A little bit about Bible Journaling…

Can I tell you a little something? I’m working on a birthday giveaway!! For my birthday I’m going to GIVE a gift away to one of YOU. I’m so excited! It promises to be quite epic thanks to a little blogger swag money from Family Christian. If you have caught wind of the whole #JournalingBible movement, then you’ll definitely want to make sure to poke your head around here during March. It will be awesome!

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(Here’s a little secret…there are affiliate links contained in this post. There’s a little computer fund going and any proceeds from this blog will be put in that fund. Because every good geek girl needs a computer that she doesn’t feel like throwing at the wall.)

If you’ve ever enjoyed scrapbooking, drawing and other artsy ways of expressing yourself, I highly recommend Bible journaling. I have found it to be very effective in making my Bible come alive in a new way for me, and a fantastic way to connect with God in a more meaningful way during my quiet times. If you’re not so artsy, but would like to begin the practice of marking up your Bible, I recommend checking out Kay Arthur’s method of inductive Bible study. I kind of like a mixture of both. Because I’m a weird mixture of creative and logic like that.

Now, here’s the thing about the way my brain works. I’m a really good at copying and giving my own twist to somebody else’s ideas. I’m not really so great at coming up with the creative thoughts to start with, though. So if you’re interested in learning more about Bible Journalling, here are a few of my favorite tools, books, links, videos and of course Pinteresting ideas.

• First you need a Bible made for journalling, right? This is the one I got: ESV Journaling Bible. It looks like a good old-fashioned Moleskine notebook. You can definitely go way expensive with some of the gorgeous leather covers, but this one is nice and sturdy and compact and I love the elastic that holds it closed.
• Click here & here for some fun hand lettering and embellishing printouts. I keep mine tucked away in my Bible for when I have enough time to really doodle in the margins. Go ahead and see some fun ways to spruce up your margins!
• This video is a great little tutorial and really demonstrated to me that you don’t have to be an artist to create some beautiful bits of lettering in your Bible margins.
• You’ll need some high quality pens and probably some highlighters and color pencils for your Bible pages. You don’t want your writing to bleed through the pages. I love the Micron pens. If that sounds a little familiar think scrapbooking in the early 2000’s. Every good little scrapbook had a set of those pens or else their Creative Memories counterpart. Shanna Noel gives a great list of supplies over on her blog, but if you can’t buy a whole bunch of stuff, start with some good pens. For some, that’s all you need. And hey…if you’ve got some old scrapbooking stuff stashed in the back of the basement, you might be able to put some of it to use again.
• If you need a little inspiration to help you get started and you enjoy reading, check out Writing in the Margins. I loved this book as a quick resource and go back to it often.
• And of course, you actually need to read your Bible before you start marking up its pages. I love the Bible reading plans and devotionals over at She Reads Truth. If you’re not already using a plan of some sort, or a Bible study, check out their website, or even their free app. They have a “Read Through the Bible in a Year” plan as well as a daily devotional every day. They’re working through the book of Esther now.
• I’ve been curating a board about Bible Journaling over on Pinterest. There are all kinds of free printables and beautiful art that are pinned, plus inspiration and supply lists. Just go check it out.

Now there are some people that feel very strongly about covering up words in their Bibles. Please understand that these women have other Bibles that they study from and will continue to do so. Their journaling Bible has just become a place to connect with God in a different way than most would choose to do. I personally have chosen to cover up any words in my Bible because, honestly, I just don’t want to always need to have another Bible on hand. That’s totally up to you.

So anyway…Bible Journaling. It’s one of the new things I’m trying this year. My doodles are imperfect, but I’m embracing grace and loving the process and how much more I’m getting out of my time spent reading and learning about God and who He is.

What new thing(s) are you trying this year? If you think Bible Journaling should be one of those, be sure to join me over on Instagram! And also check out the hashtags #journalingbible and #illustratedfaith.