Beginner’s Guide to the Bible: My Journey Through Proverbs & What I Learned

In this episode, I share my approach to reading the Bible, starting with the book of Proverbs. I walk through why I chose Proverbs, how I approached it as a beginner, and the verses and passages that stood out to me along the way.

Proverbs is known for its wisdom on discipline, self-awareness, relationships, and personal growth. I reflect on what I highlighted, what I wrote down, and how I interpreted certain themes in a way that felt practical and easy to understand.

If you’ve been curious about reading the Bible and don’t know where to start, or you’ve been wanting to reconnect with your faith in a more intentional way, this episode is for you.

This isn’t about being perfect or having all the answers—it’s about being open, learning, and building your own relationship with God.

Thanks so much for listening! If this episode resonated with you, make sure to subscribe and leave a review. New episodes drop every Tuesday morning, and you can follow me on Instagram @Stephanie_Monge to stay connected and come along for the journey.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back to the Barefaced and Becoming podcast. Today is gonna be a very different one. As we all know, as this podcast goes along, this is just me figuring life out. I try to be as vulnerable and real about how my life is unfolding and the chapters that I'm at. So today is gonna be a little bit of a different topic. I have my Bible cracked open in front of me and we are going to get into the word. Just a little bit of a background. I am Christian. I have grown up Christian. Throughout my childhood, I was kind of in and out of the church. Like sometimes we would go really consistently, and then sometimes maybe we wouldn't go for a year. I've always really yearned for an intimate relationship with God. I've always felt really connected to God and known of his presence. I believe that God speaks through signs. Before I was able to differentiate what in my head was God speaking, I believe that he meets you where you're at. And so before I didn't really understand what that meant for God to speak to me, ever since I started reading the Bible, I feel like I can differentiate in my head what is myself speaking and what is God. For example, this is a silly example, but last week I've been trying to wake up really early in the morning, like 6 a.m. And I heard a voice in my head telling me that I can do hard things. And I knew that it wasn't me. It was someone speaking to me, and I knew that that was God. So that's an example. Now I can hear his voice and understand when he's speaking to me a little bit more. But I do believe that God speaks to man through signs. Yeah, I've always known and believed in God, but really have always appreciated different aspects of different religions and have always really kept an open mind to every single religion, just kind of absorbing it. But I feel like my foundation and belief system is based in Christianity. So yeah, I have never read the Bible. I have tried to read it maybe one time in college when COVID was happening, but I was never taught how to read the Bible until recently. So I started on the first page, and the Bible's kind of complex in that way of where to start, and I think it could be different for everybody. For me specifically, I decided to start in Proverbs. I started reading the Bible now. It's been since May of last year. It's currently April. So wow, it's almost been a year. So my dad sat me down one day with my Bible, and it was actually really crazy because so last May I had a cousin that passed away, and his favorite verse in the Bible was Jeremiah 29:11. The verse says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. My brother got this tattooed on his back that day after everything had settled and everyone was at my house. My dad had been out after going to the hospital that day and went to the bookstore and picked up some stuff. And I love anything stationary. And like I said, I'm very open-minded. So I sat down with him and I wanted him to show me what he had got. He was showing me it was like something to help him study the Bible, a new journal, because my father's very religious. So then we got to sitting down. He was showing me how he organizes his Bible. And I was like, Oh, do you want to see my Bible? I brought it over to him. And I had gone to church with them maybe at least over four months prior. And while we were there, this lady, random lady, I didn't know who she was. I don't know if my parents knew who she was because it was their church, but I don't think they were friends with her. And she hands me a bookmark. And I put this bookmark in my Bible. I had kept it there ever since. And my relationship with my Bible since trying to read it, I've never made my way through it, like I said, but you know, I kept it in my bookshelf. I would go through it every once in a while, feel inspired by it, find a verse that resonated with me, but never thoroughly read it and made an effort to understanding it the way I'm yearning for to do so now. So, anyways, I'm showing him my Bible. I open my Bible, and lo and behold, the bookmark comes out of it. And the quote on it was Jeremiah 29, 11. And I have goosebumps now just saying it because it was just so beautiful and divine intervention. And I just could not, we couldn't believe it. Like we looked at each other, like it took him a second, and I was like, dad, and it was just insane. My brother had just got it tattooed that day. My cousin had passed away that morning, and I remember showing my brother, and I'm like, this is absolutely insane. And so ever since then, I just felt really called to do so. After the bookmark had fallen out, you know, we're all just so shocked by it. He was teaching me how to read the Bible, explaining different parts to me. So I'm gonna kind of do that for you here as well. So bear with me because, like I said, I've just started doing this, and this is to my understanding. I hope and pray to continue to grow with my understanding and guidance of the Bible. But my dad recommended for me to start with Proverbs because he pretty much explained it like Proverbs is wisdom in each chapter that you read. So every title of let's say each chapter. So example, Proverbs is one, Matthew would be another, John would be another. All of the names of the titles of what we would normally call chapters in a book are actually separate books. So Proverbs is its own book. And when you go in the Bible and you see the number one, that is the first chapter, and it's usually maybe two to three paragraphs, and then two, that's another chapter. So I have finally finished Proverbs, my first book in the Bible. So this episode is just me going through this first book that I have completed, telling you my understanding of it, going through the little notes that I've written in my Bible, in the parts that I've highlighted. And yeah, we're just going to go through and talk about God and Jesus. My dad would be so proud of me right now. So, what has worked the best for me to be consistent with reading is not putting so much pressure. If I feel pressure to do something, it makes me less likely to do it because it feels so big. So for me to be able to still be disciplined with reading the Bible is taking the pressure off. And for me, the pressure is having to read it a certain way, having to give myself, let's say, a certain amount of time. And yes, I'm sure I'll get there, but I needed to meet myself where I was at. How I was doing it in the beginning was I would do it at the end of the day. I would sit down with my computer, I would read through the chapter, and I would talk to chat, have it give me a breakdown. And then from that breakdown, get my own understanding. My own understanding would be written in my Bible. My Bible has like half a little page next to each page so that I can take notes. That was too much for me. And so I started switching to mornings. I don't get mad at myself or punish myself or feel guilty if I miss a day because that makes me like I don't want any negative emotion towards it. This is something I get to look forward to. This is something that I've learned to enjoy now. And yeah, I just don't want any of that like guilt or anything. That makes it for me, I'm able to be more habitual with it and sustainable and a lifelong practice. So now I try to read it in the mornings. I would say I do so four out of seven days of the week. Hopefully soon that turns into every single day. But like I said lately, I've just been like having trouble with my sleeping schedule and wake up schedule, whatever. So that's a separate story. I read a chapter, take my notes, do my highlighting. I don't pressure myself to take any notes. I just read it for what it is. If there's something I want to write down that inspired me that I wanted to take note of, maybe the chapter sounds a little bit confusing and I needed to make like just a little paraphrase of the chapter that I just read. I'll put that on the side, anything that I feel like highlighting, but I don't pressure myself to like have to write anything, to have to highlight anything. And I will pray over my Bible usually before I begin and just pray for understanding of it, for me to feel inspired, understand it clearly, to thank the Lord for being able to so many years later read the story. Then I'll pray for my day and anybody else in my life that I'm thinking of and sending love to. If I don't have time to read my Bible that day, my routine is praying in the car on my way to work. I got inspired by my pastor. I go to Sozo Church here in Miami. I really love the church that I go to so randomly too. I just like looked it up on maps, and me and my boyfriend went one day, and we both really love it. So I'm very happy that I found that church. Check it out if you get the chance to. I just took my friends to church yesterday. I had never brought my friends to church. Uh, we went for Easter and they both also really loved it. So highly recommend if you live in Miami. But my pastor inspired me that you need to make prayer something sustainable for you to do. You know, if it's something, again, like you're putting so much pressure on and it has to look a certain way and all these things. Like sometimes life just happens. And so making it your prayer time somewhere that like that makes sense for you. Like if it's the first five minutes at the gym while you're working out, if it's right when you wake up at the foot of your bed, if it's while you're brushing your teeth, if it's while you're on your way to work, like something that makes sense for you that you can always show up for. So I make it a habit to show up to pray at least every single day. But yeah, just thought I should mention that. So we're gonna go now into the word. And I'm gonna just really flip through the pages and just share with you what I've highlighted, what I've written down. Yeah. Thank you so much for giving me this space to do so. So here we go. My first highlight, which is actually crazy now that I'm looking at this, is Proverbs chapter six. But at the top left of the page, the chapter starts. It says Proverbs 518, which is my birthday, May 18th. So that's cool. I told you, God speaks to man through signs. And chapter six, I highlighted there are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devices wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. So I would say that I highlighted this because these are ways in which you are not living in alignment with what the Lord wants. Lying, being guilty of doing wrong by innocent people, a wrongful heart, looking towards evil. So I thought that that was a good one to highlight just because it's pretty simple and straightforward. So looks like in the beginning I didn't take too many notes, mostly just highlighting. So actually, the first thing I wrote in this chapter was Jesus, just simply Jesus, period. A highlighted the blessings of wisdom, which is chapter eight. This is the first time that I understood that it was Jesus speaking, Jesus giving instruction. It doesn't say that, so I could be wrong, but to me, this was what I interpreted, and it was really special for me to understand that okay, this is Jesus speaking without it saying it. Okay, so chat says not directly in the original text, but it's often understood symbolically by Christians as pointing to Jesus. So it doesn't necessarily, again, it doesn't say it, but it's as many believers see it as foreshadowing Christ. So yeah, that was a special one to me because that's what I understood it as. It was cool for it not to have said it, and that's how I felt it. And I'll share with you the things that I highlighted in this chapter is the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. So what I've come to understood the first time I heard the fear of the Lord, I was like, that is a crazy concept. Why should we be afraid of God? Like, why would we feel like a negative, fearful type of emotion is originally what I felt, but I'll read something that I wrote a little bit later in the chapter. This is my interpretation of fear of the Lord. So I put lots of talk about fearing the Lord. My understanding is if we fear the Lord's judgment, it is a sign of respect, a humility to want to do right by his name and make him proud. So it's almost like an honor of his name. So just thought that I would say that because I think that that's actually very important. And then from chapter eight, I also highlighted those who seek me diligently find me, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasuries. When he established the heavens, I was there. When he made firm the skies above, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always. Blessed are those who keep my ways, hear instruction and be wise. Blessed is the one who listens to me. For whoever finds me finds life. Again, more fear of the Lord speak. This is chapter nine. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is insight. Chapter 10. The memory of the righteous is a blessing, which I thought was really beautiful. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, which I think is very important. I think integrity is one of the most important qualities for someone to have. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. Love, ooh, this is a good one. I'll read the whole verse of this one because this is a half a sentence. It says, Hatred stirs up strife, and this is the part I highlighted, but love covers all offenses. That's a good one. Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life. The blessing of the Lord makes rich, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding. Wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding. I also really love that. The fear of the Lord prolongs life. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord. This is chapter 11. When pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with the humble is wisdom. So the reason why I started in Proverbs, like I said, is because each chapter is really its own wisdom and of its own. So not only can you really pick up and bounce around however much you would like to, but for me, it was really a more digestible way to start reading the Bible because I could do one single chapter a day and really feel inspired and fulfilled by it. So this has really worked for me. Still in chapter 11, whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense. But a man of understanding remains silent. A man who is kind benefits himself. The desire of the righteous ends only in good. One gives freely yet grows all the richer. I think that's really a cool concept too, because the more freely and less attached that you give, you also become fulfilled by that. So by blessing others, you're blessed yourself. I just think that all of these lessons are so they're life lessons and they're parts of how to lead your life, the values and morals that make you a good person and help you to be fulfilled and help you to be kind and faithful and a good friend and all those things and it be doing right by the Lord. You're living a fulfilling life and you're being blessed and also blessing others. So I think that that's really cool about this book in the Bible. Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor. Ooh, I like this one. This is chapter 12. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness to his bones. This part is cool because it's speaking on living in alignment with what I understand is your purpose. Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored. A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked suffers want. So I understand this to be having all that you need. I think this is something so relevant in our society is this comparing game of wanting what other people have or putting yourself in other people's shoes and imagining how their life would be or how great their life is compared to yours. And in reality, we only have one life, and we all have our own purposes in life. And it's so, so important not to be constantly wanting what others have. And yeah, this comparing game I think can be a really slippery slope. Chapter 14, and I'm also gonna combine it with 15. In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding. The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge. The cheerful of heart has a continual feast, meaning the more grateful you are for what you have, not only the more fulfilled you'll be, but you'll continue to have things in your heart to be cheerful for. I think that's a lot of gratitude. Attracting more things to be grateful for because you're already grateful for what you have. And you know, you're not even expecting more, but just God will continue to bless you the more grateful your heart is. Okay, I not only highlighted this, but underlined it. So this is double. Chapter 16. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose. Beautiful, beautiful. Really taking into consideration what you are committing to every single day. Who are you committing to be around? What are you committing to in your job? I think really thinking about your intentions and all that you do. And is that in alignment with the Lord and the Lord's purpose for your life? This is also double whammy here. Underlined and highlighted and apostrophied, actually, so triple. Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good. And blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. Oh, so I wrote down discerning definition. Discernment, I'm actually gonna look this up right now because this has been a big word for me this year, especially. When I feel more and more committed to reading the Bible this year, and for some reason, I kept when I was starting to really want to get into it and commit to it more. This word discernment kept coming up, and I had no idea what it meant, but I had a feeling. Discernment is the ability to sense, understand, and choose what is true, right, or aligned, especially when things aren't obvious. Simple definition discernment equals clear inner judgment, intuition, wisdom, and action. So knowing without needing proof. I actually love that word. It says discernment versus judgment. Judgment is this is good or bad about them. Discernment is is this aligned for me or not? Discernment is more neutral and self-focused. So the sentence after what I triple, whoever gives thought to the word will discover good and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. It says the wise of heart is called discerning. So I interpreted that as being almost a definition for it. This part's cute too. Gray hair is a crown of glory. It is gained in a righteous life. Kind of a cute little, not me calling the Bible cute, but it is. It's very cute in pointing out there's an honor and aging. And I think that's really beautiful and important now. The Lord tests heart. Yes, he does. I liked that this was in the Bible as well. I actually think that this inspired my last episode. Last episode was on friendships. Proverbs chapter 17, verse 17. A friend loves at all times. And not only underlined, highlighted, exclamation mark, but I wrote it in the side because I think that that is such a beautiful lesson and such an important part to make in the Bible. And I was so surprised to see it. So I really liked that one. And Proverbs chapter 18. I wrote on the side a lesson on active listening, growth and learning. And it's verse 13 to 15. And it says, if one gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame. Let me say that again. If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. So important. So important. I think it's always so important to continue to want to grow and learn. And I'm really excited to read more about that too, because I always hear about like being the best version of yourself. And so much of what the wellness industry is really highlighting nowadays is all really from the Bible and showing up. I've seen some things on social media kind of making this more digestible, but things like reading, laughter, exercising, eating clean, making sure you're nourishing your body, mind, soul, emotional well-being. Like this is all in alignment with the word and with God and with the Bible. So I think it's really interesting and super cool when I run into quotes like that that really are aligned with being the best version of yourself and that the Bible encourages that. I think is really beautiful. Ooh, this is a really hard one. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Ooh, that's a crazy one. I took up goosebums. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, the power of our words. How important it is for us to speak with kindness. This verse I thought was interesting. Proverbs 19, 8. Whoever gets sense loves his own soul. I thought that was interesting because I didn't expect Speak of the Soul to be in the Bible. So this is the first time that I had noticed it. And I thought that that was pretty interesting. Okay, I just skimmed the rest of the pages. So we are going to wrap up here in what I think are really priority things to mention before we wrap up. Proverbs chapter 19, verse 21 says, Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Ultimately, I think that this verse is so powerful. I'm gonna read it one more time. So I think, you know, sometimes it's okay to feel in those in between stages and allowing things to unfold. And that's why I think it's really important to think about what intentions you have in your life and question, you know, is this an alignment for what plans the Lord has for my life? I think sometimes it can be a little bit confusing, but at the end of the day, I think that's when your morals and values really, really are so important. And I think that the Bible is really cracking down on so much wisdom in regards to that. I'm like reading this again. I'm like, damn, this there's like so many like good quotes in here. Some conversations around drinking, wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler. And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. I just thought that was also interesting, taking advantage of alcohol not being aligned. Proverbs chapter 21. This is so important to me because the Lord's priorities are the heart stance. That's what I wrote down. And this verse really helped me understand that. It says, Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Uh, I think a lot of times we can make excuses for what we're doing, but at the end of the day, where's your heart at? Again, intentions. The heart really speaks to you. You can feel when the heart drops and when the heart doesn't feel good. Is it racing? Like the heart really speaks to you. And I've always been so connected to my heart and leading with my heart and trying to listen to it and follow it. So I thought that that was really beautiful. Again, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. The heart stands. Another mention of the heart here, 2211. He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king as his friend. So speaking about a pure heart and speaking kindly, gracious speech. Proverbs chapter 23. You can go ahead and read it if you're interested, but I'm just going to read my interpretation because I think it's very, very important. I put, do not desire what others have. Not everyone wants the best for you. Be cautious who you open up to. Not everyone deserves your mind. And then 12 to 18 is instruction and promise of the Lord, which I think is really important. And then to go with that concept, jumping ahead to 29, I paraphrased, you are not disciplined in what you say you will do, rather what you actually do. Also so important. And then not only does it speak about in the last couple chapters of fear in the Lord, but also to seek the Lord and trust the Lord. So I made sure to put those all down together at the end of the book. I think it's so important to seek the Lord and to trust the Lord as everything unfolds. So yeah, that is everything. Not everything. There's a lot. This book, I mean, wow, there is so much wisdom, so many life lessons, just so much day-to-day takeaways that can be utilized in life immediately and that I think are really important to think on and apply. So we are going to leave it there. Thank you guys so much for listening today. This was really fun and I hope that you enjoyed it. I am now jumping ahead. I asked my brother. I told him that I finished my first. Where should I go next? And I am starting to read John, which is pretty interesting, very different because instead of a day-to-day, it's very much so a story. So having to remember what you just read from the chapter before. So this one I'm making sure to take lots of notes on the side just in case I forget what's happening. I can kind of jump to the prior days and see, okay, where did we leave off? So this is lots of story about Jesus. So I am just now on chapter three. So don't have too much to say there. I'm sure once we finish, we can digest that as well. But yeah, thank you so much for listening. Thank you for holding space for me to speak about this. A little bit of a different one, but equally, I mean, not equally, probably the most important episode that I'll make because I really do think that believing in something greater than you is not only humbling, but necessary in life. Like I said, I'm a very open-minded person with religion and I respect so many religions and I'm very curious with them too. I guess maybe that's probably why I made this episode because I figure, you know, even if you're not a Christian, I think that hearing different perspectives are important and interesting. I love learning, especially spirituality and speak of the Lord and Jesus. You know, my interpretation of it and how it relates to me can be so different to how it relates to you. Different words and verses and books stand out to me versus how they stand out to you. And I think it's such a connecting and deep and beautiful part of life. Honestly, I love deep topics in general. Obviously, I mean, this podcast is all about vulnerability. Yeah, this is a very vulnerable episode, just speaking of where I am in my own journey, but I really crave these deep conversations and I love these deep conversations with people in my life and you know how people interpret and understand things differently and what it means to them. I think is really inspiring and amazing and fun. And yeah, thank you guys so, so much for listening. I love you so much. This episode really made us closer, I think. So if you stuck till the end, thank you so much. You can find me on Instagram at Stephanie underscore Mongi. And if you did make it to the end, leave a little dove on my latest post. We'll also link my Bible down below. It's really cute. I got these bookmarks from Amazon to help me turn to the chapters easier, and there's, like I said, space to write. The version that I have is the English standard version. But, anyways, that is all. Thank you again so much for listening and holding space for me. Love you dearly, and I will talk to you next week. Bye.