Robert Murray M'Cheyne on Bible Reading
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"Do everything in earnest--if it is worth doing, then do it with all your might. Above all, keep much in the presence of God. Never see the face of man till you have seen his face who is our Life, our All." - Robert Murry M'Cheyne
My brother-in-law, David, gave me a copy of Robert Murry M'Cheyne's Bible reading plan in a booklet form published by Banner of Truth. Besides the convenient layout of the year's readings, the pamphlet includes one page with instructions from the original. Pastor M'Cheyne devised this plan for his congregation, St. Peter's of Dundee, so that they "all might be feeding in the same portion of the green pasture at the same time." What an excellent idea for churches, small groups, or families! Pastor M'Cheyne went to be with the Lord at the age of 30, just three months after publishing his Bible reading plan.
Here are a couple of other instructions he gives:
- "Our private reading should be the first thing we do in the morning. God's voice should be the first we hear. We shold mark tow or three verses which seem richest to us and pray over them."
- "Above all, the Word of God should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path - our guide in perplexity, our armour in trials, our food in times of weakness."
Comments
As my kids are growing and I am learning how to be a better wife and mother, you are honestly on my mind a lot. Many times my thoughts are, "I wish I had spent more time with Anne when I lived in Bloomington so I would know how she accomplished everything." Maybe you have already written a post like this, but could you just illustrate what an average day looks like for you? When do you have time to plan curriculum? When do you fit in reading your Bible? How do you take care of everyone else and still keep yourself healthy and sane? How do you keep your husband a priority? I realize that you are in a different stage of life now than me, so could you offer some prospective of how you were able to balance schooling while nursing, while cleaning, while loving your husband? Are there some good books you could recommend?
Love,
Lauren Pickett
Wow - you have lots of great questions! It's hard to know where to start. Maybe I can take on some of these questions in some future posts, but here are a couple of quick thoughts.
Average day - I wrote a piece for a hs magazine a few years ago about a "Day in the Life" kind of thing, and I'll try to post that in a bit, just to give a flavor of what our kind of crazy life looks like. But, yes, things were very different when our oldest children were little, or during the time when our middle four children were all under five years old. (Now they are all teens, which is interesting, too!) People talk about different seasons, or as I like to think of it, different chapters, of life. Each one might look pretty different.
Planning - I do (and have always done) the bulk of it in the summer. When I had young children, I did this in the evenings and nap times, or sometimes even during the wee hours of the night during insomniac periods.
Bible Reading - Different times during different seasons. There were many years when the first thing in the morning just didn't work, but before bed did. Now I'm finally able to get back to some reading early, or at least at breakfast. While nursing a baby is a very good time to read the Bible and pray, though. Grabbing little snatches here and there works for me, too. (That's how I have to do so many things - a few moments redeemed for something, but over time it adds up.)
Oh - I've gotten so wordy, and still haven't addressed everything you've mentioned. How about if I jot some notes and try to get back to some of these ideas in a later post?
Love to you and your family!
Anne
I really appreciate it! I'll keep an eye out for future posts too :) Love you and your family as well!
Lauren