Extensions

Each time I've organized this group read through the Bible, I've had a couple of people who want to do something else along with reading. Often what they want to do is a good thing: they plan to journal or pick one verse each week and memorize it. I still cringe when they mention doing this. Why? Because adding one new habit is difficult and making that habit harder or adding a second habit makes the overall process less likely to happen.

So if you are interested in doing something extra let me make a couple of suggestions.

First reading the Bible can be hard work and some days you'll be tired and unmotivated. We don't like to think this way about reading God's word, but at least at first, this is a reality for many new readers. Instead of adding an additional task, consider planning a series of rewards for yourself. They don't have to be bribes but maybe things you want to do in addition to the Bible reading. For instance, maybe you long for a morning to spend praying or volunteering, but you never have time. Make this a reward for your Bible reading, say after a month of daily reading, you will take a morning to pray. Go ahead and plan who will help you with this (someone to take your children for instance). Maybe your helper would be willing to swap your reward for theirs. Then after two more months, you'll another morning. BUT if you need more temporal and less spiritual rewards, do that, too. Coffee at Starbucks or chocolate or a new something can work, too.

Next, try to chose something simple if you must add a daily task to your Bible reading. Instead of copying out a verse each day, high light it in your Bible (if you use an electronic reading device you could capture these at the end of the year to read your course).

If you find yourself dreading doing your reading or avoiding it, drop everything else you are doing and keep reading. Get rid of all friction in the reading time that you can, so you can keep reading.

At the end of this year, I'm going to make a radical suggestion to everyone who has finished: do it again. Why? Because if you can do this two years in a row, you can do it again in your life when you want, you will know what it takes and you'll have the skill set to do it. If you really want to do something big as an extra, plan to do it your second time reading through. I outlined the Bible one year when I read through, but I didn't do it my first time through.