A Peek at My Quiet Time, Updated Version

In my birthday post a few days ago, Ryan mentioned how he appreciates the way I study my Bible and spend time with the Lord every day. (By the way, it made my heart so happy that he sees and appreciates that!) I had a request to write a post about what my quiet time looks like, and of course, I'm happy to share about that!

I wrote a post touching on that topic last year (which you can read here) but I'm going to approach it from a different angle today, because it looks a little bit different this year than it did last year. It's an ever changing thing for me.

I will also give you a couple of other resources here at the beginning before launching into my new thoughts today.

First...this past year, our small group did a study in verse mapping, which is all about really digging into a particular verse or passage to learn as much about it as you can - from every angle. I learned about that practice from this post, written by Arabah Joy. I highly recommend reading it if you'd like to try verse mapping!

Secondly...I also use a prayer/note-taking binder when I do my quiet time, and I wrote about how I made that binder here. I still use it and still love it!

SO! How do I do my quiet time now?

Well...last year, as many of you may remember, Ryan and I both read through the Bible chronologically. We did our reading separately on our own time, but we would come together at the end of the day to talk about what we'd learned and to process ideas. Neither of us had read the Bible through using the chronological plan before, and we both really enjoyed doing it. But as those of you who have read through the Bible in a year know...it's a sprint! No time for sitting and soaking unless you have no other plans for the day...every day...all year.

The portion of Scripture that really caught my attention as we sped through our reading was the Gospels. I really wanted to sit with them and marinate in them at length. So this year, that's my study plan. Just the Gospels. Originally I planned to read one book each month and then start over, so by the end of the year, I'd have read each Gospel three times. But I realized they're not all the same length, and I felt like it would still be rushing things. So I went through and counted the little sections. (Not the chapters. The actual little sections that have been "named" over time by Bible editors. I discovered that if I read one section a day (and doubled up one day a month to read two sections) I can get through all four Gospels in one year. Some sections are longer than others, but typically they're much shorter than a chapter, so I have time to read and digest.

When I sit down to read/pray/study, my time typically looks like this.

* I start on Twitter.

What?? Well, I start with prayer/reflection time, and I follow a bunch of Bible teachers on Twitter. (Beth Moore, Jennifer Rothschild, Scotty Smith, Tim Keller, etc.) I scroll through to see what they have to say in the world of uplifting/teaching/edifying comments and often copy their tweets into my prayer notebook. (I have a section for praise/myself/ministry/listening, etc. and their words often fit into one of those categories.)

* I pray for others. 

I keep a list of people/situations I've promised to pray for, so I pause to pray in the official quiet time, although I also often pray while I get my steps in later in the day and will use that walking time to pray at length for my friends and family.

* I pray for Ryan.

I'm actually doing a prayer project for him this year. It started out as a temporary thing and I liked it so much I've instituted it as a year-long project. Perhaps I'll do a whole separate post on that eventually, but in the meantime, I basically choose a word for every day, and I pray that word over him. Often the words are attributes or character traits, but not always. I really enjoy taking that time to pray specifically over him and our marriage.

* I study my Scripture passage.

I open my Bible and move to the next section. I write the date in my Bible so I know where I am and what date I studied which passage. I read through the words of the passage and let them wash over me, and then I move to my supplemental commentary. I think most of you know that when I studied Matthew, I read Charles Spurgeon's commentary and loved it. (My review is at the bottom of this post.) I also learned that Matthew was the only entire book of the Bible that Spurgeon wrote a commentary for, so I had to start over for Mark. I landed on Charles Swindoll's commentary on Mark, and while it is very different in tone and presentation from Spurgeon's style, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Swindoll is a preacher/teacher (still alive today if you're not familiar with him) so his content is pulled from a combination of sermons he has preached and study he did in writing the book. I find it to be very conversational and not at all intimidating. I also learned he has other commentaries, so I will probably end up getting them all and learning much more from him!

As I read the commentary, I underline and star things I love, copy some quotes into my prayer binder, and end by moving my best learning into the Bible itself. (That way if I'm at church/Sunday School/a Bible study and need the wisdom, it's right there.) Ryan finds the pages fascinating, so I'll post a picture for you. I know some people don't like to write in their Bibles and if it bothers you, just keep scrolling! I surely do not want to offend! I just like to have all my notes in one spot!

When I'm done reading, then my official quiet time is over for the day. If I'm writing a Bible study or something else, I will spend more time researching for that, and I'm also taking some online Bible classes right now, so I also spend time listening to lectures and taking notes for that. But all of that is just extra.

I hope that helps answer your questions, and if there's something I didn't cover, let me know! Happy to answer any additional questions!