Are You A Bathtub or Shower Girl?

There is something you probably don’t know about me. I haven’t taken a shower in years.

Shocked? Don’t be. I prefer my hygienic ablutions to include a bathtub of hot water to the pelting streams from a shower head.

There is something calming that happens in a bathtub that I can’t duplicate in the shower. A bath soaks away the day’s stresses and messes. It’s like a baptism every night. The day is washed away and I’m ready for the next.

Even when I’m in a hurry.  I can take a “skinny” bath and get the desired result – cleanliness – which is an imperative for every day. But I much prefer a deep, hot, relaxing soak. When I get out of the tub, I’m not just clean, I’m refreshed.

I often read in the tub. (You can’t do that in the shower!)

Like most of us, I read for work, research, and recreation.  My top two bathtub reads are Guideposts and Just Between Us. I read books and of course, and I read the Bible.

When it comes to Bible reading for recreation, I’m not an over-achiever. I won’t make it through in a year – or anything close.  I read one chapter a day and it takes me about three years to go from Table of Contents to maps.

Don’t get me wrong. I can do the quick read. I’ve polished off the entire Bible in 80 days.  You know what I got out of it?  Bragging rights! 

I read it so fast that the only parts that stuck were the sections I had already studied. 

I’m sure there are people a lot smarter than me who can read super fast and absorb just as much, but my pace is different.

There are days when all I have time for is a skinny bath and a quick read.  But my preference will always be for a bathtub of water and a slow soak approach to God’s word. 

How about you?

Are you as dedicated to daily Bible reading as you are to daily washing? Whether you read one verse or one book, make time to let God’s Word wash over you. Let me know what reading plan or system you use to stay in God’s Word. 

Scripture refresher: I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezek. 35: 25-28 NIV)

Prayer:  God, I neglect you so often.  Forgive me.  I want to know you better and I want to be fully known and feel safe with you.  God, will you woo me?  Will you continue to pursue me until I get it?  I love you, Lord. Amen.