Tag Archives: success

A Journey with No Regrets… Finally!

Posted in Reflections From My Heart by
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I did it! I finished reading my bible cover to cover. I am going to selfishly relish in my accomplishment because I have to admit that I am authentically proud of myself. I remember sitting in my living room back in July 2013, starring at my bible wondering where to start that day. Up until then, I read my bible for random bible studies (which is very sporadic and not truly a full immersion into the richness of God’s Word), or I would grab a book based on what I felt like reading and read until I felt God speaking to me, but that July Saturday morning I prayed, “What message do you have for me today, Lord?”

The answer was a nudging to read the whole bible starting at Genesis. Isn’t it just like God to give you an answer to your prayer that is the exact opposite of what you were really looking for? I was hoping more for something like, “Read Philippians to experience more joy, or Ephesians to get armored up”, but cover to cover – all 66 BOOKS – even before starting felt very defeating. I started reading through Genesis more times than any other book of the bible and I really wasn’t that interested in reading about Adam and Eve AGAIN. (Isn’t it the petty things that hang us up sometimes?)

Since it was God talking, I had to entertain the offer. Then I thought to myself, “Well, I have the rest of my life to do this, so why not? If the rapture comes and I haven’t finished, I guess I’ll learn how it ends anyway.” – There you have it, my motivational self-talk.

How Do I Get Started?

Thinking, if I’m going to do this and succeed this time, I need how some accountability. I scanned my list of highly devoted bible reading friends and just didn’t think any of them would want this long responsibility. Besides, this is my journey with God, if I have another person to work with we could slow the progress.

Next I thought of picking up a 365 day reading plan, but knew that if I missed just one day you could forget it. If I ended up having a backlog of days to read and snowballed, I would get further discouraged and give up.

My third option was to take it one day at a time, one chapter at a time, at my own self pace. For accountability, I would create a blog, this blog, called Godly Girlfriends. Even though upon its start I had no followers, I was still accountable to reading and writing about my bible journey.

Perfect! I have a plan that “I think” will work.

Having found a path and putting a committed plan in place I started both reading the bible and my Godly Girlfriends blog. Here we are 4 years later and I have obeyed God and read my bible – the WHOLE bible. The daily blogging stopped somewhere in the middle of Deuteronomy because I feel a strong conviction that it was becoming more of a task box to be checked rather than an authentic, focused, deliberate walk with God. This made my blog posts less frequent and inconsistent, but my spiritual life took off.

God and I grew together day after day, week after week. As I closed the book after Revelation 22, I had a flashback over these past years. Was it perfect? NO. I missed many days, even weeks, when I would jump back into a local bible study or when I purposefully slow down my pace to piggy back on a more inductive study with Kay Arthur (through Daniel) or Dr. Vernon McGee (through all the minor profits).

What’s Next?

My original plan was to pick up my Chronological Study Bible and do it all over again chronologically, but God put a young lady in my life who is hungry to learn and grow and her youth group is reading through 2 Kings. So I have decided to take on that book with her, to be her accountability partner and see what God has to teach me back in Kings for the time being.

They say that the teacher is the best student and I have to say, taking my knowledge and teaching it to this young lady will definitely be just that – teaching me!

Thank you for your loyalty to keep following. I will continue to share my life with you and all that I am learning and growing in my life’s journey with my BFF Jesus.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. Revelation 22:20-21

Equipped For Success

Posted in Daily Devotions: Chapter by Chapter by

True Success

Today’s Devotion: Exodus 31

I’m moved. God’s Word does that to me all the time, but today in particular because we have this pleasant little chapter set refreshingly inside of a pretty heavy book. So far in Exodus we have gotten God’s Laws and all of God’s uncompromising expectations about the tabernacle. Interestingly enough, I never questioned who would actually build the tabernacle and who could satisfactorily accomplish such a standard of perfection. God answers it in chapter 31… the gifted!

I love this! I manage a small team on the professional career side of my life and it is true. When God equips the gifted, get out of the way. They can scale mountains and overcome virtually any obstacle, seemingly without effort.

I remember out of college how I used to interview for jobs with the mindset that I needed to tell them what they wanted to hear. I would try to impress my interviewer with answers that would fit or mold me into the position that they were seeking to fill. I learned over the years that that is like fitting a square peg into a round hole. If I tried to morph into the perfect person for the job, the chances are likely that I would be prone to make mistakes and the job itself would be miserable for me. On the flip side, my boss would be frustrated because my errors and inefficiencies cost the company money in rework, additional training, and additional supervision/guidance.

Since then I have interviewed for jobs with the confidence in knowing what I can and can’t do. I’m very transparent in my interview because I want my future employer to know full-well what strengths I bring to their organization and I also want them to know where I would disappoint them. That allows them to fully discern how we can mutually benefit from having a relationship. I can be assured that I will be working in areas that I will be most effective and they can find someone to compliment my strengths so the organization can capitalize on the strengths of a synergistic team.

When this is accomplished, everybody wins. Can you imagine Moses trying to carve the wood on the altar, hang the curtains, take measurements to God’s specifications, sew the priestly outfit and chemically blend the special incense? Of course not! God equips the workers and results in true success.