Jen Russum

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My Favorite Moment

Oops. On May 8th, I never found time to blog. Oh well! It just so happens I was very busy yesterday doing other things like… putting in offers on houses to buy {!!!} and building our baby registry. Funny story: Micah called and emailed me at 8:06am – six minutes after his work day started – to tell me he needed a link to our baby registry for his co-worker by 11am. Why the deadline? I have no idea. Our baby is not due for another four months, and my baby shower is six weeks away. Earlier this week I started a tentative registry on Amazon, but that was it. Suddenly I had this strange deadline, and I had a feeling I needed to send a list from a store you can actually walk inside of, so I frantically built Target and Babies R Us registries over the next two hours and sent the links to Micah’s work before 11am. If you are interested, you can see the registries here {Amazon, Target, Babies ‘R’ Us}. They are still a work in progress and we haven’t figured out which stroller we want yet, but I like the way they are turning out so far. They are basically a compilation of many different bloggers “top ten” baby item lists… because who would I trust for registry advice more than a mommy blogger, right? 🙂
Thankfully, I can easily combine yesterday’s and today’s posts into one…
My number one piece of advice is always the same… read the Bible {in the morning} every day.
Nothing will change your life more.
A snapshot of my favorite time of day…
If you are a believer, but you don’t read the Word of God daily, you are missing out on so much. You are neglecting a gift wrapped and waiting for you. God has promised us that His Word is active, powerful, and good {Hebrews 4:12}. He has so much to teach us and so much encouragement for us… if we will only open up those pages and read.
If you read your Bible every now and then, I urge you to try reading every day, even if it’s just for five minutes {or even two minutes if that’s all you can manage}. You will start to yearn for more, I promise.
And if you can, read in the morning. No matter how tired you are or how much you have to adjust your schedule to make it work, you will never regret rising early to be in the Word. There is no sweeter start to the day, and you will find God’s Spirit dwells with you more richly throughout the day, long after you are done reading. The Spirit will make you more sensitive to the needs of others, give you hope when you are discouraged, give you the strength to deny temptation, and tell you when to speak boldly and when to be silent obediently.
And if  you aren’t a believer, but are wondering about God… Who is He? Is He real? Is He trustworthy? Is He worth your time? I urge you, also, to read the Word. Pick up a Bible and turn to the book of Matthew, John, or Philippians and start reading. Read for a minute or five or ten each day, and take a good long look at who Jesus is and what He has done for mankind. And if you have questions about what you read, find a Christian friend to talk to. And, if in doubt, you can always email me. I love talking about the Bible, in case you haven’t noticed…
A quick disclaimer: Please don’t think I’m just some freak-of-nature righteous person who came out of the womb reading the Bible {although if my own child does that, I wouldn’t be mad about it}. My own journey with reading the Word is messy too. I used to read inconsistently and when I did it was usually in bed at night as I was {literally} falling asleep. When we were dating, Micah challenged me to start reading the Bible in the morning, and I responded with, “I can’t.” I had a list of excuses about being a teacher and having to get up before dawn, and being a night owl who reads, writes, and thinks better in the PM, etc. etc. But I finally I buckled and said I would try it… and I promised to read the Bible for a minute each morning before work {I literally agreed to one minute… as in sixty seconds}. But I was faithful to that minute and before I knew it a minute turned into five and now I get sad if I don’t have a full 20-30 minutes to sit down and be in the Word  each morning. If you are interested, you can read more about my journey in learning to LOVE God’s Word here.
Or you can just start the journey yourself…

Comments

  1. Thank you for this post, it is what I needed this morning. I am going to start with reading one minute a day and see where the Lord leads me 🙂 I love your writing, you have such a heart for Jesus.

  3. I'm a morning Bible-reader too! Definitely makes a difference in the rest of the day. It used to be so hard for me to get up early and do it. I think it took me almost a full year of trying and failing and having sleep as a serious idol in my life before I finally committed and stuck to it (having my husband do it as well made a huge difference!). Now it's so natural it doesn't even feel like an extra obligation and I would be sad without it.

  5. This is so good, and I think it's especially crucial when you welcome that babe of yours into this world. Life will get extremely crazy there for awhile, but taking time for you to dive into the Word will keep your sanity going.
    On another note… house shopping?! Yay!! So excited for y'all! We just met with our realtor yesterday about selling and buying again this year, haha, we're crazy, huh! Love ya!

  9. Thanks Jennifer! I needed the reminder and I am back studying God's Word every morning and It is back to the hour it used to be. Having a Study to work on helps, Right now it is the Kings of the divided Kingdom, but I want to do one on Godly love again

  10. Great post! On the topic of the baby registry looks like you are off to a great start. I have a list of all my must haves on my blog. We like the Phil and Ted explorer stroller 🙂 It is pricey but can be converted into a double for baby #2.

  11. Great post! On the topic of the baby registry looks like you are off to a great start. I have a list of all my must haves on my blog. We like the Phil and Ted explorer stroller 🙂 It is pricey but can be converted into a double for baby #2.