Bobbieness

It is the end of January and thus the final of my January check-ins. My January mini-resolution was to read Romans 8 once per day. This check-in will be for the 25th – 31st January. Goodness, this month flew by, didn’t it?

I didn’t read daily this week – actually I skipped 3 days: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I’m not sure why I skipped Wednesday, but Friday we did have Bible Study, and Saturday honestly I have no excuse – we didn’t even have our usual Bible Study with my family because I woke up so late and exhausted. But to be honest, I don’t have an excuse for skipping my reading on any of those days.

I noticed this week that I was no longer as serious about reading it as I had been before. Perhaps it’s because I’d seen the same text day after day that I’d begun to get bored? Or, at least, the words weren’t sinking in properly anymore. Reading the passage daily almost became a chore.

However, today, after taking a couple days’ break from reading, I really enjoyed reading it again. In fact, I realised that I’d been able to recite more of the passage than I had before, and was able to commit more to memory than I had done in the past as well.

Perhaps with anything else in life: there are days when you need a bit of a break before getting back into it with more vigour. The Word of God should never be taken that way, of course; I am not saying it’s a good idea to take days off from spending time with God in devotion, meditation on the Word and prayer.

But since this is a specific resolution to read the same passage daily, perhaps it does help to give my brain some rest so it can retain some of what it’s read and not get tired of the repetition.

For February, I still haven’t quite figured out what I’d like to read. I haven’t sat down to devote time to memorise Romans 8 fully, though I can recite 80% of it by now. Still, I think I would like to put it aside for a little while and then come back to it.

Shall I move on to Romans 12? Or perhaps one of the Psalms… I’ll pray about it a little more, and will put up a new update post once I decide. I will, however, take 2 days’ rest per week from reading the passage: Fridays (fellowship) and Sundays (sabbath), to hopefully allow more time for the passage to sink in to my brain and avoid repetition fatigue.

Blessings,

Crystina

I wanted to post this on Saturday, then Sunday… but it’s been a while since I’ve had such a busy weekend. Time really does start to fly when you start working again heh. That said, I guess it is rather appropriate for me to put up this update today, since there are still 7 days left of this mini-resolution from today. This update will be for the past 8 days: from 17th – 24th January.

My January mini-resolution was to read Romans 8 once per day. I admit it wasn’t as easy during this period. There were days I started my day with my reading, but also days where I slid it in right before I slept. Last night, I was so exhausted (and unwell) I resorted to listening to it read via my Bible app while trying to follow along according to memory.

Jacky tested me on it one evening and I realised there’s still a lot that I don’t remember in terms of how the verses come together and specific words that were used. I realise that in ancient Middle-Eastern culture, they would not have been required to quote verbatim, but it’s still my aim to quote it according to ESV.

I still think that it will be entirely possible for me to spend a few hours at the end of the month and have it committed to memory. I’ll keep you posted!

Blessings,

Crystina