Excerpted from Anne Graham Lotz, Jesus in Me: Experiencing the Holy Spirit as a Constant Companion, Multnomah, 2019, p. 152. Used by permission.
While my grandmother taught me how to read generally, my mother and father taught me how to read my Bible. Every day without fail, my mother led our family in devotions. She would gather everyone who was in the house into the kitchen, where she would read a portion of Scripture, then pray. I did not enjoy these times, because I always seemed to be running late for school, and it was hard to concentrate when I was trying to cram down breakfast, make sure I had my reports and schoolwork done, then get out the door to arrive at school before the bell rang. But the consistency of my mother’s effort, as well as her obvious love for God’s Word and belief in its relevancy for all of us as we began our day, made a deep impact.
When my father was home, he led family devotions, usually in the evening. He also would read a portion of Scripture, but he would then stop, ask questions, make comments, and lead us in a discussion of what he had read.
By her example my mother taught me to love and read my Bible every day—preferably in the morning. My father, by his example, taught me to think about what I was reading. Those two life lessons are perhaps the most valuable ones my parents handed down to me.