What item represents an enduring legacy to you?

My great-great-great-grandmother’s silver and amethyst ring that she wore on the boat across the pond.

What did you do last week that will last for the rest of the year? for ten years? for eternity?

Kissed my sons. Loved my family. Loved my husband. Prayed. Worshipped God. Thanked people who have helped me. Listened to the Word.

How much time did you spend this week reading God’s word compared to reading the newspaper or watching TV?

I liked this question because, as of this morning, I’ve not read the newspaper or watched TV all week. And I haven’t “read” much of the Bible, but I have listened to Matthew, Mark, and the first 13 chapters of Luke in the last week.

One thing that is kind of interesting to me is that in the old days, people didn’t read the Bible on a daily basis. Scrolls were expensive. Remember when Josiah discovered the Word in the cleaning of the temple? People didn’t have a Bible lying around. So what did they do? They memorized certain scriptures and they said them a lot. They looked at the stained glass windows (premodern videos) and remembered the stories of the Bible.

One question I have been kind of considering, kind of wrestling with is to what extent is Bible reading necessary.

I know from a study I read in college that people who read their Bible daily are less likely to be depressed. (Although that is probably cyclical. If you are depressed, you don’t read your Bible daily.) But is daily Bible reading really an expectation God has of us? He didn’t have it of the people 300 years ago. That just wasn’t possible for them. Or 3000 years ago, or the time in between. So… Why do we make such a big deal out of it?

How much time do you spend each week studying God’s Word?

Not a lot, usually. I go through spurts where I read a lot and then spurts where I don’t read any.

Make a list of your non-essential commitments.

I don’t have a lot of those. I know that other people do, but I don’t. I can’t think of any. Maybe blogging, but that’s for me more than it is a commitment.

Write down the values you hope to leave behind and who you would like to inherit them.

That’s a weird question. If value is “General guiding principles that are to govern all activities” (as this site says), then I would say:

love
Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.

loyalty
friendship
trustworthiness
hope
charity/generosity
self-control
patience
perseverance
joy
peace
kindness
goodness
gentleness

Some of those I have more of a hold on than others.

Who would I want to inherit them?

First of all, my sons. God, please bring E to you. Please keep M in your hand.

Then I would say my extended family, my nephew and nieces, my brother, all my in-laws.

My friends’ children, whom I try to pray for regularly.