This weekend, I made my own bible study pages 🙌🏾.
After a little more than a year of recommitting to reading my bible and purchasing bible study sheets from Etsy, I decided to make my own.
Last year, when I started on this journey, my goal was to read the bible more frequently. Daily if I could manage it.

Through this journey, I've been reminded of a what it takes to do the things we really want to do.

What it takes - in no particular order:

1️⃣ The right time
2️⃣  The right tools
3️⃣ Understanding of why we're not doing the thing

In this blog, I share my journey and show you how all 3 of these culminated in creating a daily bible study and how these same 3 things will help you create the life you really want.

----

This weekend, after a routine sing-your-heart-out joy ride around the city, I pulled into the OfficeMax parking lot to print my newly created bible study sheets.

Earlier in the day, I excitedly logged into Canva to tweak my sheets after a week-long "test drive" and now I was ready to print. Previously, I had purchased sheets from A Servant's Walk on Etsy. They were great and just what I needed when I started.

Over time, I realized I wanted something different from my bible study.
I wanted more space to write, but didn't want a separate journal. I wanted to combine book and chapter summaries with my verse studies, without having to join multiple 3 or 4 page studies together. Several months ago, I outlined what I wanted on each page, but it wasn't until recently that I decided to go for it.

My brainstorm on the front page of my Etsy sheets.

 
This brings me to one of things we need to do the things we really want: understanding of why we aren't doing the thing.

So often in my work with clients, I find that they know what they want to do, but they have little to no clarity about what's keeping them from it. Gaining clarity about what is actually holding you back is the key to building a solution that addresses your needs.

 -

In all honesty, I've never had a strong prayer or church life.

I grew up going to church with my mom, but also recall being able to stay home if waiting for me to get ready meant that I would keep her from arriving on time. I got to sleep in more times than I think she liked 😉. She rarely missed a Sunday. I was "trained up in the way a child should go" but still, but as an adult, I've often felt like my connection to God was weak.

I couldn't recite the Lord's prayer by memory.
I didn't really go to church.
I didn't know tons of bible stories by heart.
I didn't know what it felt like to hear from God (or so I thought).

I thought I should know, be, and do all of these things.

I felt embarrassed and ashamed.
As such, I would start and stop my efforts to grow closer to God.
As a perfectionist and high-achiever, I'm not one to do things I don't already know I'm good at. I am not a fan of the feeling of being a beginner.

Coming to terms with these feelings was one of the keys to doing what I really wanted to do.

📌

Through this journey, I've been reminded of a what it takes to do the things we really want to do.

1️⃣ The right time
2️⃣  The right tools
3️⃣ Understanding of why we're not doing the thing

Instead of running from reading my bible, I shifted my thinking.
I started asking myself, "what would it take to shift from beginner to competent?"

 I thought:
✅ Beginners seek out information about "how to".
✅ Beginners practice.
✅ Beginners find comfort in the discomfort of not knowing, knowing it will come eventually.

I began by researching how to study the bible on YouTube.
If I'm being honest, I felt stupid for not already knowing, but I pushed through.

Then I started searching for structured bible studies online and found bible studies from Calvary Chapel Online.

I started by watching a few sermons. As I watched I learned that the pastor's wife has recorded bible studies crafted for women. These studies were multi-week programs that broke down different books a few chapters at a time. This took me from just casually learning about creating a relationship with God to focusing on growing a relationship with God.

This reminded me of another thing we need to do the things we really want: the right time.

Finding the right time is about carving out time and identifying the right time of day based on your existing routine. Knowing what you want to do, but not knowing how much time it requires or where that time will come from will keep you in limbo. The key to disproving the belief that you don't have the time is to actually carve it out in your schedule and test it out. You may learn that it requires less time than you actually need. 

-

I started small with creating time.

30 minutes a day at the end of my day.
In hindsight, that was kind of ambitious because I didn't already have a strong routine.

In the beginning, I thought I would commit to reading right before bed, but that rarely worked in my favor.

My nights never seemed to be as predictable as I would have liked and as such, neither was my study. 

During my first study, I read fairly consistently, but the daily routine trailed off shortly after. I watched sermons semi-frequently as I remembered and later started going to church weekly, but rarely picked up my bible in between Sundays. I noticed; however, that I often would read in the middle of the work day. That prompted me to think that rather than setting a time at night, I should just create a reminder, so I added a daily reminder to my calendar.

My hope was that it would remind me and at some point in the day I'd find time to read.

I did read more frequently, but I only read. There was no study and I often found myself reserving my study for Saturday (my designated rest day). That kinda worked until I started to feel really overwhelmed by the number of chapters I'd read and would subsequently have to study.

I built a decent weekly routine, but growing my practice from 1 day a week to 7 wasn't quite working out.

As I was studying the Wisdom of Solomon (Apocrypha), I came upon a verse that read, "That it might be known, that we must prevent the sun to give thee thanks, and at the dayspring pray unto thee." (Wisdom 16:28 KJVA)

This can be translated to "This was to teach us that we must get up before daybreak to give you thanks, and pray as the sun comes up." (Wisdom 16:28 GNTA)

Ever since, I've been reading my bible first thing in the morning before I brush my teeth.
Might change that order when I'm not single anymore lol

So far, I've studied every day for 30 days.

The initial 30 minutes has since become an hour.
I've learned how to make it a priority even when I wake up late. 
I've finally started growing my relationship and feeling competent.

---

📌

Finding the right time is about identifying the right time of day based on your existing routine.

---

 
That competence wasn't just the result of creating the time. It was also about the final thing we need to do what we really want: the right tools. 

We won't do the things we say we want to do, without the right stuff to do it.

I know that probably sounds strange coming from a person who got her start blogging about minimalism. What minimalism taught me is that it's not about not having stuff, it's about having the right stuff.

So often we want to launch a business or idea, but we haven't acquired the right resources, materials, or support to help us achieve this goal. So often we want to spend more time focused on hobbies like journaling, but we don't have journals, pens, or dedicated space to do so.

-

Studying the way I truly wanted was hindered first by not having dedicated time, and then by feeling like I didn't have the right tools.

Having study sheets that gave me the space to study exactly as I desired made it easy to see the study through for the entire hour, it kept me from getting frustrated or feeling overwhelmed, it streamlined my focus each morning.

---

📌

We won't do the things we say we want to do, without the stuff to do it.

In addition to creating bible sheets, I also updated my Google calendar.
I love using Google to plan out my days because I can set automated reminders of the things I desire to do. I've tried physical planners so many time, but we just don't get along 🙄.

I don't always wake up at the designated time on my calendar, but seeing my routine laid out in time blocks helps me to identify what I need to do and the order in which I desire to do them.

🌅 Wake Up

📖 Spend time with God

💪🏾 GRFD (Get Ready For The Day)

🚿 Shower, brush teeth, wash my face

👚 Get dressed

🍕 Grab my (hopefully) pre-prepared breakfast and lunch

🏢 Go to work

Now that I've built a pretty good bible study routine, next up is having some fun - playing with the sheet design, adding some color and whatever else comes to mind 😍.

This journey has been an amazing reminder of what it really takes to do the things we say we want to do.

1️⃣ The right time
2️⃣  The right tools
3️⃣ Understanding of why we're not doing the thing

Not only did this practice support me in my spiritual journey, but it also helped me launch my business, create a blog, coaching program, and conference, while recommitting to my hobbies, deepening my relationships, and losing over 50 pounds over the last 7 years!

It can do the same for you.

What business do you really want to launch?
What do really want to do with your time outside of your 9-to-5 and business?

Do you have the 3 things you need?

If not, here's a couple ways I can help you:

1. Grab the Time Mastery Blueprint guide. Inside this guide, I'll help you identify why you're not making time to launch your business or create time for life outside of work. Then, I'll show you how to fix it.
2. Want to learn what's keeping you stuck and eliminate it in just one weekend? Request a discovery call. During this 30-minute call, we'll discuss what's going on in your world today, how to get unstuck, and how I can help.

P.S. Interested in using my bible study sheets as a launch pad for creating your own? Grab the template on Canva here! Got questions about how to use the sheets? Shoot me an email 😊