June 15, 2020
by Peggy Simmons
“You word is a lamp unto my feet a light on my path.” Psalms 119:5
This may be hard for many of you to believe, but I love baseball. Now I not talking about the professional kind where they can’t play if they have a stumped toe. I’m talking about real baseball. Played by children and young men up until their early twenties. I am talking about the kind of baseball where you have to make the player come off the field if he is hurt. I am talking about the baseball where you find players wanting to play not being made to play.
Some of the best time we had with our boys was helping to coach their little league baseball teams. And then as they started playing in school we would follow them around from town to town watching them play their games. I was always the score keeper. Give me a score book and any baseball gave becomes more fun for me, but it hasn’t always been that way.
I remember a time when I thought baseball was the most boring game I have ever seen. I didn’t understand anything about a curve ball or a slider. Why not just throw the ball so fast so the batter couldn’t hit it? And what is the deal about a sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly? I mean why in the world would you get out on purpose?
But then I married David. I decided if I was going to spend much time with him I had better try and understand a little about baseball. So I started watching it and studying it and asking questions. Before long I came to love the game. Now I understood why you tried to bunt the runner over to second base. I understood if a batter sees enough straight fast balls they will eventually catch up to it. In fact I am getting to where I can call the next pitch while watching the game, but it took lots of years and lots of practice.
Now I was just thinking! So many times people think the Bible is a boring book. They don’t enjoy it. They can’t see how it has anything to say to them. They just really don’t understand it.
It is just like anything else in life. The more you read it the more you want to read it. It is full of stories of adventure, instruction, and faith filled life lessons just waiting to be read. The key is to start. Just like I started with baseball.
Read it as often as you can. Find study guides that help you understand it. Find a translation that you can read and comprehend. And ask questions. When you read something that you don’t understand ask other about it. Don’t argue about it. Share it. The more you try those things the more you will be able to call scriptures in mind when you are in trouble. Or you may find out a new truth every time you read it. And remember to share what you learn with others. Psalm 119:105 reminds us, “You word is a lamp unto my feet a light on my path.” The Bible can be a lamp for our day if we start to read it, study it and ask questions about it.
Lord, give us a desire to read your word. To have a desire to study it daily. Help us to ask others when we do not understand it and pray for direction from you. These are your precious words that you gave us to live by. Help us to Lord as we grow to develop a love for those words and make them a part of our life. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.