Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).

We moved to the central valley of California in May 2012. Those first months in the “Golden State” were sunny, warm, and full of palm tree sightings...but they were also overwhelming. My husband was busy learning and traveling for his new job. I did little else besides unpack and put the house in order, learn to drive in California traffic, register our older kids for kindergarten and preschool, and manage the chaos a 5-, 3-, and 1-year-old naturally bring. 

Once while on our daily walk, a neighbor mentioned that there had been some break-ins in our neighborhood, and my mind went immediately into protect mode. I lay awake for several nights unable to sleep, because my mind was racing with all the possibilities and worst case scenarios. As I scrolled social media late one night, a scripture a friend posted caught my eye: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV).

Reading that one verse had an immediate positive effect on my state of mind, and it occurred to me then that I hadn’t read my Bible at all since we had moved months before! I opened up the Bible app on my phone (YouVersion has a great one!), started scrolling the scripture reading plans, and “Bible in 90 Days” caught my eye. Even though it felt a little crazy to try to read the entire Bible in such a short amount of time, I knew time spent ingesting His words wouldn’t be wasted.

All that time I had been faithfully praying throughout my days, and we had been attending church regularly as well. I had neglected His word, and the lack thereof manifested itself in an unexpected way! After that I spent every free minute I had working through the plan laid out on the app, and I’m proud to say I read the entire Bible in 90 days! 

Spending so much time in His word didn’t come naturally at first, but it quickly became a positive habit. Ever since, I’ve been more conscious of the amount of time I spend reading the Bible versus watching TV or mindlessly scrolling the internet. I’ve incorporated a number of reading plans into my daily routine--not all are as intense as reading the whole Bible in 90 days! --and I look forward to starting my days with Him. If you don’t already have a Bible app on your phone, I recommend YouVersion. You can create a free account here: https://www.bible.com Of course a paper Bible will work wonderfully as well!