A Sense of Earned Righteousness

 I'm still working my way through to read the entire Bible, in my Mother-Daughter Bible Study.  But, honestly, we got pretty bogged down by the point we reached Chronicles.  This is not just a book - this is a collection of books and some of it is pretty tough on the reader.

So I thought it was pretty funny when I was browsing in the used bookstore in town and found a very slim volume by Jeanne and William Steig called The Old Testament Made Easy.  It is far too slight a book to really be covering the whole Old Testament - and I was right, it jumps breazily through, with recommendations like "unless you like stats, just skip the begats".  It's cute and funny, all around.

But it was even more fun to discover this note, taped, in the front of the book:



It says "Christmas is a good time to remind both of you that you are ill read in the Bible.  Study hard and enjoy the result in virtue and a sense of earned righteousness!  Love, Joe."

The fact that the note was taped into the book and not directly written on the pages is also funny - was it taken from somewhere else and put in this book as a joke?  Or was the note ironic to begin with?

And a sense of earned righteousness - that is perfect!  That is just what I feel as I work my way through the difficult reading (Not skipping all the begats, either!).