Sporadic

When I left home for Young Harris College, my Dad gave me a copy of J.B. Phillips translation of the New Testament entitled, "The New Testament in Modern English."   What Bible reading I had done prior to that gift was done while wading through the King James Version that accompanied me through my adolescent years.  It was much later in my adult years that I learned that this Biblical translation was started from a bomb shelter in London during World War II.  What I spoke of as "The Phillips Translation" was my first exposure to the modern renderings of the ancient story.

As a young believer Bible reading was at best sporadic.  While I was not always satisfied with sporadic, it became a pattern that was hard to shake.  One of the things that helped me move beyond sporadic was a suggestion that at the end of each reading, I write down the month and date in the margin.  This enabled me to know when I returned whether I had been away a day or a week or even longer.  As much as anything it was a tool which helped me to be honest with myself.  With the date of my last reading staring me in the face, it was hard to fabricate what was obviously not true.

There is nothing wrong with such helps.  There are many things we can do to encourage ourselves to be more regular in our reading of the Word.  What works for one may not work for another, but whatever it takes to develop the habit, or pattern, of daily systematic reading is more than worth the effort.  Habits can be bad, or good.   On the positive side once the habit of daily reading is established firmly in our life, sporadic will not likely be the thing that describes our treatment of the Word.