How Reading the Whole Bible Changed My Life

Dear First name / friend,

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

- Hebrews 4:12 -

My first time reading through the entire Bible was not in high school, despite the fact I grew up in a Christian home. Nor was it during my religion degree, though that would have been an ideal time to, you know, read the entirety of a religious text. No; my first time reading the whole Bible was when I had my first baby.

Up to that point I’d been in school while working full time for almost eight years. I put myself through college debt-free, so it took me longer than most (I finished my bachelor’s degree in religion when I was twenty five; I was pregnant with my first baby when I graduated). Between classes and working all sorts of shifts my Bible reading stayed in the realm of the “easy read”: Epistles. Psalms. Gospels. I read through the Pentateuch a few times, always stumbling over Leviticus. But I did not complete a Bible in a year plan until the year after my oldest child was born.

I can still feel the sticky linoleum of our duplex kitchen under my feet. I’d start coffee in the French press, bring the baby downstairs and feed her with one arm as I took notes on Genesis with the other. I kept a small basket of bible study materials on the center of the table, including a printed reading plan, and slowly checked off the passages as I went. My husband Josh left for work at 5:45 AM and didn’t get home until 6 pm if he was lucky, so I spent a lot of time alone. There in that tiny Pennsylvania kitchen I learned to love the big picture of the Bible with such ferocity I’ve read through the Bible in a year six times since.

Whenever the new year rolls around people start talking about reading plans. And having read the Bible through seven or eight times, plus led others through it three times, I understand the daunting task a year-long plan seems to be. Many people give up in February (partially due to February being, well, gross, and also due to Leviticus making it gross-er). But when we frame our minds well before beginning, reading through the whole Bible on a set timeline produces some amazing results. And by “results” I don’t mean a perfect checklist of daily readings.

Every year I’ve read through, including the first one, I missed readings. I’m guessing I missed six weeks total of readings, if you were to add them all up. So why do I still say I read through the Bible in a year? Because I did. I kept showing up instead of giving up. I didn’t assume I had to start over because I missed a week. And most of all, I didn’t try to catch up; I just started on whatever day the plan was on.

This is key to how I now run Bible in a Year Club, the course and community I created to share my love of reading through the Bible with those who follow my work. “Start where we are” is our tagline, and it’s something I preached to myself this year as I stumbled through my eighth read-through pregnant with our fourth baby. I bet I missed more than usual this year, and I’m picking up in the epistles alongside our 2025 team for the home stretch. But rather than be ashamed that I led a program while missing major pieces of it, I’m reminded of what I’ve learned from my years reading through this incredible text: The goal is not to read the Bible perfectly. The goal is to know God. And if imperfectly reading the Bible leads to that, then imperfectly reading the Bible is the way to go.

I’m certainly not excusing laziness, but we all have our hard weeks, days, and months. We get sick. We move. We take care of aging parents or newborns. And holding an anvil over our heads because we didn’t read all of 2 Kings isn’t motivating to finish a plan. What’s truly motivating is the freedom to start fresh, knowing you’ll read through the Bible again in your lifetime and catch the spots you missed eventually. No guilt, no shame – just continued exposure to the story of Christ, Old and New Testaments both.

Whatever reading you do this year, let it be through the lens of intimacy, not perfection. Perfection leads to defeat. Intimacy leads to growth. God is not looking for a checklist of books you’ve read from the Bible; He is looking for transformed hearts. He loves to transform us through His Word, so keep showing up – even when you’ve missed a day.