2: May mountains move as a result of your prayers. May
[48:40] Speaker 2: He me even your areas of weakness and help you
[48:42] Speaker 2: in your unbelief. May valleys rise up, and mountains and
[48:45] Speaker 2: hills be made low before you, so that nothing will
[48:47] Speaker 2: hinder your prayers. May the Holy Spirit breathe hope into
[48:50] Speaker 2: your prayers, so that every day your faith and strength
[48:53] Speaker 2: are renewed like the eagles.
[48:55] Speaker 4: And our benediction comes from Psalm twenty verses one through five.
[48:59] Speaker 4: May the Lord and answer you in the day of trouble.
[49:01] Speaker 4: May the name of God of Jacob protect you. May
[49:03] Speaker 4: He grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans.
[49:08] Speaker 3: Amen.
[49:12] Speaker 4: We'd like to take just a quick second to thank
[49:14] Speaker 4: the team at life Audio for their partnership with us
[49:17] Speaker 4: on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com,
[49:20] Speaker 4: you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in
[49:23] Speaker 4: their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
[49:27] Speaker 4: and so much more. That's lifeaudio dot com.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.