Yearly Bible Reading Tracker printable
I created a printable for you to help track your daily Bible reading. I need to tell you how I got here though, this simple approach to daily habit tracking.
I was stressing over nursing school clinical-old school nursing professors are a special breed of tough love as they prepare future nurses. As a student, you don’t see it as tough love; you only see the tough part. I went to my academic advisor, she asked how daily Bible reading was going. I arched a brow to her, sharing instead how difficult congenital heart pathology memorization was going.
She leaned closer and asked if we should pray before we went further. Old school Christian college professors? They take tough love to a new level-I didn’t appreciate this for years. I pondered the seriousness of her tone and prayed over the cardiac index cards I couldn’t seem to memorize, thinking osmotic absorption could occur. It didn’t.
A few years earlier, our freshman Sunday school teacher had had us turn together to Proverbs 31, the Biblical ideal woman. I sat there most of the semester listening to what felt like a foreign language, trying to absorb an ideal that felt unreachable. The Proverbs 31 woman gnawed at me close to a decade before I began daily Bible reading. Through desperate circumstance, I met this biblically ideal woman on the page and saw her humanity.
When you understand “ideal” women are just as human as you? You stop copying other women and start following Jesus.
We know that spiritual health impacts other areas of our lives. It is foundational to our health mentally, physically, and emotionally. However, many people let all of the above slip through their fingers. I don’t think it’s because anyone wants to abandon the pillars of health; I think it’s gnawing overwhelm, feeling that it’s all just too much.
In a world that seems to cherish the superficial, it feels against the grain to hold to foundational truths. And daily Bible reading gets pushed off the margins of our daily page. Years go by and we wonder why we live lives that feel wanton with lackness-or we feel stuck instead of placed.
Reading scripture daily, even on Sundays(instead of letting the morning service sermon count as your personal reading), builds a lifelong habit of living in Truth. There isn’t another daily habit that can breathe peace and joy and surety like daily Bible reading.
To help you visually see how daily Bible reading positively impacts other areas of your life, I’ve created a set of seven printables, including a reward tracking printable. If you are someone that puts others first, don’t miss the reward tracking printable. You cannot pour into others from an empty cup-build incentives for self-care into your week. Subscribe to receive the full tracker printable set in your inbox next week.
This first printable tracker in this set is available (HERE). It’s simple and straightforward, tracks an entire year of daily Bible reading for you. I don’t specify a reading plan-there are a multitude of solid Bible apps to choose from already. My personal preference is the YouVersion Bible app. It is user friendly with the ability to choose translation, highlight, and even take notes within the app. The MAIN idea is to get in the Word daily, be it one verse or one book. Just make it happen daily, pair it next to the other yearly trackers. It will be pleasantly shocking to see how daily Bible reading positively effects your emotions, even your diligence to restful sleeping and physical well-being.
Next week, I’ll share the next set of yearly trackers and show you how to read and evaluate them. The first time I did these was close to a decade ago. Visually seeing and feeling the impact was life changing. Visually seeing that an intentional approach to spiritual health and physical rest was indeed forging a foundation for clarity was itself motivating to continue this pathway. It also offered clarity in decision making processes as I continued.
I keep mine in a three ring binder, slowly adding to them as the year goes on. This same three ring binder holds meal plans, emergency contact info, garden planning, animal care information, and serves as a family binder. In an emergency or even before a medical appointment, I can just grab the binder without needing to hunt down through a stack of papers.
photography by Priscilla Du Preez
