ForgottenWoman

Little by Little

I shared in my previous article on renewing my mind that my goal was to read/listen to the entire Bible in a month. I started the challenge on July 19 and completed it on August 17. The joy of having completed this challenge is real – but I can tell you that the “results” of this personal quest are not immediate; they will be long term. In fact, I can’t tell you one single glaring effect, but because I know that renewing my mind is necessary and will be a growth process; I’m going to keep pushing.

Some have questioned the benefits of “speed reading” through the Bible, or “speed listening” as I doubled the speed of the reader when listening in my apps. First of all, as I shared with my grandchildren and some of my own children who asked if I could understand the speaker at the faster speed – YES! I could understand. In fact, if I hear some of the music that is popular today and everyone around me is “rapping” the words more quickly than I can even understand what they are saying, I have NO idea what I’m hearing. But when I listen to the Scripture being read at a faster speed, I can understand it. (Just a hint if you are going to try this – the recordings of women reading are much more difficult to understand at the rapid speed. The male voices seem to be more understandable when sped up for some reason.)

Back to the benefits: While pursuing reading through the entire Bible in a month is not the same challenge as a deep dive into a particular book or verse; the benefits still abound – and as I notice them in my every day life, I’ll share!

For now, I KNOW a few things.

I KNOW that while I didn’t stop and consider the history, original meaning or context of what I was reading and hearing during the challenge, there were certainly verses and principles that stood out in the moment.

I KNOW that the subconscious mind is taking in much more than I even realize at any given moment – whether it is what I’m seeing or hearing.

I KNOW that I have filled my mind with every single part of Scripture in the last 30 days and that’s pretty exciting!

So, what’s my next personal challenge on this Renewing my Mind journey?

Well, since I finished the last one two days early I’m taking the 18th and 19th and reading AND listening to the book of James and Proverbs both days. I’m also listening to the entire book of Psalms while sleeping at night (playing it at normal speed is about a 5 hour listen.) I’m really interested in how this affects my sleep patterns and the traumatic dreams that I sometimes experience! Thirdly, I’m challenging myself for the rest of August to begin memorizing the book of Philippians.

Again, I share this journey because I’m learning just how important it is to be obedient to Scripture in renewing my mind. My emotions follow my thinking and my thinking is so heavily influenced by the world around me – I cannot truly think more like Christ if I am not intentionally changing the way my mind naturally thinks.

A couple of hints if you are interested in trying any of this:

*There is a site that you can pull up on your computer or phone called biblememory.com It is very helpful for memorization – allows you to type out verses you want to memorize, removing words here and there and challenging your mind to fill in the blanks. I like to say the verse out loud while typing for cementing it even further in my memory.

*Youtube offers videos of the audio Bible in various translations if you want to listen while driving or working. Click the little circle in the right hand corner to choose normal speed or to speed it up. Choose the fastest speed that you can still understand.

*We all have the same number of hours in each day and we all choose what fills those hours. Being serious about renewing our minds is not a frivolous goal – and none of us is too busy to pursue being more like Christ.