What makes something valuable? 

My mother would say it has something to do with what something is made of. When I was younger, I wanted a pair of boots. I was so set on the look and style of the boots, that I wasn’t paying attention to what it was made of. My mother, helping me shop for this pair of boots, was focused on what they were made out of. I might think I found the perfect pair because they were exactly what I wanted in my head, but my mom would say, “They’re synthetic leather. They’ll start falling apart after a few wears. You’re better off spending more money to get real leather boots that will take years to fall apart.”

You’re probably tired of hearing from me at this point, but it’s a concept we need to constantly be reminded of: The Bible is the only thing we need in order to understand God. Are commentaries helpful? Yes. Are there teachers out there that are helpful in taking scripture, unpacking it, and explaining it to us? Yes. What’s the problem with that? You can’t always trust people to be right in exegeting scripture, and you certainly can’t depend on a person to reveal the heart of God.

When I was a little girl, my grandma had this bookshelf with a series of short story books on it. I remember I loved to look at them, the spines straight like soldiers in a row, all the same color, all the same size, and lined from one end of the shelf to the other, yet all incredibly different on the inside.

My grandmother has had the same morning routine for years. She wakes up and makes herself a cup of coffee, frothed with piping hot milk because that’s how she likes it. Once she has that all-important cup, she sits down at the kitchen table with her iPad, a notebook, and her Bible. As she works her way through her morning coffee, she worships, reads devotions, takes notes, and prays.