Yesterday's Bible reading was from the start of Hebrews 2:

"We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard..."

Every now and then I find myself drifting into skim reading my devotional Bible readings, especially if they are gospel passages I know well.  Periodically I try reading NT stuff in Greek - this has two obvious benefits, firstly it stops me losing what little Greek I have and secondly it forces me to read much more slowly.  Sometimes I try reading aloud (an advantage of living alone!) which again makes me read every word properly.  Occasionally I play with Lectio Divina type approaches. 

It was useful to be reminded, albeit in a slightly sideways fashion, of my tendency not to pay proper attention to what I have 'heard' thinking I already know what it says and missing the new insights that await.  I think this is one of the reasons I like group Bible study - the practice of reading aloud and reflecting together allows us to see new emphases or spot things we haven't spotted before.  It's also one of the bonuses of slogging through the Greek or using less familiar translations.

I know that in a few weeks I will need to pull myself up again, having drifted back to skim reading.  I suspect I am not alone and I wonder what strategies others use to try to overcome this tendency in their own devotional reading?