Many people make it a point to commit to habits such as reading more or studying the Scripture more during winter months. After all, when the temperatures start to drop in Omaha, Nebraska, you definitely need to fill your days with indoor activities. And cozying up in a favorite chair somewhere in the Hickory Villa assisted living community and connecting with the good book can be a great indoor activity for many seniors of faith.
But summer can also be a great time to invest in regular Bible study — whether you’ve been perusing Scripture your entire life or are just starting your faith journey.
Get some tips for incorporating Bible study into your assisted living community lifestyle and check out our list of great Bible stories to reread this summer.
Some seniors of faith might be well-practiced in spiritual disciplines and find no problems incorporating Bible study throughout their week. If you’ve been having morning quiet time for decades, for example, it might come as naturally as eating breakfast or brushing your teeth. In fact, you might feel incomplete if you try to go about your day without it.
But not everyone has that type of habit, so here are some tips for making God’s word a part of your regular life at Hickory Villa senior living community.
Not every devotional is right for every person, and that’s fine. Just because the book is about God doesn’t mean you need to enjoy it. If someone wrote a devotional that’s targeted to gardeners and uses a lot of plant and growing metaphors, you’re probably not going to connect with it if you’ve never planted a single seed in your life.
Look for devotional materials that are more general or ones that use specific interests or relatable experiences that align with your life. After all, that’s how Jesus taught God’s word. He used metaphors that would resonate with the people he was speaking too, such as those about growing and harvesting wheat or keeping a flock of sheep.
You don’t have to sit in your own assisted living apartment to study the Bible. Consider taking your materials onto the exterior courtyard on cool evenings or sitting in the interior courtyard when the summer heat is too much for you. You can also make use of the computer and other materials in the inner courtyard at Hickory Gardens to do research to help you understand more about the verses you’re reading.
You can join in for hymns and devotionals on Friday mornings and prayer service on Sunday afternoons as a way to worship with other believers in the community. But nothing says you have to stop there. Invite like-minded assisted living community friends to sit and discuss the Bible with you or to read certain passages and study them with you.
Like the idea of incorporating God’s Word into your summer but not sure where to start? Consider some of these stories and verses, which make for great reading and discussions during hot summer days.
If you want to break into God’s word with the help of another author or book study, there are plenty on the market. LifeWay provides a list of several great Bible study books for the summer season, and Christianity Today offers a list of 10 Bible study books that each cover an entire book in the Bible to help you go deeper in your reading.
And if you want to supplement summer Bible study with fiction reading that has a Christian worldview, you can consider works by favorites such as C.S. Lewis, Robin Lee Hatcher, Frank Peretti, Francine Rivers, Terri Blackstock and Karen Kingsbury. From fantasy to mystery to romance, there’s a Christian book out there for you.
