I Read the Bible in 30 Days and Here Is What I Learned...

I really don’t know what came over me on December 31st, 2025. Maybe it was the sickness, the boredom of spending Christmas break at home with a sick toddler while the rest of my children and my husband went on to the family gathering for the week, or maybe it was the Lord leading me. Whatever happened, I found myself doom scrolling and coming across a group of people dedicated to reading through the entire Bible in 30 days. “The 30 Day Shred,” it was called.

Insane? Yes.

Overwhelming? Yes.

Possible? I really wasn’t sure.

I work full-time. I homeschool my three older children and have a toddler running around. We have a small homestead. I run this ministry organization, Pretty & Wise Co., and I volunteer in our youth ministry as a small group leader, discipleship group leader, and administrative assistant.

I sent a message to the person coordinating this. He does it yearly and has tons of people read along with him in those 30 days.

“I want to do this, but I’m honestly afraid I’ll fail. I’m a mom with four kids who works and homeschools and does all the things.”

He responded with message after message after message from other moms who do ALL. THE. THINGS., sharing how this experience has impacted their lives so profoundly. I was sold.

I’m going to do this. I’m going to read the Bible in 30 days—from Genesis to Revelation.

I didn’t know how. I was scared. But I was determined. Whether I was driven by a NyQuil-induced euphoria or the Spirit of God… it was a little unclear, to be honest. But looking back over the past 30 days of reading, I really believe the Lord wanted me to do this.

So I’m going to share with you three things I learned in those 30 days.

Lord, would You convict hearts that need it, encourage hearts that need it, and disturb those who are too comfortable where they are with You and need to move into the unknown. Bring us where You want us to be. Help us learn to follow each step You take and quit talking ourselves out of obedience.

Read the Bible in 30 Days

What could I possibly have learned reading the Bible that quickly? That’s a great question.

When I shared that I was reading the Bible in 30 days with someone, almost inevitably the question that immediately followed was, “How can you possibly retain anything you read?” And I would say, “Well… I’m not retaining a lot right now…”

The first week or so, I was second-guessing myself. What is the purpose of this?Why am I even trying this?Will this actually help me spiritually if I can’t retain what I’m taking in?

I didn’t know how to answer those questions because I really wasn’t having any kind of revelatory experience reading the Bible this quickly. I began to think that the only thing I would get out of reading the Bible in 30 days would be knowing I read the Bible in 30 days—and that’s it. Yay for me, I guess.

During week three of reading is when God really opened my eyes to what He was doing in my heart and mind through this process—that it wasn’t all for naught, and that I really would be different after these 30 days.

So… here’s what I learned.

The Metanarrative of Scripture

I began to see overarching themes throughout Scripture that I hadn’t noticed so easily before. I was reading so quickly that I couldn’t get down into the weeds—looking at original language or meditating on just a verse or two. I was seeing God’s story of the redemption of man from a 30,000-foot view.

I didn’t realize I was gaining this kind of insight until one afternoon while listening to the book of Isaiah in the car. My daughter asked, “What is this even talking about?!”

I’ll be honest—Isaiah was a challenge for my attention span. I kept thinking, Okay, we heard about this guy forever ago. Where does this fall in the timeline of events? What kind of prophecy even is this? I don’t understand what this means.

But when my daughter asked, I immediately opened my mouth and started explaining how the Old Testament prophets to Israel were pointing to God’s holiness and righteousness, His invitation to His people to live in the same way, the consequences of disobedience and how it wrecks our lives, and God’s lovingkindness in always providing a way back when we’ve wandered off in our own sin.

I shocked myself a little bit. I felt the Lord nudge me, “See, I am working through this. You are learning My heart better.”

Perseverance

I’ll be completely transparent with you—I have a tendency to get excited about something, pour 1000% of myself into it, and then get bored and drop it before I finish.

I have a closet full of half-finished crochet projects. Quilts that are half-sewn. Little projects around my house that I’ve started, gotten bored or tired of, and told myself, “I’ll get to that later,” only to not get to it later.

I struggle with finishing well.

My biggest fear in taking on this challenge of reading the Bible in 30 days was that I wouldn’t finish. But I did finish.

I determined in my heart that no matter what it took, I would not let a day go by where my reading went unfinished. If that meant staying up late, excusing myself from other activities, waking up earlier, or skipping gatherings, I completed the reading for each day. No matter what.

By the end of this, I realized I am capable of doing hard things. I am capable of overcoming my own irresponsible nature that says, “I’ll just do it later,” and instead remaining steadfast—pushing past my feelings and doing what I set out to do.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot to you, but I’ve realized through this experience how often I listen to my feelings and let them boss me around. I give in to my own desires far more than I should. I thought I was better than I am.

It opened my eyes to my own depravity and selfishness. And coming to grips with the reality of my lack of maturity helped me see that it was time to overcome. It was time to grow. It was time to mature.

And that process has begun in me.

Self-Deception

The most life-changing realization I gained from this experience was the opening of my eyes to see just how often I make excuses for myself when it comes to my devotion to the Lord.

I now see how often I have made my relationship with God about me. My devotion is limited to what I feel like offering up to Him. I tell myself that someday, when the kids are grown and more independent, I’ll have more time to just sit with Jesus. But for now, fifteen minutes in the morning and a few touch points throughout the day is all I have to give most days.

My eyes have been opened. I have been lying to myself—and I truly believed it.

For the past 30 days, I found time each day to read between 30–70 chapters of Scripture (most days around 45 chapters). That’s roughly 2–2.5 hours of reading a day. I split that up by reading in the morning, listening to Scripture in the car every time we drove anywhere, and reading in bed each night.

Most days, I would take out my phone and read a chapter if I had just five minutes of downtime—waiting for the kids to finish a chore or school assignment, while the table was being set for dinner, even when I went to the restroom.

I see now how much time I gave to all sorts of lesser loves throughout my day.

It was such a great deception the enemy of my soul had been whispering in my ear: You’ve read enough today. You deserve a little break. It’s just a few minutes of scrolling. You need to relax. You really don’t have any more time to give. This is just a season—someday you’ll have more time to give Him.

It was a bunch of lies whispered in my ear all day long to keep me from giving more of my time to the Word of God—the very VOICE of God.

I didn’t drastically alter my life for these 30 days. I didn’t call out of work or quit taking care of my children. I still worked, still educated my kids, still took care of my organization, still volunteered time, still did chores and cooked meals and sang lullabies.

I just chose to be more intentional with my time.

I chose to devote more to Jesus. I chose the Word over social media. I chose the Word over Netflix. I chose the Word over Spotify in the car. I chose the Word over all sorts of silly, time-wasting lesser loves.

And you know what? I don’t regret one minute of lost time on Instagram, one minute of a missed show, or one minute of a song skipped.

I don’t regret any of it.

An Invitation, Not a Challenge

You don’t have to read the Bible in 30 days (although you absolutely can if the Lord leads you there). That isn’t really the point. The point is obedience. The point is honesty. The point is allowing the Lord to lovingly expose the places where we’ve believed we had nothing left to give, when in reality we were simply giving ourselves elsewhere.

What I didn’t anticipate—what I never could have planned—was how much this wouldn’t just change me, but my children as well.

Because they were with me.

They listened in the car. They listened while we cooked dinner. They listened while we drove to practice, ran errands, and folded laundry. Over the course of those 30 days, my children listened to probably sixty percent of the Bible alongside me.

And something beautiful happened.

Their curiosity grew. Their questions deepened. Their interest in God’s Word expanded in a way I hadn’t seen before. We began having conversations about theology and doctrine. About God’s character and holiness. About redemption and judgment. About heaven and eternity. These weren’t forced conversations. I didn’t assign lessons or plan devotionals. They simply flowed out of a home saturated with Scripture.

I am convinced this may have been one of the most spiritually formative things I have done for my children all year.

I didn’t drastically alter my life to make this happen. I simply chose to be more intentional with my time.

And I don’t regret one minute of it.

I pray that this is encouraging—and maybe even gently convicting—if you struggle to give God time each day. I pray that your eyes, much like mine, would be opened to the places where time is being offered to things that cannot satisfy, when it could be offered up to the Lord instead.

Not out of guilt. Not out of pressure. But out of love.

Because God is not asking us to give up good things for nothing. He is inviting us into something better. And when we choose obedience—when we choose His Word—it rarely stops with us.

It overflows into our homes, our children, and generations beyond us.