Getting Behind

Thus far, I've only talked about how to plan in advance for reading, but what happens when you fall behind?

I hope that what doesn't happen is that you stop.

I'll suggest some things further down that might help you to get going again, but for the next year, I'd like to encourage you to post here or on the local Facebook page I have going. There is support in groups and more ideas than I'll ever come up with.

First, forgive yourself! Worrying about why you fell behind isn't productive, so move on with new plans to continue reading.

Second, read when you can. So if you miss a whole week or a month or two months, and you realize it, go ahead and start reading again. If you do just this, then eventually you will read through the Bible, maybe not in a year, but you'll still do it.

Third, evaluate what happened to give yourself guidance. This doesn't mean beating yourself up, but it does help to know that an illness, or a special project at work, or a busy sports season, kept you from reading. Make plans to read during the next event. For instance, put a Bible and a plan in your car and read during a child's sports practice. Or listen to the Bible in your car as you drive to work.

Fourth, decide if you want to try to catch up. Let me stress my second point which is you don't have to catch up. But if you want to, let me suggest a couple of ideas on how to do it.

• The pure endurance way is to double up and read two readings a day until you've caught up. You can do this either by reading longer once a day or by reading twice a day (morning and night, for instance). I'd suggest first get back to reading daily for a week or two and then moving to this plan. And stay aware of your stress level, if doubling up is too much, back off. 
• You can modify this a bit by doubling up on light days in your schedule and reading just one reading on heavy days.
• Thanks to the four readings plan we are using, you can also read just one extra of the four readings each day. This means every four days you will read five days worth.
• Don't take days off each month. Since the plan has extra days each month you can catch up a few days each month by just reading everyday of the month. 
• Take a day to read to catch up. Make it a fun retreat kind of day, bring your favorite things to eat, read somewhere that you like (but is not distracting). 
• Use an extra hour to reading a few extra readings. 

Consider now what your get behind plan will be. Maybe you think you'll just restart, maybe you like the idea of catching up. While a get behind plan can't be as solid as your reading plan, if you do have a plan, you'll have a place to start when you get behind.