NOT another New Year's Resolution

That's correct. This post is NOT about a New Year's Resolution. I cannot stand New Year's Resolutions. If I knew this post was about that, I would stop reading now (and I wrote this!). I don't even know why people make them. It seems like they are just made to be broken. Can't anybody just decide they want to do something and do it? Well, that's what I'm going to attempt to do. And I'm starting early so it won't be confused with New Year's.

My grandfather was an exceptional man. I miss him so much but have many great memories of him until I get to see him again. He was a talented carpenter, a funny man, loved his family, but most of all, he loves our Father (I'll use present tense since he is actually in heaven doing this very thing now). One way I know he loves the Father is that he loved the word of God. He would read his Bible so much that we would have to buy him a new one every few years because he would literally wear them out from so much use. Can you even imagine? The last leather-bound Bible he had was one that was shown at his funeral. He had written in the inside each year which he read through the Bible (at least since he'd had that Bible). There were 18 entries, I believe. He didn't miss a year. 18 years in a row! The only year he didn't finish was the last year of his life, and like the honest man he is, he didn't write that year down. What a great example of a godly father who loves our heavenly Father! And what an inspiration for our family to follow.

Frank teaches a Sunday School class about worship, and one of the things that he teaches is that unless we know the Father, we don't know how to worship him. How can we possibly know how to praise him if we don't know what his attributes are? And how can we know those things unless we read his very word? It sounds like common sense, but how many of us truly do this?

I have learned a lot about the love of our heavenly Father just by having a daughter of my own. I cannot imagine how much He must love me if he gave his only son to die for me, someone who is so undeserving. The love I have for Amara is indescribable, and to know that God loves me so much that he gave Jesus for me, well, it's unthinkable. And with that in mind, why would I not want to know Him and worship Him and spend time with Him? He is the creator and sustainer of our Universe and yet has every second of my life in his hands and wants to know me. Wow!

So, I've decided that I want to read through my Bible in the next year. Frank has a copy of the One-Year Bible in chronological order (pretty cool, huh), which I have taken. Thanks in advance, Frank. I am very excited to get started and have a couple of reasons for letting you know about this. First of all, who is with me? And if you say you are, I want you to really mean it and really do it. That leads into the second reason, which is accountability. Please feel free to ask me how my reading is going. For anyone that wants to do this too, we can keep each other in check. So let me know if you want to do this with me. I'm excited to learn new things and refresh myself on old Bible stories that I will soon teach to Amara. I want to instill in her a love for our Father, and how better to start than right here right now.

Love to all...