"If Jesus could come back then, why can't he come back now?" The inquirer was a 10-year-old girl I'd met a few days before, a girl I wasn't sure would still be at camp that day because of how intensely home-sick she'd been at the beginning of the week. A girl who had never attended church or heard about Jesus, whose Bible had never been opened, only purchased because a Bible was on the what-to-bring-to-camp list.

If you grew up in the church, maybe, like me, you memorized plenty of Bible verses. I still remember many I learned as a child—we had cassette tapes with Bible verses put to songs and those are still in my brain. And I’m really glad of that, I think it’s important. Scripture memory is something I emphasize with our kidztown classes.

I have this old hymnal that I took from church several years back. It says First Baptist Church on the cover and sticking out the side is a mess of color-coded tabs leading to all my favorite hymns. I like to use my hymnal as part my regular morning devotionals, but lately it has become more of a distraction.

I don't know about you, but from time to time I find myself stuck in a rut with my personal Bible study and devotional time. I recently attended a women's conference, and while there I learned about a new (to me) Bible study method that I thought I'd pass along. It's called the HEAR journaling method, but you don't necessarily need to write things down, you could do it mentally. The acronym HEAR stands for highlight, explain, apply and respond.