Today was a monumental day for us.  David and I read a book called Ten P's in a Pod a little over 2 years ago.  It is a book about a family that traveled around performing for groups and preaching.  It was  great book written by one of the children in the family when he was a young man.  The thing that struck me when we read it was just how much that family loved God's word.  Alot of people say they love God's word, but this family lived it.  Each child read the Bible each morning for 30 minutes to an hour and after every meal the father would read for 30 minutes (I think).  They got through the Bible 3 or 4 times PER YEAR and had much of it memorized. 

One story in the book was about one of the children when he was around 7 years old.  He had been reading his Bible each morning, but had been reading the book of Jonah over and over again.  One morning after a few weeks, he came down and quoted the entire book of Jonah!  Amazing.

I was inspired by what I read.  We've always had family devotions in the evening, and the kids and I read many Bible stories during the day, but we'd never gone straight through (to my shame, I'd never gone straight through on my own, either).  I determined after reading that book that we would start on January 1, 2007 to read through the Bible.  Because my kids were only 6,4,3,1 and 4 months at the time, I didn't think 30 minutes per meal was a doable goal, so I made it 15 minutes.  Old Testament at breakfast, New Testament at lunch.

I thought for sure we'd get through the Bible a couple of times in 2007.  Not sure what I was thinking on that one...we can't do anything quickly around here...

Long story short...we didn't.  We changed to reading a proverb every morning (corresponding to the day...10th of the month, read Prov. 10, etc) and just reading a couple of chapters at lunch time.  But we didn't give up...as of today, December 30, 2008, the kids and I have officially read the whole Bible together...and through the book of Proverbs approximately 20 times.  We are so excited!!

This is particularly exciting for me because I'm VERY good at starting new things...I'm not so good at seeing them to completion...character flaw number 759 if you're keeping track at home.

It's not about checking something off a list, though.  I've been amazed at how much my kids have learned going through the whole Bible.  They truly have a better "big picture" view than I ever had...and I was learning right along with them.  It was also fun to see the parts of the Bible that my kids enjoyed the most.  David (8) loves visions, so he was a fan of Ezekiel and LOVED the book of Revelations.   The rest where more fond of the wonderful OT stories and best of all...the miracles of Jesus. 

Best of all...the kids are all excited about starting Genesis again tomorrow!  So am I!