Monday Musing: "More Than a Leather Accesory for Your Sunday Wardrobe"

Last week in my Monday Musing I mentioned my growing awareness that I was starving myself. When I should have been feasting on God's Word, I'd fallen into a dangerous habit of snacking instead.

In my heart of hearts I want to be like Job who was able to say of himself:

"I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." (Job 23:12)

I want to be more like one of my heroes, George Mueller, who in the 1800s in Great Britain cared for 10,000 orphans while also serving as a pastor, a missionary and the director of the Bible Knowledge Institute. During his lifetime, this incredibly busy man read the Bible nearly 200 times from end to end! One of his biographers wrote, "He fed on the word and therefore was strong" A.T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol, 287.

I mentioned last week that getting enough time in the morning to "feast" necessitates that I rise early. Our children begin getting up at 5:20, and I need to rise before my tribe so that I'm able to concentrate on what's happening in the Book in my lap rather than on what's happening on the other side of my bedroom door.

To encourage myself to renew a habit of rising early and consistently in order to feast on hefty portions of God's word instead of dieting on crumbs, I pulled out a favorite quote about the wonder and worthiness of the Book:

"For nearly 24 years I have been a serious Bible student. Early in my Christian experience I discovered that God's word is His precious love letter to His church corporately and to His children personally. It is to be reverenced and cherished as the holy breath of God, but it is [also] to be studied, memorized, read, reread, mediated on, and consumed with relish. Bibles are to be examined, studied, perused, scanned, wept over, underlined, marked-up, outlined, dog-eared, worn-out, and regularly replaced. If your Bible is falling apart, the chances are very good your life is not.

"God's word is not to be yet another leather accessory for your Sunday wardrobe. It is your sustenance, the foundation of your life, the anchor of your soul, and the song of your heart."

Jean Stockdale, Proverbs and Principles for Parenting Practically Perfect Progeny, pg. 15

Seeking, with good cause, to rise early

~Mrs. Beaver