Reading: A Childhood Hobby

I have always enjoyed reading and learning.

Ever since I can remember, as a child growing up I would read anything I could get my hands on. Once we moved into Belle Center I spent a lot of my time at the library going through any and all books. There was a fascination I had with them. I remember mom started getting these big boxes of comic books and I went through them and separated the entire box by what they involved. One stack was war, others were superheroes and then some about science and detectives. This box was huge and I would end up reading every one of them. In the evening when I was not out playing I would come home and grab one of the comics or one of the old books mom had upstairs that was kept separated from the others. The older the book the better I liked them we had McGuffey Primers. Plus, we had early math and science book and books that taught you your letter by objects from the Bible.

The Bible

But all the years growing up that I loved to read I never read the Bible. Like I mentioned before some of the reading books incorporated the Bible as part of the book but to actually set down and pick up Gods Word and to read it front to back I never did. As I would read these book it’s like I would become part of the story that I was reading at the time. I would sort of zone out and you could yell and yell at me but I was in my own little world that the book created for me. But storybooks and comic books weren’t the only things I liked to read: math and history and science books I loved to read.

Changes

But things are changing a bit, I read the paper on my iPhone, my news comes digitally. I have an app call You Version which has several translations of the Bible. ad I carry it with me wherever I go, so if I’m waiting for Pam somewhere, or at the doctors waiting for my turn, I can read my Bible. But as convenient as it is to carry the Bible on my iPhone, it’s not the same to me as the printed word. You see I grew an attachment to the printed word. For me, there will never be a replacement for the printed word. The smell of a book as you pick it up and leaf through the pages, I still like going into a book store and see the rows and rows of books. I have even read Shakespeare and some of the classics and that might seemed pretty strange with the way we grew up.

It has always been my dream to have a library of classics with chairs set around so a person could walk in and pick up a book and get lost in the story of Moby Dick or Tom Sawyer, maybe be part of the Last of the Mohicans, or read of the great history as Americans that we have. Don’t get me wrong I think that this digital age is great for reading but as for me, the feel of a book in my hands will never be replaced by an iPad or a smartphone. I’m thankful for the books that I have on my phone but I’m just a bit old fashion this way.

Choices

You see I can’t read Hebrew or Greek; maybe someday I will try to learn. But for me, the King James Bible will never be replaced. Now don’t think that I am putting down the other versions because I’m not. What I am saying is that the KJV is what I study, read and preach out of.

I do read the NIV and the American Standard, and several other translations for reference but the mainstay for me is the King James Version. This is the version I got saved reading and this is the version I find that seems to be part of me. As I read of David, Daniel or Joshua I can see in my mind what they must have gone through. David as he stood against Goliath, or Daniel as he laid on a lion in knowing God would deliver him. Or Joshua as he stood in front of the tribes of Israel and stated with a firm and devoted voice “AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE WE WILL SERVE THE LORD”. These are not just stories to me but actual facts and part of history.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The Scriptures tells us we should study Gods Word and for me, this is a command that I dearly enjoy. There are times I like to just pick up my bible and just open it up and see what the Word has to share with me that day. I wished as a boy growing up someone would have slipped a Bible in all those stacks of books I had. But the experience and memories all those books have given me is a treasure I will always cherish. And the treasures and blessings I find in Gods Word today are the greatest of all blessings that I have. Just because we grow up and get older does not mean we have to abandon some of our childhood likes. And for me, reading books and especially Gods Word will always bless me.

May God Bless you and open your eyes to the world he has for you.