Happy 2024!

My name is Connie, and I am a retired public school teacher. I had the privilege of working with children for 37 years and I pray I touched their lives a fraction of how they touched mine and continue to touch mine today.

For several decades I have been journaling my devotional time by writing down what God reveals to me as I read His word. I literally have volumes of these journals in a box under my bed. In December of 2012, as I was finishing the book of Revelation I kept thinking about putting my daily thoughts in a blog. After several days of entertaining the idea I finally prayed, “Lord if this is from you then I’ll go for it. Do with it as you will. And if it’s not from you, let it die a natural death.”

So for a year, I posted my daily journal as I read through the Chronological New International Version of the Bible. Every day I prayed that God would use the thoughts he prompted me to write to bring someone closer to him. It gained about 100 followers, and if you are one of them, thank you. I continue to pray for you.

In 2014 I continued to read God’s Word and journal my thoughts. But I didn’t blog every day. My statistics tell me I posted 100 times that year. I let God nudge me to post those times instead of automatically posting daily. I read the Bible chronologically again, this time in the New Living Testament.

In 2015 I used a more traditional reading plan. Each day there was assigned an Old Testament passage, plus some psalms and proverbs, and some verses in the New Testament. I was blessed as God revealed a bit more of Himself as I read the New King James Version of His Word.

In 2016 I used the New American Standard version of God’s Word and shared my thoughts every day. Once again, I successfully read the entire Bible in a year and shared on this blog some things God laid on my heart.

But I found myself a bit frustrated at times when, in order to reach my goal, I felt I had to skip over some things God was speaking to me about so that I could finish Revelation by December 31. So in 2017, I decided to slow down.

I decided to begin in Genesis and read one chapter, one verse at a time. I took time to think on Scripture a bit longer, meditate a bit more, and even break out some commentaries to see what others have to say about some of the passages. It took me four days short of two years to read through God’s Word. I loved it.

In 2019 I read through the Bible chronologically from the NIV, and posted my thoughts every day. Then in 2020, I read through the NIV again but only posted as I felt God leading me to do so. I read from my mother’s Bible that year. She went to live with Jesus in 1996, and I have the privilege of having her Bible, complete with underlined verses and notes in the margin. It was incredibly precious to get to know the things that spoke to Mom, as I let God speak to me, too.

I began in Genesis on January 1, 2021 reading from an Apologetics Bible. It was an intense twelve months as I dug deep into God’s Word, trying to understand what skeptics and cults believe, then questioning why I believe what I do. It was a faith-affirming journey for me.

2022 was a “back to basics” kind of year. I read through the Bible using the KJV. Now, I don’t believe that is the only, not even the best, translation of God’s Word. But I wanted to re-read the words I had read and learned in my youth. There is something very precious about those out-of-date words. It really makes a person stop and think about what is written.

In 2023 I was excited to read God’s Word Chronologically with my family of faith. I read the ESV. Our church followed a reading plan from the Bible App, and there were almost 40 of us who read the Scriptures together as a church family. What a precious time it has been. I highly recommend it for your church!

2024 is upon us. I plan to read the NIV translation, once again chronologically. I never get tired of reading God’s Words. I love that He cared enough to inspire men to share His heart with us, to reveal HIs plan, His rules, Himself in such an open way. Knowing Jesus IS THE WORD, makes me love this book more and more.

I want to thank those of you who have joined my journey through this blog. Thank you for your comments, likes, follows, and shares. I don’t know if reading my ramblings has sweetened your walk with the Lord, or convicted you, or caused you to think. But I’ll continue to share what God lays on my heart as I continue to read and study His precious Word. I’ll let him take care of the rest.

If you are just finding alighttomyway, hello and welcome. If you’d like, you can read what God put on my heart in the archives of this blog. I pray God will bless you as you open your heart to hearing from him through his Word.

Whether or not you make alighttomyway a part of your walk with the Lord, I pray that you will always… ALWAYS… make reading God’s Word a priority every day. Dear one, let’s determine to not only read it, but memorize it, meditate on it, pray over it. Let’s ask God to reveal himself to us in the intimate way he can and to prompt us to get out there and lead others to his saving grace. That’s what we were put here on this earth to do in the first place.

May I add a bit of a warning? Please choose carefully the translation you choose to read. There are people who are publishing what they are passing off as Scripture, some who say they have received a visit from Jesus, or have been given a special revelation that gives them the authority to change the words. They are liars. Do not open yourself up to the heresy. God’s Word does not change with the times.

God bless you in 2024, and give you opportunity to be a blessing to others. I am praying for you.