New Devotional Guide

Last year my friend Rhonda and I studied The Illustrated Words of Jesus for Women for our daily devotions.

Rhonda lives in San Antonio; I live outside of Lafayette.  We have never really met.

A few years ago we were in the same small group for a Proverbs 31 Online Bible Study.  We were two of the only three people, besides the leader, who participated in the weekly discussions.  Through that we struck up a friendship and decided to break off from that group, seek out other small groups for ourselves, and also create our own small group of 2 to just chat or work on devotions on our own.

Last year she had selected the book mentioned above and I asked if I could join her. I ordered a book and we posted just about every day about that particular scripture, reading, and prayer.  There was also a picture on each daily page to color; for a while, I kept up with those and found them relaxing, but by summer, I had fallen behind.  However, I didn't fall behind in the daily readings until the end of December.  The holidays just filled up too much of my time.

A few weeks before Thanksgiving Hilary and I were in the west side Meijer so she could print out some senior pictures.  I was wandering around the area, checking out books since they were close.  I found a few books that would be good possibilities for this year's study, and after exchanging texts and pictures with Rhonda, we decided on 365 Devotions to Love God and Love Others Well.  I liked this book for  several reasons.  The format is the same as the one we used last year.  However, the scriptures are from the entire Bible, not just the Gospels.   There are no pictures to color.  That makes the book a little more compact since the pictures took up half the page sometimes.

Even though we got off to a slow start, not posting anything until January 3, we have been consistent with posting since then.  I like the format.  I like that verses from other books of the Bible are included and we can discuss those. The commentaries are good and applicable to us.  The prayers are meaningful.

But the best part is that we are sharing our ideas and thoughts, asking each other questions, and unloading concerns that we might not share with others.

It will be an interesting year, one that I am looking forward to.