What Changed Me

Our daughter Arla was a baby in the mid-'70s, and nearly every morning after my husband Daniel had taken our son to school and had gone on to work, I enjoyed a quiet hour alone. My habit was to read the newspaper and enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee before Arla awoke. 

Seldom did I consider this to have been a productive time, and one morning I sensed an emptiness, a hunger for more than I knew I'd find in the Kansas City Star. I stepped over to our book shelf and randomly pulled out a book. It opened to these words, "God's Word can be as fresh to you as the daily newspaper."

Struck by this rather remarkable and possibly direct message, I knew it was up to me to rearrange the newspaper and the Bible on my priority list. I canceled the newspaper and began each morning sitting at my kitchen table with an open Bible and a cup of coffee. 

A few months passed and one morning, I knew the paper boy had thrown the free weekly paper that would give the results of the previous day's election. Eager to see if a candidate for whom I had given a tea had won, I rushed out to get the paper.

As I walked back into the house, I thought, I'll wait and have my cup of coffee with my Bible reading because I'll enjoy reading that more than the newspaper. I then realized that although reading the Word regularly had begun as a discipline, it had become my preferred pleasure.

Thank You, Jesus, for planting a discontent within us that helps us to turn to You.

"Oh, how I love your law!" (Psalm 119:97).