Living a Disciplined Life: Day by Day

Earlier this year, I started a series on discipline. Oddly enough, I never got around to actually posting the posts I had written or finishing writing the series. I finally decided where the series would take us. I've spent the last few months figuring out what this discipline would look like in my everyday life.

I asked YOU where God has led you to be more disciplined. Now, I'm going to share where He has led ME to be more disciplined.

Last year, I worked on two main things, which are really just one thing:

Planning to read.

I enjoy reading, but then again, it's something I have to force myself to do. No sooner do I sit down with a good book that I realize there are about ten other things I could be doing. Seriously, it can take me weeks to finish one book unless it's for school and I have no choice but to read the book in a timely manner or get behind.

But, after being in college for a year and spending much time reading, I realized that it is not only possible to get through books in less than a month (or two, or three...), but it's also much more enjoyable and beneficial.

So, I started a list of books I hoped to get through in the year of 2009. I made it through most of them! I also added books that I had to read for school or decided to read along the way. This list helped me to keep track of what I was putting into my mind and inspired me to keep moving so that I could get onto the next book.

The other part of my reading, was that I wanted to spend more time in God's Word.

For most of the year I worked through a "through the Bible in a year" plan. When fall came around, I came across some knew knowledge. The Bible can be read by the average person in about 90 hours. I realized that if I read the Bible for one hour every day I could get through it once every 90 days or so!

I'm still working on this, but my goal is to spend at least one hour each day reading God's Word in addition to my regular time of meeting with Him to study, pray, and listen.