I’m going to tell you all a story I heard at church camp this summer that has stuck with me. It’s about a man named Joe and his 7th grade crush. He liked her so much that he wrote her a love letter. Joe told her everything that he liked about her, he even added in that she had good legs (something you don’t tell a 7th grade girl). So the next day he brought it to school and decided that he’d to give it to her right as soon as he saw her. While he was walking through the hallway he saw her with her group of friends. Joe was nervous but he walked up to her and handed her the love letter. All her friends were giggling and saying, “Are you really going to read that?” Joe walked away and then turned around hoping he’d see her reading it. When he looked back the girl looked Joe in the eyes, ripped up the letter and threw it on the floor. He was crushed. He had worked so hard to write the perfect love letter to her and she didn’t even read it.
After Joe told us this story he explained to us that the Bible is our love letter. And lately I’ve been doing what the girl had done to Joe. God took such a long time to write the perfect love letter for us and I choose not to read it. He poured His heart out on those pages and my excuse for not reading it is “I’m too busy” or “I can’t focus on what this is saying so I’m just going to give up and go do something else”. I can’t even imagine how sad God feels because I’m not reading His love letter to me.
This has been on my heart lately. I need to focus more on reading His love letter and really digging deep into it. I can’t be out here spreading God’s Word if I don’t even know it. Whenever I did read the love letter I was more focused on getting through it as fast as I can rather than taking my time and understanding it. I’ve had difficulties focusing in when I read so Kate (our mentor) gave me some tips on how to focus better while reading. She told me to read the chapter and then write it out on paper. After that, I read through it again and highlight the things that stand out to me. It helps me understand what I’m reading and what God is saying through the chapter.
I’m going to challenge everyone reading this to open up their love letter and read what God has to say to you. He is such a good God and I’m excited to get to know Him better.
