Leave the Mirror With One Thing

James describes a man who looks in a mirror and forgets his face the moment he turns away. His cure is to look intently and then to do. Here is a practice that builds that into an ordinary morning. When you finish reading Scripture, before you close the Bible or the app, write one sentence that begins with the words today I will. Not a summary of the passage. Not a feeling about it. An action, small enough to complete before you sleep, drawn from what you just read.

Keep it concrete. If you read about the tongue, the sentence might be that you will not complain about a coworker at lunch. If you read about generosity, it might be that you will pay for the person behind you or write the check you have been delaying. If the passage was a psalm of praise, the sentence might be that you will thank God out loud in the car. A sentence you cannot check off at bedtime is too vague.

Then do it, and at night look at the sentence again. This is the whole practice. Over a month it will change your reading, because you will begin looking for the doing while you read, which is exactly the intent James describes. Over a year it will change you.