Welcome!! We're so proud of you--you're working out a plan to be in God's Word in 2026. Your to-do list has never been longer, and you've never been busier, but you've never needed Jesus more. Join us to walk through The Bible chronologically to understand what God's intention is for families and for His followers. These episodes are brief, but deep, convicting, but full of humblity.

Bible + Prayer + Real-LIfe Application = A Plan You Can Commit To

We're rooting for you!

Get to the Printable Plan Here

Scriptures Mentioned:

Psalm 119: 92

Psalm 143:8, 10

Revelation 21

Luke 10:38-42

Ephesians 6:10-18

Betsy Corning and Entrusted Ministries: Find out more here!

Article Mentioned: Crossway: You Have More Time for Bible-Reading Than You Think

Welcome to the Dwelling Place.

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My name is Stephanie Hickox and I

am thrilled that you're preparing

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to dwell with Entrusted Ministries

in I this year with the Dwelling

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Place Bible Plan for Busy Moms.

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I know you just wrapped and unwrapped

all your Christmas celebrations, and

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you'd probably appreciate a moment

to rest before you think about your

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resolutions, but I hope I can encourage

you with the game plan so you can

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hit the ground running on January 1st

when I think about Christmas and us

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celebrating Jesus as Emmanuel God with us.

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That's exactly the entire

theme of this podcast.

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The Lord created us in Genesis.

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And he walked with Adam and Eve

in the garden through the end of

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Revelation, that is a key theme that

God longs to dwell with his people.

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When Adam and Eve ate from the tree that

God commanded them not to eat from, they

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broke the perfect fellowship they were

able to have with their creator, and

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certain conditions are required for God to

consistently and fully dwell with mankind.

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But when Jesus came, he brought

the message that God was restoring

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his dwelling place with man.

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He took on flesh for us.

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Do you see that?

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This is a God that has pursued you, and

that's why I think it's so important

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that we give him this time, because no

matter how busy we are as mothers, we

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certainly don't want to put the most

important things on the back burner

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just because our lives are full.

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I've gotta mention, I definitely don't

believe there's anything magical about

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the first of the year, but because so

many of us are making resolutions at

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this point, I just wanna encourage you

to make one that centers on Jesus Christ.

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Every Christian mom I know is struggling

to find time to be consistent in prayer

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and in the word, and the Lord put this

idea on my heart about a year ago.

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So I've been preparing and studying

and praying about what format

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and method would most bless moms.

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I don't know if moms have ever been

busier in the history of the world,

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but honestly, I don't think we've ever

needed the truth of God's word more.

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You're probably thinking, what am

I getting into if I commit to this?

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And I had busy mom life at the forefront

of my mind in every detail of planning

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this, I'm going to keep these weekday

episodes to under 10 minutes a day.

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In it,

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i'll read a passage of scripture from

that portion of the day's reading.

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Then I'll point out a highlight or two

that I believe is pivotal for us to

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understand as we parent or for our family

lives or our own sanctification as moms.

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This isn't to twist the word of God or

to make it fit our lives, but really

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to help us be steadfast because the

Bible says so much about families.

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And then I'll close praying over

you and your kids and instead of

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praying the same things over and

over, which I often fall into, we're

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gonna let the word of God lead us.

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After a year, you'll have prayed an

abundance of things for your kids that

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might not have been on your radar if

it weren't for the pages of scripture.

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If you're overwhelmed, but you

know that you need God's word,

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this is the place for you.

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It'll give you a little accountability

and hopefully something soothing

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to listen to in the morning.

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I hope it's a relief to you to know

that you could follow one of three

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tracks should you choose to dwell with

us, we'll talk more about that later.

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While I love to dig into the word and

into commentaries to learn more about

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my savior, I'm a mom just like you.

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I'm not a seminary professor or pastor.

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I'm a mom who's found that motherhood

is often harder than I expected.

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And honestly, the only reason I

didn't fall apart in difficult

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family seasons was because God's word

held me up when nothing else could.

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When I come to scripture, I find that

God doesn't necessarily make me stronger.

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He teaches me how to rely on

his strength, and he makes me

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desperate to come back for him.

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That's the heart of this, because it

isn't about making the Bible about us.

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It's about making our homes, our

hearts, our motherhood about him.

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I will be the first to admit that

I often feel like a basket case and

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motherhood has only increased that.

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I was really intentional before

I had kids, and I think somewhere

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tucked in the back of my mind.

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I had an idea that I'd be able

to set cruise control if I could

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just get all my ducks in a row.

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Little did I know that a lot of curve

balls were in my future and my family life

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certainly doesn't look like I expected

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the other day, I was reading Psalm

one 19 and I came across verse 92.

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If your law had not been my delight,

I would've perished in my affliction,

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and I wrote So absolutely true.

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In the margin.

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God's word has been kept me going,

and knowing that the God of the

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universe invites me to dwell and

abide with him is the greatest

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compliment I could ever imagine.

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And it's true for you too.

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If you're longing to be faithful to the

word of God, I'd love for you to join us.

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Certainly not because I think I'm amazing,

but because I wanna speak the word of

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God over you because I know how much

it's helped me, and I promise, I know I

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need Jesus daily as much as any of us do.

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It would be my honor to read these

scriptures over you and over your kids and

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pray them for you so I can set you up for

your day knowing that you've invited the

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Holy Spirit to join you, and that you're

clothing yourselves with the word of God.

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Someone 43 8 says, let me hear

in the morning of your steadfast

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love friend you, I trust.

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Make me know the way I

should go for to you.

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I lift up my soul.

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And then in verse 10, teach me to

do your will for you are my God.

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Let your good spirit

lead me on level ground.

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Isn't that so much better than

anything you've heard a human say?

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And this is exactly how I need to start my

day with the encouragement of the Bible.

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In episode two of our Prepare to

Dwell Prep series, I'll talk about

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a specific dwelling place passage.

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That means a lot to me.

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But now I wanna show you how, even

to the last pages of scripture, God

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is all about restoring our dwelling

place with him and you're gonna get

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a taste of my personality right away.

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'cause it's hard for me to read this

without tearing up In Revelation

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21, john writes, then I saw a new

heaven and a new Earth for the first

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heaven, and the first earth had

passed away and the sea was no more.

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And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem

coming out of heaven for God prepared.

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As a bride adorned for her husband, and I

heard a loud voice from the throne sing.

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Behold the dwelling

place of God is with man.

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He will dwell with them and they

will be his people and God himself

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will be with them as their God.

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He will wipe away every tear from

their eyes, and death shall be no more.

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Neither shall there be mourning

nor crying, nor pain anymore for

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the former things have passed away.

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And he who was seated on the throne

said, behold, I am making all things new.

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These verses beautifully reveal

God's heart for his people, and

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it makes me think that the least

I can do is commit to read some

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of the pages of his word each day.

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But I also know how busy you are and

how overwhelming mom life can be.

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It can be relentless and often exhausting,

and you are giving it your all.

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I hope I can come alongside you in a way

that not only ministers to your heart,

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but also helps you discern truth from

the lies that are often coming at you.

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They are everywhere around us.

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But when we look to God's word, it tears

down strongholds and falsehoods and

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the light of God will shine through.

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I have to admit, I'm in that

camp that says, don't just drink

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a little milk here and there.

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Don't just snack on the word of God.

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Get out your steak knife, girl.

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'cause I think God wants us feasting

on his word, and I'd rather have

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a filet than a little sip of milk.

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When I look at our culture and

the constant interruptions and

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things vying for our attention

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it's evident to me that we need to be

vigilant to discern what is biblical

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and what is just a couple degrees

off from truth, which if you follow

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for a long time, is going to get

you way off course for that reason.

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This Bible plan isn't just an encouraging

verse here or there picked randomly.

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This is walking through the full counsel

of God's word so we can know the God who

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created us and who created our children.

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My goal is to help you stay grounded

and rooted in the truth regardless

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of what's going on around you.

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So when you look back at your parenting,

you can look back without regrets,

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knowing that you were certainly not

perfect, but that you were steadfast to

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the things that God says matter most.

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Part of what got me thinking about

this podcast idea in the first

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place is that I came across an

article written by Crossway, and

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I'll link that in the show notes.

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It was an infographic about how you

have more time for Bible reading than

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you think, and they said if you wanna

read through the entire Bible, it would

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take the average person about 80 hours.

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If you break that down over the course

of the year, it's about 15 minutes a day.

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Now, I know that when we come to the word

of God, the verses are so rich, sometimes

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it's hard to get through a chunk of

them because we wanna linger, however.

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I think it's very important for us

to read through the Bible and in the

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entirety so we can know the whole Council

of God's word and not just take verses

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out of context or focus more on certain

passages and forgetting about certain

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aspects of God's character or heart

that he put in his word with intention.

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Here's the plan.

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I know many moms have a different

weekend routine than weekday routine.

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What I'll do is release

five weekday episodes.

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If you want a little time to catch up on

the weekend, you could certainly do that.

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Maybe there's a prayer from one of

the episodes you could re-listen

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to, but you don't have to.

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I'm just committing to provide five

weekday episodes each under 10 minutes,

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and perhaps you're thinking, oh, that

sounds wonderful, but I just had a baby.

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Or, I'm about to have a baby, and

I can barely keep my eyes open.

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And maybe your mom caring for continual

special needs, or maybe you're

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overwhelmed as a working mom and your

commute is your only moment of peace.

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I so get that.

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I would say to the moms in the

busiest seasons, I'm gonna be reading

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a portion of scripture over you.

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And if that's what you before the Lord

can commit to this year, I believe, who

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will honor and bless your faithfulness

to look to his word every day.

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I hope that there are some moments your

eyes can see his word for yourself.

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But I do believe that it's gonna bless

you to hear the word spoken over you.

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So track one is just to listen

to these Dwelling place episodes.

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Track two is for the Mamas that

perhaps your hands are busy, but

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your ears have a little more time.

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You can listen to the Dwelling Place

episodes and then also listen to

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scripture utilizing a free Bible

app like the You version Bible app.

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Most chapters of scripture only take two

and a half to four minutes to get through.

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In this Bible plan, you

can typically listen.

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In under 15 minutes a day.

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That's perfect for folding a load of

laundry during some dishes or a quick

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pickup to get the kids, or even a

peaceful walk if that's in your routine.

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I,

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and then track three would be to

read through the Bible on your

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own, and then also listen to

these Dwelling Place episodes.

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Like I said, I've broken these up

into a five day Bible reading plan

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and you might be looking at it and

thinking, girl, you do not get my life.

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This is a lot.

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But if someone told you that in

a year you were gonna read one

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chapter book and you're just gonna

read three pages of a chapter every

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night, would it feel that daunting?

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I think we get overwhelmed

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because as I said, the words of

scripture are so rich, but I wanna

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live a life saying the best yeses.

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Instead of letting mediocre

things choke away my time or

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choke out the best things in life.

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Maybe you commit to just read

a chapter a day on your own.

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I think there's a lot of flexibility

here that you can work out with

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the Lord who knows your life.

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If he's the God that dwells and

abides with us, he can certainly

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help you troubleshoot this.

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As we study God's word,

we're gonna have questions.

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I don't know about you, but often

I read a verse and I think, oh

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my goodness, this is amazing.

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Or, uh, that's really confusing.

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And then I look in my commentary

and it barely says anything.

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Sometimes I think it's because

most of these were written by

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men, and I'm thankful for that.

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But I'm also grateful to have my aunt

Betsy Corning, the Executive director

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and founder of Entrusted Ministries.

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She has our master's in Biblical

studies, and she'll be joining

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us about every 25 episodes.

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That'll turn out to be once a month,

and you'll submit your questions to us

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and she'll answer any of those lingering

questions that didn't get settled as

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we walk through the books of the Bible.

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You'll be able to say, I'm just

not clear about this thing or

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this thing about parenting.

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Does that still apply today or

what are your thoughts on this?

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You can ask practical questions as

she has led Entrusted Ministries.

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For decades.

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She is a mom of three grown

children and a grandmother of 10.

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And that means she has an abundance of

practical on the job training, but it

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is rooted in the truth of scripture.

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Get ready to submit those questions.

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Because we wanna speak to

exactly what you want us to.

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And lastly, I just wanna

tell you, I believe in you.

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I believe you can commit to this.

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There's gonna be a point where all of

us are gonna struggle to stay on track.

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But let's give ourselves grace

to say, when I fall off, I'm

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gonna hop back on that horse.

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As the author of Atomic Habit

says, the goal shouldn't be

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to never have an off day.

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The goal should be not to

have two off days in a row.

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This isn't about us making a

perfect year long commitment.

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It's about an understanding

and a belief that the word of

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God has power and validity for

everything we're going through.

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It has examples to embrace and warnings to

heed, and all of this is helping us become

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the mothers and wives God wants us to be.

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Even though there are so many necessary

things tugging at us, let's be like Mary,

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where she was just able to sit at the

feet of Jesus in the midst of it all.

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She chose the one thing.

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Let's join her in saying, God,

whatever else comes today.

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I will make a way to hear

your word in episode three.

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We'll plot out this plan a little

bit more and I'll explain the

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printable options I have for you.

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'cause if you're like me, you're

gonna wanna cross something off.

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And maybe even give yourself a reward

as you stay faithful with this.

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I hope this is a routine and a

rhythm that fits the lives of moms.

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Just to recap one more time,

this is a dwelling place, Bible

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reading plan for busy moms.

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If you're longing to be in the word

and to have someone pray over you and

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your families, this is a place to be.

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We're officially launching January

1st, but I'm releasing these episodes

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to prepare us to dwell with the Lord

and get a plan ready and then to let

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you listen to a couple sample episodes

so you know what you're getting in for

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ephesians six tells us to put on the

full armor of God and the only offensive

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weapon we have is the word of God.

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We're in a battle for

the heart of our kids.

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Let's make sure we're

suited up and ready to go.