50 First Dates

I’m pretty out of it in the morning, but I must have been especially tired last Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, I read through a Psalm as I usually do and then I prayed. On Wednesday I went back and read the same Psalm over again by accident. I didn’t even remember that I’d read it the day before! On Tuesday I hadn’t underlined or highlighted anything, but on Wednesday the words of that Psalm gave me the encouragement I needed for that day.

At first I felt a little embarrassed because of my mistake. How could I have read a whole Psalm the previous morning and not remembered it? Not only that, but how could I get so much out of the Psalm on Wednesday when the previous day I hadn’t highlighted anything?

This scenario reminded me of the movie “50 First Dates” starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Let me clarify something – I am by no means recommending this movie! I guess I’ll claim the adage, “Do as I say and not as I do!” However, the premise of this movie does have some value. In the movie, Adam meets Drew who has amnesia and never remembers the previous day. Adam spends every day wooing Drew, spending time with her and making her fall in love with him. Then he wakes up the next morning and starts from square one. He loves her so much that he is willing have 50 first dates with her.

In the movie, Drew Barrymore’s character began each day with a fresh, new perspective on life. Wouldn’t it be nice sometimes to not remember what happened yesterday? In real life, we can get a positive outlook for the day by spending time with God. We can have 50 first dates (or more) with God.

It doesn’t even matter if we get up and read the same Scripture passage every day (although at some point we’ll have to move on – there’s a lot of Scripture to cover). Sometimes one Scripture will affect us differently than it did the last time we read it. The important thing is that we’re spending time in God’s Word each day. We shouldn’t get frustrated if we don’t remember everything we’ve read, because maybe what we read was just enough to get us through one day.

If you’ve read my previous two blog entries, then you’ll know that I’m getting up every morning to spend the first minutes of my day with God. It’s been an adjustment since I’m “crabbier” in the morning, but it’s been a great change in my life. Now I am going to bump my First Fruits Challenge up to 50 First Dates with God. To meet this goal I get to spend 27 more dates with God. That will equal fifty mornings spent with the only One who can tolerate me at that time of the day. Do you think maybe I could become a morning person? I guess only God can do miracles!

If you want to know more, read Psalm 12 (but try not to forget you read it!).