Why & How Do We Read the Bible? with Shara Neubert

Join me, Ruth Hovsepian, for a compelling conversation with Shara Neubert, a teaching pastor and discipleship director with an incredible background in women's ministry and leadership. Listen in as Shara shares her insightful strategies for overcoming the hurdles of engaging with the Bible, particularly when it's perceived as challenging or uninteresting. We tackle the importance of understanding one's purpose for reading scripture and how a sense of curiosity can be a powerful tool in creating a meaningful study practice. Shara also highlights the profound impact of leaving a spiritual legacy, a topic that resonates deeply as we discuss its influence not only within our families but across our broader communities.

In this session, I underscore the necessity of reading the Bible in its entirety, akin to how one would savor a novel, to truly grasp the narrative woven throughout its passages. As we explore texts like the Sermon on the Mount and the books of Genesis and Revelation, we discuss the value of patience and allowing for initial confusion, which later readings can clarify, connecting the Old and New Testaments in unexpected ways. I also stress the importance of being receptive to the Holy Spirit and the insights of fellow believers while trusting our own ability to learn from the scriptures. This chapter of our discussion is a reminder to approach the Bible with enthusiasm and commitment, fostering a habit of consistent engagement with the Word of God.

The final chapter of our exchange delves into the distinction between reading and studying the Bible, where I share my personal endeavor to read through different versions of the Bible within a month. We delve into the effective strategies for in-depth Bible study, including the importance of choosing the right materials and formats that resonate with one's learning style, the significance of creating a study schedule, and the lasting influence that visible study habits can have on those around us. Shara's coaching and workshops offer a beacon of inspiration for listeners aiming to integrate these practices into their daily lives, with the goal of making 2024 a year marked by spiritual growth and connection. Tune in for an inspiring session that will reignite your passion for religious exploration and the joy of sharing that journey with others.

Check out Shara's website, https://www.sharaneubert.com/, to find a Bible Engagement Assessment to take in order to see where you fall in your own satisfaction.  It helps you to understand where you are at in 8 elements of Bible engagement:  Reading, Bible Navigation, Prayer, Church Participation, Understanding, Use of Study Help, Joy in Reading, and Bible Study.  Whew!  There are lots of areas, but all are very useful in having a balanced Bible life.  

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Transcript

00:18 - Ruth (Host)
Welcome to Out of the Darkness with Ruth Hovsepian , and this is season two, and I have an amazing guest here that I am looking forward to chatting with. But before we chat, I'm going to read out her biography, because it is such an interesting one. So my guest first of all is Shara, and I love the way she said that Share a cup of coffee because of the spelling. Thank you for that hint there. So Sharon Newbird, a seasoned leader with over 35 years of experience in leadership at Mercy Hospital System, has recently embarked on a new chapter in her journey. 

00:55
With a wealth of knowledge garnered from over two decades of involvement in women's ministry and her current role as a teaching pastor and discipleship director at a local church, Sharais on a mission to transform how individuals engage with the Bible, amen. Motivated by her personal experience of feeling stuck and seeking understanding and using the Bible, Shara  took it upon herself to learn and teach others. Drawing from her extensive background, Shara has a unique ability to meet people where they are, fostering curiosity and guiding them towards transformative experiences. Her coaching and workshop platform is built on the values of understanding, vision and gratitude. Shara believes that everyone is capable of not only reading the Bible but also studying it for a deeper understanding and connection with God. Through her coaching, she empowers individuals to navigate the sacred texts, fostering spiritual growth and promoting a just and loving community. Welcome Sharon. 

02:11 - Shara (Guest)
Goodness, gracious girl. I thought you were going to edit that down. I just thought I was going to send you some sentences and you were just going to take it from there. 

02:20 - Ruth (Host)
You cannot edit something that is so well written and it really encapsulates what you do, and I have followed you on social media and we've come across each other through different activities and one of the things that stood out to me was when you said that you took. It wasn't an exact knife or a utility knife to your Bible. 

02:46 - Shara (Guest)
Well, they're kind of the same thing. Yeah, one of them just looks rougher. 

02:52 - Ruth (Host)
And sounds more, you know. But that stood out to me and, I have to say, that made me think about things, and today I really want to talk about what the importance of reading the Bible is about. Why is it so important and the disservice that we do to ourselves and the legacy sort of that we leave. And one of the things I really like that you had written here was a passion to inspire women to create a lifestyle that leaves a lasting spiritual legacy. Don't we? 

03:35 - Shara (Guest)
want to do that. 

03:37 - Ruth (Host)
Oh, oh goodness, I really like that. And I said that's it, that's the best wording of it. You know, in my walk in the last almost nine years I've wondered how to word that and I said I want the lifestyle. That's what was missing. It was you know the way to explain it was. I want that lifestyle, to leave that spiritual legacy behind, and I think that is important and we're missing that. 

04:09 - Shara (Guest)
I agree, and it's not just for our children or boys and girls, our husband. It's for those that watch us, it's for the neighbor down the street, for those that we attend church with or that we work with, or patients that we see. It's for everyone. You don't just leave a spiritual heritage or lifestyle for just your family. We are all part of a great community, so to be able to leave that for others, no matter who they are, that is, that is a gift to give back to God. 

04:43 - Ruth (Host)
It is. And I want to start off with the one thing that I hear the most, and I am sure that you have heard this as well that reading the Bible is difficult because they either don't understand it or it's boring. And I will say, I admit, that in the past I felt the same way and I had great examples in my family. My grandparents and my parents had this lifestyle, as you speak. My grandparents read together every morning and every evening. My parents do it every morning and even though my mom has dementia and she's on that journey, they still read together and pray together. 

05:37
And I it was very hard for me to get into the habit and I hate using the word habit but getting into the practice of reading my Bible, understanding it and understanding what the importance of it was. Now I'm in a different place in my life and I love studying the word of God and I sometimes say to myself, ruth, the years that you could have learned so much and you didn't. But I don't live in the past. So now I'm in that place where I'm just devouring information and learning. So I'm going to throw this to you. What do you tell someone who says to you but Sarah, I just can't. It's boring, I don't have time, it just doesn't fit my lifestyle. What is your take on that? 

06:39 - Shara (Guest)
My answer to them almost always is yep, you're right, you're right, it is. And so then we start to talk about the why. Why do you want to be in scripture? What are you doing it for? Are you checking some boxes off, a list that you grabbed off the internet or that you found in a book somewhere? We really talk about the why do you want to do it. 

07:07
And it's okay if I talk with a client and I find out that, well, it's just what I'm supposed to do, all right, well, maybe we should wait a few weeks. And then they're like what, what, what, what? No, you want me to wait a few weeks. Yeah, talk with God, ask him what is it that I want that? I need to be getting out of this. You don't have to check, mark some things off of a reading list in order to be a good Bible reader, but you do have to have a little bit of curiosity. You do need to have a little bit of want to in order to do it. And I kind of laugh to myself, because I'm here and where I live we have a bread company, or it's also called Panera's, and we'll go there often and I'll meet with clients, and they're amazed whenever I say you know what, let's give it a few weeks and let's come back together whenever, whenever you and the Lord have really talked about this, and they're like, well, wait a minute. Well, now they're curious a little more. 

08:06
And what that has done is just created an opportunity to ask the question what do you want out of what you're reading in scripture? We are rarely asked that. Quite often we go to church on Sunday mornings or Saturday nights and and the pastor has a series going and so okay, so that is brought to us. Or we go to a small group where a book has been selected for us and we participate in that. All of that is perfect and good. But what if I were to ask you the question what do you want to study, what do you want to read? And it doesn't take very long before people that I'm visiting with they start to say, well, I'd really like to learn a little bit more about the Lord's prayer. Perfect, let's start there. Or what's the sermon on the Mount all about? And are there really just 10 commandments? So what I've done is piqued their curiosity, just just asked a few questions in order to get them thinking. 

09:10
It isn't something that I have to do and you don't have to fall. You don't have to start a Genesis and go all the way to revelations. I know I'm gonna rock some boats there, but you don't have to. There is nothing within scripture that says you must start here and end there. Really, what we just need to do is be readers. But let's start with asking you the question what do you want out of it? And if there isn't an answer, let's come back and let's have coffee, lemonade, something in a few weeks, after you've chewed on that question a little bit. And very rarely has anyone come back and said eh, I think I'm good. Most of the time they come back and they say I'm curious about this or I really think the Lord is sending me here, and so we need to start with asking ourselves why do we want to and what would we like to learn about? 

10:04 - Ruth (Host)
I love that. I think that was probably my stumbling block as well, Because traditionally we are told that we should be reading our Bible on a daily basis. How many times have you read through the Bible? And I never got it right, and especially as a young child. I did it out of guilt. Right, I did two things out of guilt. 

10:27
I prayed because I thought that if I didn't pray before going to bed and to sleep and I died in my sleep, I would go to hell. Therefore, many nights I would jump out of bed. And because I had forgotten to pray and pray. And the other reason I jumped out of bed was as a child, I knelt by the bed. That's how I was taught. And then the other thing that really gave me a lot of guilt was not reading the Bible. And it wasn't because I felt guilty, because I wasn't strengthening my knowledge and understanding and my relationship with the Lord. It was the guilt of what will happen if people know that I'm not reading my Bible. So these were all the wrong reasons and I love the idea of helping someone. You don't mind if I use that to you. What is it that you-? 

11:23 - Shara (Guest)
Oh, I'm too you take it. You take it, I love that. 

11:26 - Ruth (Host)
I love that because I usually tell people start with the easier storytelling part of it. I always recommend people start with the book of John Me too, anyway. Yeah, that's my go-to for someone. Especially when I give someone a gift or I give the Bible, I will recommend that they read the book of John and start there. And I have to say that I would not have been able to answer your question to me on that in the past. 

11:59
Now to me, when I read the Bible and study the Word of God, because I wanna differentiate between those two, because in my mind and correct me if I'm wrong but in my mind there's the reading the Word of God and studying the Word of God. So when I'm reading, I may be using a guide, I may be following a book, but when I'm studying, I'm really stuck in an area for a while and I'm using my computer to look up things or I'm using something to further my knowledge. I just don't depend on my own understanding. But now I understand this and what I wanna get from the Word of God is what does he want from me, what is my commission and how can I help others to find what I have found and what the way to do that and for my relationship with the Lord to get stronger on a daily basis. So I want to give some ideas or tips to people who want to study the Word of God. 

13:21
Really, you know, and sometimes we struggle with that one. You know, who do I trust? What do I use? How do I know that I am not putting my own twist? Because there is that danger as well of putting our own understanding of scripture to suit our lifestyle or our needs. How do you tell someone who really hasn't grown up in a church or understands that Bible study dynamic of doing that for themselves? 

13:56 - Shara (Guest)
Well, here it is. Here's the sentence. I'm one for always looking for the sentence. You cannot study what you have not read. So, because your name is Ruth, we're gonna pick on the book of Ruth. 

14:11 - Ruth (Host)
Love it. 

14:15 - Shara (Guest)
It is really wonderful to sit down in front of a Bible study book about Ruth from a good publisher, a publishing company or an individual that you trust, a wonderful guide. But it is so much more rich and respectful to the author and the creators of those Bible studies if I have first taken the time to read the book of Ruth and then maybe even get a Bible handbook out to see what did this book even have to do with the whole Bible in general. So before I even open the page of page one of studying the book of Ruth or the book of John, I need to be an individual who has read the whole book, not bits and pieces. There was a pastor I recently heard on a podcast I was listening to and he said you cannot just be walking around just taking bits and pieces of McNuggets from the Bible. And I'm like McNuggets, I love that. I hope I get to use it. 

15:16
I love it, but we need to be someone who has read large chunks. So, once you have read the whole sermon on the Mount, once you have read all of Genesis or all of Ruth what a very respectful thing to have done just for the Lord and for yourself to get to know the whole thing Then, after we have read it, then we go and we dissect it, and so I will often, often, say you cannot study what you have not read. Reading the book of revelations boy, that's the biggie as well as the book of Joel or Daniel well, any of them really, especially those the prophets you can read and study bits and pieces of them. But first, should we not go through and read the whole book and understand the whole concept of what it is and be very comfortable, ruth, with not understanding what it means? Give it some time, because we really are wise men and women. We really are. We are able to read, we are able to work our updated iPhones, we can do these things. We are wise and we are smart, we can figure it out. And if we come across a passage that we don't understand, be comfortable with that. Let it set with you for a while. 

16:41
Then, when you start to study or to read another place is what very well happened may happen with you and the Holy Spirit is you may not understand something that you have read over here in Genesis. And then you come over here to Hebrews and you're reading in Hebrews at another point in time and you come across this list and you start to think about things and then you went wait, wait, wait. And then you go triple on back to Genesis, to something that maybe six weeks or six months ago you didn't understand and you were comfortable with not understanding it. And now the Holy Spirit is taking you on this reading journey, this study journey. And now here you are and you've just allowed it to sit with you and then you're like I think I got this. And then you go back and it's just amazing. I call it connecting the dots, how you can connect the dots here and connect them over there, within the pages of our scripture, so that we can be Bible learners always. 

17:42
But to answer what you had asked, how can we study what we have not read? And so you don't have to read the whole Bible just right away, but if you're going to be participating in a study or how respectful to your pastor whenever he says we're going to be reading through this book or we're going to study this topic. We take responsibility and we go and we read that before our pastor, whom we love, pours into us the things that the Lord has spoken to him or her about. But we have done our pre-work in order to take in what it is our pastors or the author of a book or ourselves because we really are able. We've got great programs we can go to on the Internet. There's amazing books out there and then if you will just maybe pick up a pen and pencil and write some thoughts out, it's crazy what you can learn just from yourself. 

18:39
But I do appreciate what you had said about putting our own slant and our own bent on these. But the more you are respectful of the word and the text as a whole, you'll learn. And if you're open to allowing the Holy Spirit to talk with you and to teach you things and other people to pour into you like yourself, to pour into other men and women and you are a safe person who teaches well, to allow other people to pour into you so that you can say you know what. I had this thought and I was pretty sure about it, but this person said something different. Let me just go to the Lord and let me pull some resources, let me educate myself for a little bit, and if you need help, by golly go get help, but trust yourself. 

19:28 - Ruth (Host)
That was a lot there, you know, but this is what we need, right? I mean, we need this kind of guidance and I know it is a struggle. And I loved what you said, that unless we read through something, how do we know what is being said to us, and I love that, right. And the other thing that I know I'm not going to be liked very much, but we need to read the Bible through from Genesis to revelations, even numbers, even kings, where you know. And I didn't understand that, because what was the point of reading? You know genealogy and this and that. 

20:17
But now, when I look back, I realize, as you just pointed out, that you may be reading something in Genesis and don't know what, what the point of it was. And then you read in the New Testament and you go, aha, wait a minute, and the connection is made. And I see that throughout all scripture there is that running thread, right, the thread that goes through from from one book to the other, and that is when you understand what it is that the Lord is doing. What is God telling his people? It's not a one time instance that he tells the people something. He says it again and again and again, in different ways at different times and unless we read it, we don't know this and don't understand it. And that was sort of an aha moment for me as well. 

21:17
And there is something that I like to throw out there and challenge people. When I'm told by believers longtime believers about how they just haven't read through the whole Bible and don't just don't enjoy it, how often do we pick up novels and other books and read it in a week's time, a month's time, depending on where you are in the season of your life and I will challenge them and say why don't you pick up the Word of God, pick up about the Bible in a version that you can read and read it as you would read a novel. Just read it and you know, see what you can do. And it's not if for nothing. It is to say that you read and and, as you said, each time we read it we pick up more. But you need to do it, we need to start, we need to build a habit. 

22:21
I love reading and as a child that was my go to and I didn't understand the value of picking up different versions of the Bible. I study in one version because that's the version I prefer to study in and I find it's the true for me, true to the Greek and I can't speak to the Hebrew, but but I like having different versions when I'm just reading. You know I try and. 

22:53 - Shara (Guest)
I try and pick up a different translation each year Now. 

22:57
I have something else that I, that I try and unpack for for people, is to give them the gift of this. You have all of your life to read the Bible, yes, but instead of a year, what if you took two years? And this is what happens, ruth, whenever I tell them instead of one year, take two. This their shoulders and they're talking to me, they're up here or they're holding their cup, you know we're talking and I'm and I say, take, take two years. And they're like, oh, it's OK, it's OK. 

23:33
But imagine if, in every two years, we read through the whole Bible, maybe at a slower, slower pace, in larger, larger chunks. That's also something else that I offer people that that I'm visiting with about reading. But what you had just said about translations, I do pick up a different translation each time I run back through scripture and I take about two years to read through, read through the text, because it's not what I'm familiar with. It's written just ever so slightly different. And I tell you, the most difficult one that I had was the message, because it's written in such a modern day it's like, oh, ok, let's back up. 

24:16
Oh, mr Peterson, how he wrote that, and and I see it more as a commentary of scripture, but I mean, I committed to it. There was a group of us gals, because I also, and I hope we get to talk about this, reading in community, reading in community and so, as we decided we were going to read this, we did this one in one year. We were going to read through the message and boy, we were all. We were struggling, but it only took maybe a month, if even that. Then we got the flow. Then we got OK, here we go and we read it. There were some things that, because we had read other translations in the past, we went wait a minute, I need some clarity on this. So then we go back and we get our translation a different translation. 

24:59
We didn't prove anything right or wrong. It had to do with our reading understanding, and that's really what I focus on teaching these reading skills and these reading habits, as you had said. So this different translation slow it down just a little bit. Maybe two years instead of one year, but one year, yay. But I love your challenge. 

25:19
We need to be believers who know the Bible and its contents so well that we're able to to say, oh yes, I've read the Bible, not to be able to put gold stars on a sash or something, but it's really important to know chunks of the Bible instead of Bible verses. I do have a handful of Bible verses that I can quote. It's, I'm sad to say it's a handful, right, but not but not a bucket load. But what I do have a better handle on because I love to read before I study is I understand concepts. I'd much rather be an individual who can, instead of saying two verses from the New Testament at random, being a person to say you know, this is what Jesus talked about in the whole Sermon of the Mount. 

26:07 - Ruth (Host)
I like that. Yeah, you know what? I'm sorry, sharon. I want to say something on that because that is so important. We are in the age of podcasts and videos and consumption of information. Unless you and I know what the Bible is saying, we don't know if the person speaking is speaking the truth and they're speaking from the word of God, or if that is their understanding of scripture. So we need to know what is in the word to be able to pick and understand who is telling us a God given message or who is just putting their twist on it. Now the I want to let's touch on what you were saying of reading as a group, as as as a body together, and the accountability that comes with that. Why do you say that it is important to do that? 

27:13 - Shara (Guest)
When we saw the Bible was originally written to be read to community you know that they didn't have printing presses early in the day and they had these Paul's letters were sent out and it had a reader that would go and read to a church or to a group of people. The same way with with the Old Testament books, they they were Housed in one location and they didn't just say, oh, I'm just gonna take this girl off to myself and I'll be back in a few days and just study this for myself. They read it in community and they studied it in Community. And so when we do that what we were just saying a little bit ago about us adding our own context to scripture when you read with community of people who are like-minded and whom you trust and who are growing together, then you get to have that wonderful input from people. I say, all the time amazing things happen around the table, especially whenever our Bibles are opened and we are in community, scheduled community reading and discussing of the scripture, then we we learn more, we're challenged, because usually within a group there's one person who challenges you. There's one person who's real quiet, but whenever he or she talks it's like, wow, that's so print worthy there's. There's just all kinds of dynamics of individuals who sit around a table and study and learn together. It's how the scriptures were originally written and presented. But nowadays, I do think that we oftentimes will say I'm gonna take my little magic markers and I'm gonna take my sticky notes and I'm gonna go off and I'm only Going to be in a Bible study or a Bible reading mode by myself. Of course, there's amazing and good time when that happens, but don't let that be your only time. I'm not just talking about a small group for Bible study. I really am talking about a Bible reading program of reading through scripture in large chunks with other people in order to get their input as well as the Holy Spirit's input, because, again, we are smart and wise people. We can do this and if we really get hung up, there are resources for us to go out there and use and to bring back to the table and it's just important to have that community of believers. 

29:43
When, right before before our scheduled time together, I had this random thought and I ran to my bookshelf to get this, there is a verse Ephesians 4, 14 and it's talking about someone who is a Bible teacher and apostles and prophets and evangelists, but they're. 

29:59
Verses 14 and 15 of Ephesians. 4 says Then so if you have a teacher and evangelist in front of you, then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth verse 15 instead, we will speak the truth and love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. We need to know how to read and we need to know what's in the Bible so that we are not like immature children. We are not tossed and blown about by every new teaching, so clever that it tricks us, but instead we will speak the truth and love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of the body, the church. I think that's right. 

30:52
So whenever you had said that while ago, I went whoo, there's the goosebumps. That's why I had to go and get that and get that verse well you know, can, cannot. 

31:04 - Ruth (Host)
I may be wrong that I have separated the reading of the Bible and the studying the, the word of God, the Bible, in my life. So I do what you've been doing for the last now three years reading through the Bible in different Versions, just because it was something I wanted to do and I haven't. You know there are so many different versions out there, but in my life I have two different times in in my day, for example, where I read the word of God, just read it through as I would a book, just read it, and that I do with the different version. And I've I want to see and I'm challenging myself to do this to read through in One month, as I would a book, the word of God. This is. 

32:01
This was a challenge I put on to myself for January and that's what I'm doing in the in the month of January, because I said, ruth, you can read all kinds of other books, you're gonna give the month of January to read through in one shot. Now I also have set aside time to study the word of God Because I also I'm writing another book, so I have that studying to do. But to me those two things are different and I think that I want to make sure that the listeners and those watching to understand that there is a time that we need to really sit down and Study what the Lord has what God has given to us from there. 

32:54
Can you tell us what are the basic tools, so to speak, to set ourselves up to study, so that you know we're not setting ourselves up to fail or, you know, not to be able to go through the motion? How do I pick out? Let me make it a little bit more, um, more direct. How do I pick what to study and how do I go through the process and what tools do I use to study that? 

33:33 - Shara (Guest)
Okay. So, as I had said at the very beginning, you get to ask yourself what do I want to study? So, once you have determined what it is that you're curious about, uh, and if you don't have an answer to that, ask the Lord. Ask the Lord, what is it that you would have me have me study? Um, I don't know if we're allowed to to make recommendations on different, different Bible studies, but I would really look at who is the publisher of that study or what is the background of the individual who is presenting that study. So just take a few minutes to research who the author is. So, just like if we were going to take a class at a university or um, uh, learn how to do some, some kind of a new skill. If I, if I wanted to learn how to I can't think of anything right now to make pottery I would need to go somewhere where there is an expert there and ask a few questions. So, first is, what do you want to study? And then, finding your material, you can head to any of the major places that are that are online. I don't think that anymore there's really any great brick or mortar stores that you can go to to take some some Bible study books. Ask a trusted friend what they have studied, your pastor, someone like yourself, uh, just ask what is it that you've been studying and and what? What did you do? Even within Bible study books and magazines are leaflets that we have. There's all kinds of different ones. There's ones that have a DVD or a streaming that you watch and then you answer questions and then you come back and you and you watch what that teacher had to say to you. There's books that, um, it's just the scripture and the commentary and some questions. You can go that route. So you need to also know within yourself what is your learning style. Are you somebody that's much more auditory, where, like you had said, you know you're going to read through the Bible? I oftentimes will, will suggest others take a minute and then just listen to it audibly. If you're, um, if you're reading through and you're up here to numbers, pull up an audio version of that online and listen to it. You're still taking it in space. It comes from hearing. So, uh, so, taking that that in, so learning your style of Bible study book. So what do you want to study? Finding your, your, uh, your topic, then your style, and then create a time. If you don't write it in your calendar, if you don't set a timer for it, you're not going to come to it. Satan will make sure that you are distracted. He will make sure that there's something that comes your way that is going to hold you back. But great strength comes from scheduling it on the computer, your phone, um, a paper calendar, whatever you have Um set, creating a mindset of. I will be sitting during this time and this is my Bible study time. 

36:35
I often encourage people also not to do it in a place where it's hidden from the rest of the family Our husbands, our wives, uh, our children. They need to see that we are reading and studying. We don't need to be off in a room, mom's off in a room studying. We need to be sitting at the kitchen table, if that, if our learning style will allow that. But they need to see that we have it here, that we have our pens, we have a Bible, we have a notebook and we have the study guide that we're going to use or we're going to have, um, oh, andrea's book that has, um, oh, shoot, shoot, shoot. I was going to grab that because that's what I'm going to be doing this year? Oh, reading the Bible cover to cover this. 

37:18
Yes, so having that format, so have it's the same format every day of being a Bible studying person. Topic your guide, your learning style, picking your place, picking your time, letting others know that you're going to do it. A lot of times, if you have let your family know that you're going to be studying and that you're sitting at a particular chair in the living room or in a den, or if it. If your study is off, you know, off site, you know. If they know that that's what you're doing, they're also going to notice if you're not doing it. 

37:56 - Ruth (Host)
So accountability yes. 

37:58 - Shara (Guest)
Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am. And then asking someone to hold you accountable, someone within your own home or a friend, or just a text. Got my reading in today, got my study in today, got my research in for my book today. Just these, these accountability elements. But the main things that you're going to need is that study guide for when we're talking about Bible study, your study guide, access, your type of a style that you've just you've decided to do your time, your place, bible notebook pen. That's really a lot of people will will take it on with using colored pens and colored pencils and they create symbols. 

38:42
I did that for a short period of time but in my learning style I found that that was too distracting. I also find, for people with with reading issues, that that is distracting for them, not saying that they can't do it because they can, but you need to find out what works best for you. So maybe the first Bible study is a learning and then the second Bible study that you do in March or whenever, then that one's just a little different because you've learned a few things about, oh, this particular guide. That doesn't work for me. It's okay, it really is okay. Just go and get a different style of book to maybe where you don't have to answer so many questions or journal so much. Maybe it's just a study guide to go a reader with your Bible and they go hand in hand and that's a lot of reading. Maybe that's your learning style, so you need to know your learning stuff. 

39:34 - Ruth (Host)
The subject is so big, and so I could go on talking to you about this, and I think I may be asking you to come back to talk about this and I truly appreciate this because you have broken it down so well and you know, I love that. 

39:58
I love this, this, this being able to focus in and, you know, like being able to help other other people have that aha moment in their life so that they are excited to to for that time in their busy schedule, to to dig into the word of God. I think that is the, that is the whole purpose of what we did, Isn't it Sarah? 

40:23 - Shara (Guest)
That's right. It is for me, that is for me. 

40:27 - Ruth (Host)
I want people to to be so excited when it comes down to praying and reading and soaking it all in and then going out and giving it out to those that are hungry and thirsty. 

40:43
Sarah, I appreciate you, I appreciate all that you bring to the table and you know you're, you're coaching clients and those that you work and teach are really learning. I know that they're getting so much out of it because in the short little bit you've encouraged me to also, you know, really focus in and make 2024 for me A fruitful one. So thank you for being here. 

41:16 - Shara (Guest)
Well, thank you very much. You are beautiful inside and out and it is very evident in the topic of conversation and the love of the Lord that I can hear and see in your life. Thank you very much for the invitation.