{And then there was that day she started reading the Bible.}

I clicked over to a friend’s blog — I knew it would bring me encouragement, it has for over four years now. And as I read her post + I came upon her final sentence, which was more of a question really, I found myself nodding in agreement with her:

Have you ever had a prompting from the Lord that was clear like this? Did you listen? What was the result? — from Lost but Found, Angie Smith

Almost five weeks ago Kacia + I felt the exact same thing. I had been told for months prior to leaving the country that traveling to Tanzania with Compassion would change our lives forever, that Zack + I would come back new people, that God was going to show us miraculous things. Of course I nodded my head and closed my eyes and said “yes” to them, but really — I wasn’t exactly sure what they were talking about. I mean, if I’m going to travel over 16,000 miles in an aluminum {steel? PLASTIC?} aeroplane vessel, I better come back changed! Snort.

Getting on that aeroplane was scary enough. I was fine flying from Minneapolis to Detroit, but once we got ready to board our flight to Amsterdam I started ugly crying. Everyone else was busy with the meet + greet; I was crying. Fantastic, I thought…

Our week in Tanzania WAS life-changing. I did come back a new person, God DID show us miraculous things.

But it took me some time to figure out what exactly that looked like. It wasn’t an instantaneous understanding; it took time.

I knew I felt all of those things people said we’d feel. I mean, that first day back to Gussy Sews work I stared at the wall, feeling disgusted I had a fancy red tweed couch to sit on and pretty paper on the walls, a wooden floor to walk on, electricity, fresh dairy/meat/water to consume. Still staring. Thank goodness I had the smarts to schedule Cambria + Lisa to come over later in the week ~ I think I would have scared them away for good ;)

But on that first day back I didn’t know how to translate any of these feelings.

The next week, however, I could feel myself beginning to decode things a little more easily.

Then one afternoon I was on the phone with Kacia. She wanted to hear allllll the details from our trip, details I hadn’t shared on my blog. I remember telling Kacia I felt a strong prompting to start reading the Bible daily. I can’t tell you how many times I had said that before — probably over a dozen, to be real with you — but never had I felt like THIS WAS IT, I was finally going to conquer this fault of mine.

Then I told Kacia, If I don’t start reading the Bible every day I’m going to become homeless. I wanted some accountability with how serious I wanted to get with this new lifestyle. Thinking back on what I said it’s like I was referencing being homeless from the Kingdom of God. I know the Bible says,

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. — Romans 10:9-10 NIV

And then there’s this,

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” — Luke 7:50

Reading those red letter words daily helps me to keep going with my faith. It helps me to not waver. To be confident I’ll see the beautiful gates of Heaven. And so in the meantime, I didn’t feel like I was doing enough of the things I knew in my heart I should be doing. Reading the Bible would educate me + enlighten me to so much more. I wanted more Truth.

The more Kacia + I chatted the quicker something began to blossom. She shared with me an iPhone Bible app devotional called Soul Detox {can be followed online or on the iPhone} and soon we were tweeting that we were reading it together. Fast forward through a lot more tweeting + soon others were reading Soul Detox, too. We decided to use the hashtag #SheReadsTruth.

Then we decided to launch a website, also called #SheReadsTruth. By the way, we are SO GRATEFUL for Raechel + Jessi who are on our #SRT team!!!! I can’t wait to meet them at Influence!

Now it’s been almost three weeks since we launched #SheReadsTruth. Kacia + I felt SUCH a strong prompting from the Lord to start this site last month, at first we didn’t know why or how or who, but we felt the tug so strongly we replied, OK Lord! We’ll do this!

daily Instagram photos ~ reflecting upon what I’m reading + enjoying the quiet time

We are confident there are thousands of you participating. It started with a tiny mustard seed and now there’s a beautiful wave of women opening their Bibles daily, sharing photos of what they are learning, connecting with others. But please know, our main focus is for women to feel encouraged to read those red letter words + engage in accountability. Sharing, tweeting — these things are definitely extras. However, it doesn’t take away from the excitement to know there are almost 25,000 people actively following the Soul Detox plan {how many are #SRT girls, we aren’t sure}. But we know there are almost 3,000 photos on Instagram + the twitter stream is constant.

It’s so beautiful to watch… We are E X C I T E D and we know the LORD is excited, too!

So five weeks ago I stated reading my Bible daily. It takes me twenty minutes or so to read the devotional + journal my thoughts. Some times I read more, other times I have more quiet time throughout the day. But overall I can feel a huge weight from stress + anxiety + fear lifted from my body. It’s really an amazing feeling :)

Once again we ask,

Have you ever had a prompting from the Lord that was clear like this? Did you listen? What was the result? — from Lost but Found, Angie Smith

PS. We are starting a new devotional study tomorrow morning. We’ve completed Soul Detox — stop by our site in the morning to see what’s next for #SheReadsTruth! :)