Bible Journaling

I have decided a to try a new thing called Bible journaling. I’ve never did a journal but wanted to give this a shot. There is all kinds of journaling. There is study journals, blog journals, personal journals and even baby journals.

For decades, people seem to stay away from marking in their Bibles, thinking it defaces them or that it’s disrespectful. For those people, “you obviously have not seen my daddys Bible”. He is the biggest Bible marker I know. He takes notes, highlights his verses and marks his prayer list in there! It’s so colorful! Can you believe he even questioned me when I told him I was going to start Bible journaling? He’s been doing it for ages and didn’t even realize it. 

Let’s face it. The Bible is not the easiest book to read or understand. I am not an understanding reader therefore I hate reading. I really would like to read and understand the Bible more. So I went online and began searching ‘Journal Bibles’. I found the perfect one. It’s called “My Creative Bible”. It has 400 hand drawn line art illustrations. The single column pages leave space to create my own inspriational artwork with two inch margins on each page for notes. 

I didn’t know where to start so I prayed about it and then just opened it. The first page it opened too is the one I read and studied for the first night. I had to read a chapter over and over to understand what it was saying as by choice it’s the King James Version. (KJV is thou Hardith to understandith) I had to research some things on my Bible app in a different version just to understand it better. And just like that, I did my first very own Bible journaling. 

Writing in your Bible can be rather intmidating. I’m not that good of an artist and I want it to be pretty. But that’s not what it’s about. It’s not what you put in it that counts but what you get out of it. It’s your own expressions, your own thoughts and your very own way to undertand the word.

There are several online illustrations and blogs with guidelines and verses to read to help you get started. I will be resorting to those soon.

This is not a Bible you take to church with you every Sunday. The pages will become covered in ink. The verses may become unreadable in places but its ok, It’s your own study and journaling Bible. Also called “Devotional art”. You can choose to pass this book down to your children or grandchildren so they can add to it as the years pass. What a great gift that would be.

I used “micro-line” colored pens which were recommended but pricey. 

However, these pens DID bleed through even though the creative Bible has special paper for marking and the pens say they will not bleed. This really upset me, I plan to resort to colored pencils in the future.

Any marking pen suggestions are appreciated.

My Creative Bible can be found in most book stores, also including Amazon, Walmart, Hobby Lobby and other craft stores.

Toboggan and Chili

It was a bitter cold weekend here with temperatures in the lower teens in the morings and upper twenties in the afternoon. That’s just too darn cold for me. We went out and about on Saturday and it was so uncomfortable. I froze. I almost put a coat on. Almost. The schools have been delayed due to the cold. Yep, that happens here in the South. If it gets below freezing, either our school busses will not run or the kids can’t stand at the bus stops. But hey, I don’t blame them. I can’t stand in the cold long either. 

When I got up late Sunday morning. We actually stayed in bed until almost 10:00am. I’m normally a 7:00 riser. After getting out of the bed, I was just too lazy to get ready for church and brace the chill again so I skipped service. I’m surprised my dad hasn’t called me already, wondering where I was. I sat around the house all morning with a heater on my toes. We have heat in the house and it’s comfortably warm. I just chose to add an extra bit of warmth while I ate breakfast and sipped coffee.

I finally found my “get up” and put on my yoga pants and hula hooped for thirty minutes before hitting the shower. It warmed up to just below freezing after dinner so we headed out to the grocery store. This time I was more comfortable as I wore two shirts and a toboggan.

My daughter got me a cute toboggan for Christmas. I have never worn a toboggan in public. I never feel pretty with one on. I always feel I look like something between the Grinch and the dude off Waynes World.  I usually will only wear one if we go out for a walk or play in the snow (if that ever happens). Sunday, I caved and wore it to Walmart. You can wear anything to Walmart. 

I’m not sure I was even wearing it right as It felt like it was mashing my eye lids down to my cheeks. I have a short tiny forehead. I had to text a photo to my daughter to get a fashion approval. I had it all wrong. 

After I moved the hat up to the top of my eyebrows, and slouched the ball to the back, She gave me a thumbs up and I took off to Wally World. 

Later that afternoon my husband decided to make a batch of his home made chili. It always hits the spot on a cold Winter day. He makes it with ground turkey instead of beef and adds tomato stuff, chili stuff and light red kidney beans. 

It was delicious and we had enough left over to freeze and save for another cold afternoon. 

“Hurry up Summer!”