The Word of the Lord

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."                 2 Timothy 3:16-17

 When Oliver began his confirmation journey at the beginning of 7th grade, our interim Pastor at the time, Pastor Lee, challenged all of the families to read the Bible, cover to cover, as a family during this time of instruction.  We thought that was a fantastic idea and something we'd never done before.  So rather than doing our usual family devotions in the morning (which of course included small passages of scripture), we began reading straight from the Bible each morning.  Russ printed off a "Read the Bible in a Year" plan that included a passage from the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalm/Poetry each day.  Knowing how busy our schedules can be and really wanting this to be something our entire family did together, we allowed ourselves the 20 months from when he began confirmation instruction in September 2021 to the day of his confirmation (which was last Sunday) to complete the 366 readings.  We also knew we would possibly take breaks during Advent and Lent to do more focused studies as a family (which we did the first year).  And we finished with 3 days to spare!  Here are our family's Bibles we used throughout this time, and the first page of the reading plan.

This packet of readings was well-used throughout our time, and even went on vacations with us!  There were 18 pages total and we made it a tradition to go out to dinner to celebrate the completion of each page.

I am so thankful we did this!  There are many books, especially in the Old Testament, that are never the focus of Sunday School lessons, and are therefore never read.  But as the verse states, ALL scripture is God-breathed, and we should read and study it all!  I pray that my kids have a love for God's word, and this will be the first of many, many times they read through all 66 books of the Bible.  

"The word of the Lord endures forever." 1 Peter 1:25